I'm a loser baby. Gig19

It has been a quiet week for me on the gig front, my last gig at Cant sing cant dance was 16th May meaning it was to be 15 days to my next scheduled gig.  With that in mind when i saw a notice on Facebook from Spikey Mike who runs a lot of shows in the midlands asking if anyone could fill a drop out spot at his Burton gong show in Tues 29^th i took the opportunity, it was only 13 days since my last gig now.... but i had not thought about comedy in that time due in part to some bad news in the family and a stressful week that actually ended on a high (it could have almost been an episode of scrubs except that it was not based in a hospital and all my JD’esque daydreams involved naked girls!!!!)

I set off to Burton probably a little underprepared and under cooked, this meant that when i arrived i felt a lot more nervous than the past 2 gong shows, so basically another lesson learnt is that i need to keep my set in the forefront of my mind as much as possible so i don’t forget bits or deliver it nervously.

Upon arrival i saw a few familiar faces as i shuffled to the back of the room as discreetly as possible trying not to distract Spikey Mike who had begun, but he clocked my arrival and asked hopefully if i was audience or act? I was act of course and it became clear to me the sunshine was keeping people away from the comedy clubs as only around 20 or so plus the 14 acts were in. That said 20ish is not a bad crowd.......but they proved to be a tough crowd and very brutal gonging off some good acts and barely giving the slightly less capable acts a chance. Rather than review the evening i will instead list who performed and who went through before talking about my own performance.

Aaron Twitchen – gonged

 Andrew Cairney- gonged,

 Dave Tomlinson –gonged,

Martin Asty –through,

 break

Adam Lewis –gonged

Dave Pollard –gonged,

 Jack Evans –Through,

 Gash Allen- through,

Dave Airey –through,

Johnny Greatrex- gonged ,

Break

Me(read on to find out)

Claire May- gonged

James Latley- gonged

Patrick Draper- through

Some of those acts were very harshly gonged as they were doing well but the power was in the judges hands. Judging at Spikey Mikes is done by 5 people each with red and green glowsticks, on 2 mins they are asked to flash their glowsticks, 3 or more reds and you are off, 3 or more greens and just carry on until we reach 3.5 mins and again there is a vote, if still 3 or more glowsticks it goes to the 5^th minute at more or less the end of your set where the vote decides if you make the final. i.e you could beat the gong but at the end yo could get 3 or more reds and not make the final. The final is up to an additional 1 min set to finally win them over.

My set came just after the 2^nd interval, half the audience including 2 of the judges had left during this interval so there were 2 new judges appointed, did that work in my favour?? Well maybe so as i delivered my set with a lot less conviction than the last 2 gongs i did, and i had won those 2 so there was no reason to be so nervy. The crowd were 50 50 on comedians and audience which created a muted atmosphere meaning i didn’t get big laughs at all during my set but the other acts were supportive. Vote 1 and all 5 were green, carry on. I was bumbling through it still tho and at 3.5 mins vote 2 i feared the worst, but again 5 greens, so i took a little confidence from this and did my last min and a half with a bit more gusto, the final vote and again 5 greens, i was in the final... although the wrong music was played...beck’s loser featuring the lyrics i’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me!!!.... ha ha how mean as if being gonged isn’t enough the ‘losers’ have to listen to that!!

In the final there was Martin, Jack, Gash, Dave, Patrick and myself, 6 from 14. All the other acts did some good bits including a lot of one liners but i clammed up a bit on my 1 min and said the punchline 1^st to a one liner so went back to my set to try recover... i knew i had blown it but to be honest i was once again very impressed with Patrick Draper and had him pegged as winner. It was in fact one liner comic Dave Airey who won and to be fair it was a great set so a deserved win, it just seemed like his deadpan style was not as good as Patrick’s but who am i to judge and he certainly had lots of laughs.

Just a quick note at the end of this blog in regards to Weds night, the day after the Burton gong i was invited to cut up at baby Jupiter where you can test new stuff or make your debut in a ‘safe’ environment, it is basically a small basement venue that the HOWL team have acquired for the purposes of testing stuff. I tried some material i had written on Tuesday out, it was ok... ish but what i wanted to point out was that nights like Cut Up are excellent for us newbies. Seek out HOWL on facebook and read Michael Sterrets article in respect of the event. Its a great read.

Next blog will be about my MCing debut, cant wait to write it.