Where's your wellies Gig31

My last gig before SYTYF was a long trip to Birmingham although I was visiting my Aunty in Tamworth so actually not too far from there.

The venue was a place called roadhouse in Kings Norton and the gig run by Jamie Tipping who I had contacted via a forum message I saw.

I thought the venue was a pub but I nearly missed it as on arrival I noticed it was actually a converted warehouse that is predominantly a music venue, and as we arrived a behemoth of a man was stalking the car park while 2 long haired metal band type’s were Having a smoke and it looked like we might be in the wrong place.

We weren’t in the wrong place but instead there was an Alice Cooper tribute band playing in the next room.

The bar staff warned me not to use the main bar, they didn’t say why but I assume the fact I was wearing a shirt collar over a knitted jumper and flat cap was the reason… they were lovely and polite but didn’t want someone to kick the shit out of me!

The room we were in was small side room ideal for comedy. Jamie was the only person there when I arrived but quickly after my arrival a few other acts turned up too.

The show was to start at 8.30 but at that time no one was in, I feared I would be gigging to comedians only but in fact the place began filling up at 8.30 and by the time we got started there were around 30 people in which was lovely.

I had spent most of the time pre gig chatting to a new act called Helen who was not on the bill but in fact wound up gigging as an act did not turn up, she like me had done a comedy course and was giving this comedy lark a go, for her it would be gig 8, for me gig 31 and we both started in March so it shows how crazy my efforts to gig loads have been!!

I wont review every act as there were 15 acts in all and each was permitted up to 15 mins which made for a long night (enjoyable tho it was) but the 1^st act was very new, in fact doing his 1^st gig and as there was no Mc style warm up he had a difficult job as a newbie but there is potential if he makes his set a lot less wordy and makes the languages bit a little more accessible.

I was next, I would do my tried and tested 8 with 4 mins of new stuff placed in.

It started well, there were some really good moments in my opening 2 mins getting a good reaction from the audience and in particular a couple at the front who yelled the heckle where are your wellies after my farm town bit… which was great fun as I yelled back under your bed and so began a bit a fun banter.

As my set progressed I was happy with the way it was going but my newer stuff fell a bit flat so I had to re gain the initiative going back to my standard set (that I still hate) and that worked well, I left the stage having done 13 or so mins and was happy with the performance.

On the night there were a lot of new acts and they all did great but the energy of slightly more experienced acts such as Frankie Peoples and Aaron Twitchen was great to watch, both acts stormed it and I really enjoyed them.

From a personal point of view it was nice to have some of the audience come up to me at the end and say nice things, one guy said I was the best act he’d seen in ages (he was exaggerating) bob who I picked on said he wishes I had gone back on again and a lady said it was the 1^st time her jaw had hurt from laughing at an open spot act, these are nice things to hear and give me confidence although im aware that people who don’t like my stuff aren’t exactly going to come up and say, you were rubbish, I didn’t enjoy that ect!!

Confidence was high for once though and I was ready to have a go at SYTYF… which was next.