I have been hammering the gigs since starting out in March but one thing i had yet to do was a double up, well Last night that changed however I will need to think it through a bit more next time. Having done Distrikt bars gig last Sunday I met Ben Brown who runs a gig at Hirsts yard Leeds and invited me to take part, naturally I said yes as I am a gig hussy and want to try and gig as much as possible. With that in mind when I saw Matt Fong at Mr Bens on Monday and he said he had had some drop outs for his gig naturally I was keen, then I found out it was on the same day as the hirsts Yard gig and declined the opportunity to take part before considering the possibility of doing a double up. Now double ups are not really worth while to open spot acts, they are more for pro's who need to make the most of their trips off to gig in other cities than their own and maximise earnings of course. But i decided to do this double up mainly for a bit of experience. Jon Newell would be joining me on both gigs too so there would be someone to share the experience with.
I arrived at Hirsts Yard to see Jon waiting for me with Callum Scott who would be closing this gig. Ben was in the bar full of life and was very welcoming when I asked if i could go on 1st and shoot off to Donny. The plan would be Ben will do 15 mins intro and warm up, then me doing 10, then a 15 min break with Jon going next and only doing a short set. I during that part went to fetch the car from the other side of town ready for the eventful drive.
Speaking of eventful the start of the gig was quite eventful too as Ben was going through his opening lines there was some shouting heard from outside and in staggered 2 very loud very drunk and very aggressive women, they seemed to be hell bent on rowing with anyone who spoke to them. Ben unaware of this began chatting to them initially but it became immediately clear that this was not going to work and he asked them to leave, they refused and began shouting with one of the women who was mixed race yelling racist abuse at Ben. At this point the bar man had had enough and ushered them out, she then began calling him fat and he kept his calm and escorted her out. Problem over?.. no apparently not as they came back and began yelling some more, the bar man shouted fuck off and as a result was punched in the face!!! but this was a parting gesture and the night continued.
I was able to make light of these odd events and it set the tone nicely for my set. the audience were lovely and supportive and I had some fun up there. I was doing my staple 10 mins with the Big Julie story possilbe a bit much to open any gig but they responded well and I came off stage happy with things.
Jon tells me they gave him a similar reception after a slow start with almost sarcastic laughter initially building up to more supportive laughter.
Now we had approximately 30 mins to do a 45 min journey this not helped by road closures in Leeds meaning I had to take a 5 min detour to get onto the motorway, then we made steady progress until we reached another detour as we hit road closures in donny... this took us 20 mins out of the way!!!
finally we arrived at the postcode given but no idea what the gig is called or where we eventually found it thanks to Jons spatial awareness!! oh and some drunk locals giving us vague directions!
More craziness as we arrived at this gig to see MC Matt calling out some hecklers and then chasing them into the street with about 6 punters following for some chest puffing testosterone fuelled shoutiness!! poor Katie Yossarian had to try and battle the disquiet in the room to go through her stuff but she did admirably.
Jon and I were unsure what to expect at this stage but as katie was doing well the audience had focussed back on to the event. This was good for Jon who did superb and looked to be enjoying it. he even had a situation where the audience were shouting AIDS AIDS AIDS at him!! in context this was not weird!!
His set was warmly received and he came off to lots of cheering. I did not fair as well, my concentration was slightly off and I had miscued some of my lines. Jon keen to point out that he was focussed on one lady in the front row who just scowled at me during my whole set despite her mates seemingly laughing along. I cut short what I was going to do due to us arriving late and the fact it was not going as well as earlier the same night but that said I was not overly displeased with things.
Comparably the 1st gig was better for me but i enjoyed both. If I am to double up again though I will make sure it is more local and that I don't have to drive as far if at all. Other than that my 1st double up was enjoyable.
I must also mention in this blog the gig that was not a gig (but i'm counting it in my tally), on bonfire night I was set to open at Mr Bens, sadly there were only 4 people who turned up so the gig was pulled, however, we did a kind of workshop thing kicked off by Thom Milson there was input from Jon Newell, Edy Hirst, Jed Salisbury, Angie King, myself and a few guys who's names I didnt get. there were some nice moments as people tested new material and tweaked existing stuff, I did approximately 3 mins of totally new unrehearsed stuff which was okish!! i dont know how to better review it really. A work in progress for sure and stuff I will be spending time writing more jokes for this week.
next up gig wise is a cricket club private gig where I will be doing a headline role (of sorts, I know I'm no headliner)
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