After the disaster ofthe Preston frog and bucket gong show i was thinking about giving up the ideaof doing gongs but i was invited to participate in the Manchester version and ihad the opportunity of car sharing with J.Dunn whom which was making only his 2ndappearance on a comedy stage.
For me it would be my14th and the self doubt still existed in my mind. I drove to York topick James up as i was free all day and we set off at about 5.45 across thePennines. The car journey was filled with talk about how we wrote our sets andwhere the influences came from. James had put a lot more creativity into hisset writing than i have giving him plenty or material to test whereas i haveonly a few bits giving me a total of 10 mins realistically, my edge over himcoming from having done 12 more gigs than he has so o know what bits deffo dowork. This would not be an issue for James in 4 or 5 gigs time i would guess.
We arrived inManchester just in time for the 7.30 sign in, only Rob Wagstaff was there whenwe 1st arrived, he was the guy who i met in Preston and had wonthere, i had mentioned that he had used some jokes that were not his own (i’dheard a few of them before) but he won not on material alone but on personalitytoo, it is not that i disliked him that i felt it frustrating he won but morethat on that occasion i thought Nick Clarke with his own material deserved towin (nick is now back to having all fingers btw) but there are a lot of actsusing jokes i have heard before and i wonder if any of mine have been writtenby other comics too and i just have not been aware of thus yet... i hope not i don’thave many good ones!!
Fair play to Rob tho,he had written his own set so someone must have mentioned to him its worth moreto do so (and he is naturally casual and funny i’d say)
A couple more actsarrived, Jennifer Farrell and James Oakley who had his girlfriend with him....good efforts on pulling a stunner James!!!
There was a lot ofchatting about similar stuff that i often hear at comedy shows now, who’s yourfave comedian what’s your inspiration ect ect, i kinda zoned out of this nottrying to be rude but given that the last gong show i did went terrible iwanted to recite my set in my head a few times to be sure i could do it.
And so an hour passedand the show was to begin, the MC was Alex Boardman who i had seen at one ofSilkys gigs before i got into stand up and really enjoyed, former winner EddieO Dwyer was the 1st 8 min spot and the 2nd one wasanother act i had seen before when as a guest and really enjoyed him being CarlHutchinson. They both did their 8 mins and i could not tell you much abouteither set as again i had zoned out. I was no longer nervous, i almost didn’t careabout the gong, i just had to get my set right and be true to what i was... iknow i am not a ground breaking newbie with bags of originality, so accept whati am and enjoy being on stage was my mindset.
The gong began wellwith a 1st timer called Rikki Burke getting through, he was clearlynervous and raced through his set a little quickly as a result but he easeddown a little midway through, ironically a card going up is what seemed torelax him and he got some laughs after that surviving the 5.
Jennifer was next, shewas not able to connect with what was still a very cold audience, she asked ifanyone likes curries..... no reply, they were not playing ball and it wasevident as she became the 1st gong victim.
Steven Bugeja camenext, i had seen him at Mr Bens as an 8 spot so he must have won there before,he would be fairly decent then? He was. His material was self depreciating andsoft and cuddly i’d say, but more importantly it was very funny too, i liked himand turned to James to say... i think we have a winner, James was not so sureyet.
Rob went next, hetried some new things and they did not work so he cleverly acknowledged thatand brought out some one liners, they were better. He then mentioned that hehad a new set because he was criticised for having nicked material... almostfelt like he was having a direct go at me (he wasn’t ) especially as hementioned that he would not mind if the person who told him thus was Frankie Boyle!But he had lost the audience a bit there and was gonged.
This completed the 1sthalf with 2 through and 2 out the audience had not been forgiving accept maybefor Rikki slightly although he deserved to be through.
Ste Price kicked offthe 2nd half, Alex mentioned that he had survived Preston and im notsure if that was helpful? He started well but midway through his set produced apiece of paper to read jokes from, this saw him gonged.
Next was JamesOakley... did i mention that his girlfriend was hot?? And now i soundstalkerish!! James had some dark bits to his set but as i was next i was notfully concentrating on it, he was gonged but i could not figure why as i wasmiles away... and oh shit now i’m due on.
Nervous to be back onthe horse maybe but i was going to enjoy this no matter what and to begin itried a classic....I said hello with a big cheesy smile!!!, they hello’d back, niceto get a response, i did my opening joke then mocked myself for having a pooropening joke!!! This worked and i went back to hello how are we all, this wasjust what popped in really it was not comedy genius but it was buying me timeand seemingly making myself more likable. I went into the rehearsed set with anew feeling of self belief and it worked as there were clear laughs, the crowdwere about 60 strong maybe and so it was always going to be a bit easier to geta few people to laugh than the gigs where there is about 15, i was enjoying it.There even came a 1st for me, a moment when i had to wait forlaughing to stop before i carry on. Before i knew it 5 mins were up and i hadbeat the gong, it was not a great set of course i know my place but for me itwas great to have learned from the Preston lessons and begun to actually actlike a comedian on stage. I felt great.
James was next underhis stage name J.Dunn, his material is more edgy than mine and essentially hasmore depth and thought, but this crowd were not subscribing to that today andalthough his opening joke for me is brilliant they did not go for it and he wasgonged. A shame as he had done superb on his debut at CSCDDC but its characterbuilding and he’ll bounce back.
Gary Allen was nextand our final act, he got some groany jokes out and seemed to be buildingmomentum but never really did and he too became a victim meaning only 3 from 9survived.
At the clap off iusually get some polite applause nothing more but i got a great cheer thistime, Rikki was told he had not won and it was down to myself and Steve, Stevetook it but it was close and that was nice for me to have taken him close asSteve was very good and my choice for winner too, big thanks to James for hissupport tho. So i kinda came second when it was a tough crowd and felt i hadgot a few things right that i had previously got wrong... but still plenty tolearn.
On a side note beforeleaving a guy who runs opens in London took my e mail addy as he said hethought i would do well there, so my London based mates... watch this space!!
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