Gig 81 and one I should have been exited about was a bit of a damp squib in the end, I organised a comedy night for my cricket team (one of two but the 7 arts one scheduled for October was cancelled due to lack of interest... a lucky escape maybe?)
I had booked strong acts for both the cancelled gig and this one so fully expected thee to be a good vibe in the room. There was little atmosphere at all in reality although one or two people seemed remotely interested in the comedy element of the evening. Andy Woolston was MC for the evening, he looked relaxed pre gig and although a little confused by the format and expectations of the night he was ready to do a job. The presentations took place 1st and the only thing most people were there for really.
Any jumped into actin with his usual casual charm. He was doing what on any other night was a very good job.... but they were just not going for it! His attempts at crowd work and banter were just rebutted and cricket club president Richard just sat shaking his head!
Jed Salisbury was summoned to the stage, he brought energy in the walk up to the stage and began his set with the determination to win the room over, Jed is a quality opener but to be honest we could have had Bill Hicks in his prime tonight and I doubt he would have raised a chuckle!! Jed did a great job given what he was up against and we went to a food break with everyone feeling a little shell shocked.
In the 2nd section around half the 30 strong audience had left, the 15 or so who stayed behind had woken up a bit and the excellent dark one liner comedy of Simon Gutherless was met with a lot more appreciation, partly because the people who stayed were the few who were enjoying it and partly because Simon has great jokes, the one line jokes landing with Simon delivering the punchlines superbly.
Now it was my turn, I was going to do 25 minutes as a closer (a headliner would have been an inappropriate title, I would never call myself a headliner unless I was good enough... I am not!!) I started out talking about my association with the cricket club and some anecdotal story of my inability to perform skillfully with a cricket bat in hand. I moved on to my set, I was going to go through all of my working material but the mood of the night meant I opted not to and probably a good idea. I didnt take a defeated attitude to the stage in any way, I have seen acts take defeated attitudes and blame the room, the night, the audience.... this could have been one of those nights but I was not going to allow it. It was still a horror show.. but less of a horror show than it would have been. Oddly the whole thing was very enjoyable, I took a lot from it. I have no idea how long i was up there.. maybe just short of 20 mins, there was a lot of waffle coming out of my gob too.
I brought the night to an end with my current staple 'big Julie' story and there was a polite applause. Over was called (thats a cricket reference in case no one spotted that)
My next gig was at Can't sing Can't dance don't cares Gillygate Open mic night in York.
I was going to use the night to work some totally new material. I had done my 2nd ever gig there... I was a lot worse that night than I realised at the time! I had also done a slot there at around 25 gigs. Tonight I would be working off a sheet of paper to see what from my new stuff could be squeezed into my set and become 'material'.
I had picked or rather been picked, to do a bad night as there was an England football debacle.... sorry I mean match, taking place.
This meant we got going late, and there were 8 acts to get through! MC Debra Fayter got things going. She has a lovely presence, very warm and endearing. Only her 4th go at MCing but she did a good job.
1st act was a guy from the north east called Paul Gerrard. He was ery new and reminded me of my 1st appearance at CSCDDC. He had jokes but lacked performance ability which is typical of new acts and he will be fine with a few gigs under his belt. 2nd up was Peter Brush, Peter had recently won a new act competition in Harrogate and rightly so he is very funny. His set was mostly new stuff and was great, I especially liked his dream bit. Harry Bentley went next, I had heard Harry's name before but was not aware who he was, now I am. He focused his material around his sexuality. He seemed unnecessarily nervous, the room was not busy, only 3 non comedians in, hence the quiet reception for a nice set. Break 1 was next, this was longer than it needed to be and at about 10pm section 2 started. Tom Wilson a new act from Salford but based in York went next. He had good confident delivery and a sort of lovable rouge style. His material a bit wordy but he is new and there is plenty of time to trim. He ended his set by yelling into the mic and Sam J Brown jumped out of his skin which was funny!!. Character act and another very new guy Bruce Dingerdik from Australia went next, now I will be careful when I say this as I remember Jon Newell telling me that a review of Sully O Sullivan once included the line 'the worst fake New Zealand accent ever" so when I say his accent fluctuated between Ozzy and not so Ozzy there could have been mitigating reasons. The song he did in the middle was a nice idea and the set as a whole was thought out but just needs a few more proper jokes as he tightens it up. we had another break (to be honest this one was not neccasary as time was pressing on and there was only 2 in the audience now) Damien O Connor went next as I believe Sam J Brown had dropped out of the running due to time but I could be wrong. Damien went through his set with confidence, at one point simulating sawing off a head!! he is a confident guy and again will just need to tweak his set a bit.
The new guys all did well and I was going on last so good of them to stay and watch. I did all brand new stuff with the exception of about 4 jokes, one of which.. my x box joke, brought a delayed response from the one crowd member who had been there all night (Daddy D Heaven, Simon D Heaven's dad) of.. I got that!! a very polite heckle of sorts. I had a good go at my new set and went on a bit long (about 10 mins when I was only going to do 5 mins) but it was a worthy exercise as some of it went ok and I'd like to try again at Verve (date TBC).
Next gig for me is in Telford for Roger swift
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