Back blogging

It is with regret that for a while I had to leave the blogging behind but I am now working a pattern that allows me time to as someone once put, spout my unfettered opinions!
Well yes.


So, I have advanced since I last blogged, or to put it more accurately I have done a shit load more gigs!
I was able to count up all the gigs thanks to my Iphone saving all the diary dates and its 347 to date which surprised me to be fair but I do try and ensure I have at least 4 a week if not 5 meaning the quality of gigs I do is not always great but I'm continually adding to my set and tweaking things. I have just come off the back of a busy few months including 43 gigs in 55 days. In that time I have done my 1st solo show although it was only 45 mins but all brand new stuff and this is exiting for me as my writing has started to improve and I'm beginning to tackle subjects I wanted to when I 1st started but had neither the skill nor intelligence to manage.

My solo show was at Hull Comedy festival, it went ok but having watched it all back now I can see massive glaring errors and gaps in funny, far too much swearing something I know Steve Walker does not like, and above all too many hacky ideas following some quality ones. I am not being to self critical either, there were some bits that I am very proud of, but I'm so so so far away from where I want to be its almost painful. Hull comedy festival taught me a lot though, Hull is a great place to gig with exiting things going on at both my level, with Steve Rimmer running some lovely gigs as are Jed and Andy but also the more pro level with C69 running things and Jed thoroughly deservedly taking his place as resident compere at fruits pro night featuring some superb line ups every Saturday.
My presence in Hull is small but I am welcomed and I have used that welcome to work on loads of new ideas to friendly audiences. From the phrase re-inventing the wheel I have come up with some ideas about cars that I believe have potential to be a really strong set. I have to learn to make what I have funnier still though and I'm frustrated with myself for not progressing fast enough.

When I 1st started my stuff was really cheaply written shite, I mean I just wanted to get to the laugh as quick as possible for fear of being hated!! I knew all along that the key for me was be funny 1st albeit cheaply, then be clever or more skilled later. This worked massively in my favour recently after a spell of gigs with all my new material going well, no mention of flat caps (I tend not to even wear it now) no mention of hen nights, my grandparents or any of the open spot checklist (incest, homophobia, Peado, Sexism, then I shot him, that was just the teachers, wanking, you know basically my set!!) none of my quick get to the easy punchline bollocks!! but then I was booked for a charity gig.

Now, call me uncharitable but I hate the idea of charity gigs, lets assume that I have no other job and I'm a pro comic (surviving on £180 a month as it would be with the paid gigs I get!!) Someone then asks me, hey Jim, can you come do your job in a really difficult environment, where no one is there for comedy, where people will not care how much work you have put into your set, where the audience will assume you're shit if you don't take the roof off, where the booker will have little clue how comedy really works... can you come do that and for free as its charity, well I am not keen thank you. Now 2 things, I believe charities have great people involved doing hard work often for no money themselves, and I know not all charity gigs are like this, so when approached to perform for a charity that I already do work for and support I said yes where I would normally say no. I was to be on with 2 vocalists (both were paid) and a magician (also paid) so I asked to bring another act, that being Gregor 'Monty' Burns. I was told this is fine please both do 15 mins, so we agreed Monty would go on 1st, and as it turned out I'm so glad he did. We arrived to find one of the vocalists was on and we were due on next, the room was huge but half empty with a large dancefloor directly in front of the stage meaning audience were some distance away, and speaking of audience the average age was 87 I'd guess!!! Not to be ageist this, for a skilled act would be no problem! Monty and I are new however. Now monty is great, he is a real joy to watch as he gets into gear and belts out his comedy at 100 miles an hour. He has audiences crying laughing and for one so new seems like a seasoned pro. His act is full of shall we say language though and he had decided not to use any on this occasion for fear of audience disgust. It was not helped that he had to follow 40 mins of bingo!

To be fair he nailed it, the foulest of language coming from an elderly heckler who called him a porridge wog I believe!! not nice! but Monty kept calm and did a great job with what he had to work, when I came on I thought, no way is my new stuff going to fly in here so reverted to hack mode and sure enough that worked. They even shut up and listened for a while!! It was the second time in recent weeks I had seen a room go with a certain style of comedy and reverted to my old shite, both times to good effect and I now feel I have a bit more about me when judging what to say and thankfully I have a couple of directions in which to go.

I will leave this return to blogging there for now, don't take my word for it on charity gigs as i'm sure there are some lovely ones, and while on the subject of lovely gigs I have 6 between now and Christmas that all seem grand so no doubt I will have plenty to talk about in 2 weeks when I return to this (yeah I have decided to blog every 2 weeks)

Thanks for reading