It’s been the longest spell between gigs since I started with my last one being the open mic in Newcastle at long live on Tues 27th March I had to wait until 2 weeks later to try keep the momentum going, but I had managed to get 3 gigs in one week sorted so momentum would have to pick back up quickly.
In the meantime I went to watch cant sing cant dance in York and finally convince James Dunn (aka James Acaster) to come along, James is someone I met on the comedy course and one of the main reasons I would encourage to attend a comedy course is that if nothing else you get to meet people in a similar position.
James asked for 5 mins at the end of the CSCDDC night and I’m glad he did, his set included honest observation and intelligent afterthoughts, a million miles from when he stood up at the end of the course and his confidence shone.
I also went to a comedy night called HOWL, I had hoped to meet a few guys there that were good for knowing but decided to have a few drinks in the process….. Mistake, I was a bit tiddly and was undoubtedly not in the best state to chat to people! That said I watched the majority of the show and enjoyed seeing the act that won the gong show that was my debut again with his clever set.
Eventually the next gig for me came around this on Tuesday 10th April at the Verve Comedy cellar in Leeds.
It is run by 2 guys I am told are great for knowing and are very supportive in Eddie French and Pat Devine so I was exited to meet them. I also had 2 mates from work at Leeds United coming to support so it was nice to get some honest critics too. In the days leading up to this night I had messed around with my set a lot, I wanted to tweak it try new things…. Well it’s all new it would only be my 6th gig!!! All I did was re jig the order and try adding a couple more sides and afterthoughts… at 1st, then I completely re wrote the opening, this I should not have done because I arrived having no idea which opening I should use, the original or the newer version. As I arrived I saw the room was intimate and the 1st person I met was Eddie, he was laid back, he introduced me to the MC and another comic and I tried to make polite conversation but I was already beginning to feel nervous.
My 2 mates were already there when I arrived and I left them upstairs while I tried to figure out what I needed to do upon arrival. Realising that just turning up was all I needed to do I went to bring the guys down and sat with them trying to disguise my nerves as I swigged my 3rd red bull of the evening.
I checked the running order shortly before show time and I was on last, that was good I thought… more time to figure out which opening to use.
The line up started with an established act doing some new stuff in readiness for Edinburgh, he had que cards and began to try his new jokes, one of the guys in the front row yelled Opti Lube at him??? My girlfriend sells opti lube what is this all about… well it seems that she was at a comedy event with her colleagues where the opener here was performing and he had picked on them because …. Well because they sell lubricant!!! And the guy sat in the front row tonight was there that night creating an strange tenuous link in the room.
It had no effect on the performance however and after 20 mins our opener was done, I have seen him do his proper set and it is great, there were parts of this set that didn’t work.. But he knew and has the ability to adjust accordingly that hopefully I will have soon.
Up next was a newer act like myself doing the open slots for experience, he was engaging confident and able to banter with the audience, his materiel not full of jokes so I’m sure he will tweak and do well with it.
Up 3rd was a guy from Hull, he was a big guy… he was a funny guy, very dry one liner style.
The 1st act was completed and the Mc wrapped things up for a short break before introducing the 2nd half.
Our mc for the evening is new to Mc’ing but he has a great comedy persona and while I would suggest you can tell he is new to it you cant help but like him, his Dyson joke is brilliant!!!
On 1st in the second half was a guy from York, he had political commentary style materiel, he was very confident very sharp and had good jokes, I liked him and enjoyed his set. Now it was my turn, ah ball I still haven’t figured out which opening to use, I went up and just did a sort of coin toss in my head!! Which makes no sense I know, I opened with my self depreciation stuff on my ability to attract girls.. It was a nervy start but I began getting laughs when I moved to the drunken night out stuff. I could feel confidence flowing into me now and began with the ‘Dublin incident’ it went down well and I finished bang on 10 mins with my target of 5 laughs in 10 mins beaten and a buzz that I would say was better than sex.. But it has been a long time so I cant remember, I could liken it to scoring a goal… but again a long time… it was a great feeling anyway!!!
Nottingham Maze next then Lamp tavern Dudley, I will write the blogs for those this weekend so look out for them.
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