Lead Balloon Gig95

Gig 95, a little trip to the comedy balloon with Rich Hodkin and a chance to bang out about 6 or so mins of brand new stuff.

I Have done the Comedy Balloon twice before and both times I found organiser Jason to be very welcoming but some (not all) of the other acts to be arrogant and cliquey. The only other venue I have experienced this was another Manchester venue, that being the Frog and Bucket. I have gigged in the North East, the Midlands, Parts of the North west, Wales and all parts of Yorkshire and not experienced what I have at the Balloon and on one of the 2 occasions I was at the Frog. So would tonight be any better.... well no!! In a word.

The travel down I was telling Rich of my experiences and he stated that he had not had similar ones, now Rich is one of the nicest blokes I have ever met so maybe he was just trying to see the good in people? Not that I am cynical to be fair.

Conversation turned to material, I had been writing a little more again recently. I had also dug out all my notes from new material nights such as CUT UP that I did a new set every time I performed at but never developed the material, even the more personal stuff that I liked. I was recently criticised for always doing the same material something which I would normally ignore however, I agree to an extent. I have not been gigging a year and my current ‘best 10’ I am constantly tweaking. But I need 40 mins of stuff like some of the actual talented writers have. So a brand new 6 mins tonight.

Arrival was worrying as we knew United were at home thanks to the 40’000 cockneys heading into Manchester and even more worrying that the match was on terrestrial TV, the pub was dead.

Fearing the worst there was talk of pulling the gig but just as this was being considered people began filtering in. I won’t mention the names of the other acts with one exception, that being opener Kieran Lawless. He is a great example of the Irish charm and friendly approach and was the most welcoming of the other acts. Now most of the other acts were pleasant enough but this night I will remember for the way a couple of other comedians laughed vindictively at a couple of the other comedians, mistakes, weaker jokes and uncomfortable silences. Why? Why be twatty? There is no harm in being respectful even if you are superior in terms of your ability as an act or don’t like what you are hearing. One person in particular for the 3^rd time of meeting them has left me believing this person is a complete tool. I have been on bill that include Pro acts with thousands of gigs, TV credits, Sell out shows to their name and they have been ten times more humble than this fairly decent open spot act that looks down on seemingly everyone bar his handful of mates... they the only people he genuinely laughed at irrespective of how funny there were or were not being. I just don’t understand the need to be a dick, but if being liked is not important to this person then carry on.

So my performance... might as well evaluate that. I was poor, I did not sell it well nor had I rehearsed enough. Being ill did not help but that is not an excuse really. The material got a couple of laughs (possibly some cynical ones from comedy corner) but it really needs tweaking. I will not abandon it as I have done with past trial new bits but I will need to work hard on it. It was 8 mins in total with a wedge of older stuff in there to convince the audience that I can be funny!! Im not sure they are convinced though!

I did make the error of not recording any of my performance but as it was more lead balloon than comedy balloon maybe that was for the best. I know I will need to try the stuff again at least twice more before I can make a real judgement on what is kept.

Rich, had a good gig, He had been in the middle of a good spell before doing portion of quips at Christmas where he struggled so it was good to see him back in form and in particular the new jokes seemingly going down well.

My next couple of gigs canceled due to illness meaning a little trip to Laandan for 5 mins is next providing I recover in time for that.

Off Off Off! Gig 94

I had taken my longest break between gigs due to moving house and also with Christmas in mind, so 16 days since my last gig I started 2013 with a trip to Hull to perform at slimming worlds Christmas party. This was actually quite a scary prospect for me as I felt I was a bit rusty and that the audience might have been expecting the kind of comedy that you see on the telly. I had some self doubt but then that is usual for me. The gig was held in the masonic lodge on a street named dagger lane... a point not lost on Amy Gledhill who replied to the email confirming our attendance with... Masonic Lodge??? Dagger Lane??? Fuck that!!! Of course she was joking (comedians eh!!) and completed a strong line up that was Pete Phillipson, Jack Evans, Carl Jones, gig booker and MC for the evening Jed Salisbury along with myself and Amy.

I arrived at the venue to find I would need to park about 46 miles away!!! (I have been told 4 billion times to not exaggerate) By the time I parked up and got to the venue there was only 15 mins before the gig was due to start so I got a pint of lager to settle myself, I don't normally drink at a gig but I was nervous. There was a disco in full swing, the dance floor was full of slimming world punters having a great time. This dance floor was to be the stage.... my new concern was that us kicking them off the dance floor so we could do comedy would upset them and as Jed began MCing there were a lot of people still chatting but to be fair whilst they were rowdy and seemingly making their own jokes they were keen to enjoy the gig as much as possible. Jed settled them into the feel of the night and suitably warmed them for the arrival of Pete Phillipson. Pete had stormed an opening 15 in Wales that I been performing at also and this was the same level of performance. Pete's style sticks to some great comedy rules, he sets up a situation then deconstructs it comically often using voices to create a character. It is always very very funny and I enjoyed his set again especially the parts where he worked the crowd, a great opening and the audience settled down a bit. There was a break where the disco started again and once again the dance floor filled with the audience of mainly women who were as you may expect at slimming world, quite large but very confident which was nice. The 2nd section was about to start and I began pacing up and down as I was next on, Jed did his bit settling them down and gave me a very nice introduction and on I went, the audience were cheering and whooping as I went one which made me feel like a movie star or something silly like that. Little did I know for the second time in my year as a comedian I was to hear majority of the audience chanting off off off!! I began by referencing one or 2 of my observations of the gig itself and chatted to one or two of the audience as I also tried to do my set, I say tried because I had suffered a couple of heckles, they were friendly heckles though, more like people joining in rather than being mean but then someone yelled 'tuck yer shirt in' I was about to respond when someone else yelled 'nah take it off!!' Clearly someone had been drinking!! but this set off a chant (started by Jed apparently) of Off Off OFF!!!! I was lost!! shit what do I do now?? I refused to take off my shirt but the thought had crossed y mind that I should!! instead I described how awful I look shirtless and this seemed to work as I steered them away from the chanting and began to get back to material. I got the last 5 mins of my set in and came off stage, It had been a good gig for me thanks to a very friendly audience. As usually is the case when  I have just been on I missed most of the next act which was Amy Gledhil, but I have never seen her struggle so I know she would have done a great job up until the part where I caught her set which had me belly laughing as usual. Jack Evans completed the middle section with I would say was the set of the night. He is quirky, unusual and very very funny. I am not sure really how to describe what i saw? I just know I laughed all the way through it!! it was sensational. There was another disco break before headliner Carl Jones closed the night keeping the laughs flowing, Carl started with an observational joke that was weak and factually wrong, however he had the ability when corrected to turn it around and make it much funnier which was great to watch. His set was warmly applauded (sadly I missed half of it as I was accosted by some of the audience and quizzed on my drinking habits!!).

The real fun of the night started as the gig ended and Amy, Jed and I opted to stay and share a drink with the organisers and then even danced to some of the cheesy party songs (ironically of course!!) The welcoming audience were now just fellow revelers and were great fun. I was even gangnam styling with Derick an audience member who although did not wash his hands after toilet breaks (hence me not touching the buffet) was considered legendary (im sure that was a cheap usage of the word legendary) for being the biggest bloke in the room yet having the best moves!!

The whole evening was great fun, I cant even put into words how much I enjoyed it. I laughed at all the other acts sets, everyone performed well. The after party was great fun and I laughed even more at some of the banter!! It was one of those nights that made all the shit gigs seem worth it (I haven't been going that long so there aren't stacks of shit gigs yet) and one of those nights that made me certain I want to progress to being a pro act even if the magic of doing this as a hobby may then dwindle. It was a great start to 2013. I have not got many gigs booked in for this year so far so need to pull my finger out and get some gigs.