There was a gig, it was bad! gig 33

It’s 3 am i have just boarded a coach from Nottingham, there is an aroma in the air that can only come from a group of people crammed in a muggy coach. My head was heavy from the long journey and weary from the events that unfolded in Coventry. Thoughts turned to what i had said during my moment in spotlight, the way i dealt with my state of mind given the circumstances, and then i remembered i was introduced onto the stage with a round of a cheers!!!

Ok so i started that blog a little differently, to try give the night i just had a little more flavour but really i should have just said.

There was a gig, i was there, people went on stage, they said words, some of it was funny. Then there was a break, some people had left, some stayed, i went on, i said words, some of it was funny, it finished and everyone was told to fuck off, there was applause (ok there was no applause)
my plan was to call this blog trains busses and automobiles but it was too bad a gig not to alter this title.

Basically the night was very very flat, the MC and organiser clearly new to this and as a young lad perhaps a little shy? But he will learn and i’m sure turn it into a great night.

He will need to add a little more oomph to his MCing which did not have a lot of energy and didn’t uplift the audience nor did it make the acts feel welcome or valued, in fact he even forgot one acts name and made no effort to rectify this... who could get Martin Asty’s name wrong??? Sorry Hastie not Asty!!

He also said after Darren Harriot’s set that was not a set (more on that in a moment) that he should have had Darren on 1^st, an innocent comment but one that totally disregarded the 4 acts that preceded Darren.

The event was not helped by the pub in which it was held, it was an open plan pub that was not sectioned off for the comedy allowing people who were just popping in for a bit to eat to see, but even worse the speakers all round the pub were playing the gig in corners where you could not see it, so basically there were people eating while one act talked about anal sex farts.... nice!!! Of course if you are tucking into your prawn cocktail while that is playing out loud youre going to get a bit miffed!!

But the gig went ahead and although 1^st act Jay Handley was doing a great job it was immediately apparent this would be a difficult night, not least when diners not involved in the gig began heckling, and joy of joys it was a bloke from Leeds..... Moron doing the city proud!! Jay was up against it but i would say he is normally a good act from what i could gather.

Rob Kemp followed, Rob was at Hollybush when i was there and has a great gag about Zombies but he was the next victim of the nights surreal atmosphere. Undeterred by this Rob delivered his set nicely and was enjoyable to watch again.

Next was Ryan Clarke doing only his 2^nd gig, it was not a good night to be doing your 2^nd gig and Ryan admitted he was nervous but all was going ok until some complete dick heckled him vindictively. This put poor Ryan off his stride as it would have me if i was on my 2^nd gig, he struggled to re gain his composure and left the stage after another minute or two, i hope he bounces back quickly.

Martin Hastie followed, Martin (Martin Asty in a previous blog!!) has great jokes and dead pan delivery, his delivery was all that stopped him winning Mr Bens gong show but it is much better and more confident now, although tonights gig was summed up by a joke where the punchline is ‘hands up’  about 6 people actually missed the point and put their hands up!!!

Now we had all lost faith in this gig, not least by the fact there was little laughter at no fault of the acts, after each act an audience member left, and the MCing didn’t quite uplift the night to the level it will when he has more gigs under his belt so when Darren Harrison went on he had already decided this night was not worthy of his set, Darren is extremely confident, slightly opinionated almost cocky but these make him a great performer and as i don’t know him personally maybe this is just the way he comes across. I can say one thing for certain, he did exactly what the gig needed! He entered the stage and just began to say what we were all thinking, questioning the night, the room and the audience who clearly didn’t want to be there. Oddly this lifted the whole gig, he knew what he was doing and although he has a high status opinion on audiences it was perfect. That took us into the break nicely (although a few more audience members left)

There was some discussion about pulling the gig but i had travelled from Leeds by national express, train and car taking 16 hours as a round trip (cheapest way but never again!!)

So we agreed to go ahead and the 2^nd section saw the audience whittled down the handful that wanted to be there (within reason)

James Billington went 1^st in this section and also lifted the audience going round them all getting forced laughter before beginning his set, there is a great moment in his set that has you very uncomfortable for a moment until the punchline catches you by surprise. James did great.

Janie Huxx was next, i had to admire her for doing so well when the audience were probably a fair way off her target audience, they were all very young and her humour is too intelligent for them!

Janie was also in Cradley Heath when i was there and again i saw that she will do well in comedy with another casual confident performance.

Pat Draper went next, ever since i 1^st saw Pat gig i have enjoyed his stuff, my idea of comedy.

Today was no different although Pad stayed in 1^st gear and did a slightly shorter set than normal, even though its always a joy to watch him in action, another dead pan style that seems perfected over years.

I closed the show (if we can call it a show) so look out for headlined Litten Tree on my CV along with the fab audience quote at the end “well it got better” that will also appear on my posters (if i ever have any)

In seriousness i just practiced my set and worked on my audience banter, no idea how long i was up there as i forgot to start my watch timer but i did pretty much my full 8 mins (no pressure felt like at SYTYF) and ended the night before swiftly departing for my 2.45am coach back to Leeds!!!

Telford Gong next