Well having tried a gong show at Mr Bens I had 2 more imminent gigs booked, the 1st was an open mic night in a pub in York, that was an odd experience, only 3 of the 8 people on the bill turned up myself being on of them.
The gig was in a small pub backroom, there was background noise from the pub including the tv, jukebox (which was turned off when they realised) and fruit machine, now I’m not criticising this as it was a great opportunity to get some stage time and a friendly audience but I felt that it was never going to be as professional as the Mr Bens Show, that said I will do it again (if they would have me back) because it is an audience, it is a chance to practice and it is a well supported gig run by a group that seem to know what they are doing.
My parents came to support me which was nice but I was more nervous knowing they were there so I only did 5 mins of an 8 min set, there were muted laughs (and a groan) but the MC tried hard to enjoy my act and im grateful to him. I would say I struggled a little bit here as the other 2 guys were good and I enjoyed their acts. It was worth doing but my next gig was the one I enjoyed the most so far.
I applied to be here via the Yorkshire comedy forum but this gig was a fair drive from Yorkshire, it was in fact in Chester at a club owned by Jason Manford called the Laugh Inn
It was another gong show called Fed to the Lions so yes I drove for 3 hours there to potentially only do 1 minute (shorter grace period than mr Bens at the Fed to the lions night)
Why??? Well oddly I had enough confidence in my material to believe I would not be gonged off and I wanted to be at a gig where it was not possible to know who I was so I could risk a bit more of my true story materiel.
I arrived and walked into the club, it was a dark room with velvet lining and nicely arranged tables that was kind of like a strip club or so I have heard ;-)
The stage was a proper raised stage, the 1st time I would be on one as neither Mr Bens or the York gig had one.
I signed in and sat with my notes as customers began filtering in, a guy caught my eye and nodded hello, he was obviously another act, I nodded hello back but turned back to my notes as I wanted to get this right and needed more time.
A customer came over from the audience seating and introduced himself as Connor, I asked if he was the organiser and he told me no he was a regular and he noticed I must be an act and wanted to say hi, I tried to continue reading my set but then another guy came and sat next to me and introduced himself as another act so I put down my notes and looked over to the guy who 1st nodded hello that was sat on his own to come over, he didn’t look up so I turned my attention to my 2 new friends.
The comedian said he had been gigging for 18 months, I said it was my 3rd and Connor gulped… why the gulp? I asked, Connor told me it would be tough to win them over and explained how 5 of 8 acts last week died on their arses… now I gulped.
He saw the look on my face and said don’t worry im sure you will be fine, just words I thought but the 3 of us chatted about comedy for the next 20 mins and my nerves were gone.
A pretty young girl walked up to us with a clip board, Jim Bayes she asked, yes i was expecting her to try and sell me something but instead she had the running order, I’m on 1st… nerves were back!
Connor went to go join the audience and I sat at the back with the other comedian and we watched as the opening pro act struggled to get a laugh from the audience, he was talking about how rough Manchester is and the audience didn’t seem into it but im sure that it would have gone down well in other rooms, he did 20 mins as there was a bit of extra room for the opener here given that they only have 8 newbie’s unlike Mr Bens that has 10.
It came to gong time, but as the red cards were handed out I saw Connor get one and thought that was good as he would be supportive of me given our chat earlier.
My name was called and up into the spotlight I was again, but no nerves…. I was ready for this.
My 1st joke was a new one, it has no punch line which is kind of the joke, people realised it was a joke with no punch line and were laughing, good they get it, I began to talk about living in Otley and growing up, there were a few giggles but it didn’t get the room in hysterics, I then moved on to the material I used at Mr Bens…. Joke after joke went down a storm, they loved it!!! Wow I was doing well. I knew my delivery was better this time I could just sense it and the fact that I didn’t care if I failed as I was miles from home and no one was there to support me or be let down.
Before I knew it 5 mins had passed and I had survived another gong show, I was buzzing again and leaving the stage to applause be it polite or not was lovely. My new comedian friend who is from Liverpool shook my hand and congratulated me on a ‘nice delivery’ I thanked him and sat feeling somewhat euphoric.
The 2nd act was a guy from Chester and he had come 2nd in this show last week, he was good, he talked about office antics but it wasn’t hack it was quite original, he also talked about being asked for the big issue and not knowing where he could buy one, I suspect we may have a winner??
My friend from Liverpool was next, he began with a reference to Fresh prince of bel air, half the room got it half didn’t but it was a good start I thought, his set was nice but punch lines were limited and I rather think he would do better on a night where he has more than 5 mins, he survived and the show went to a break with all 3 of us from the 1st act making it without a single red card raised.
Connor came to congratulate me and tell me his favourite part from my set, then a lady who had been talking the whole way through the 1st half came over and apologised if I thought she was talking she didn’t mean to but I was the best in the 1st act in her opinion, nice compliment but was she really listening?
Part 2 began with another local Chester boy who was doing his 18th gig, it was the guy who nodded hello to me at the beginning, he struggled…. He really struggled and I was not surprised to see him gonged off, I felt bad for him, one day that will be me that bombs, I’m glad it hasn’t happened yet but it will.
The next 2 guys did ok with red cards going up but not all 3 so they survived, the final act was an older gentleman, I’d say about 45. He was talking about cheesy smells, flaccid members and bad farts, he didn’t last long unsurprisingly and the show was complete.
As suspected the chap on after me won, there was no mention of 2nd or 3rd it was just a case of whittling it down so on that basis i gues i was 3rd but that means nothing.
what did mean something was that I was now a 3 show veteran and the drive back to Leeds was a good time to reflect on the gig that I enjoyed most so far.
Newcastle next on March 27th at Long live Comedy, another pub open mic night... cant wait
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