I had somehow rather
rapidly found myself at gig No22 after only a few months, and my 22nd gig was
one of the 1st i had applied for. That being the Comedy Balloon in Manchester.
I was looking forward
to this one, i had heard good things and i’m aware that Manchester is kind of
the comedy capital of the North, be that true or not i was certainly exited to
be doing the gig.
It was a wet drive
across the Pennines as rain bucketed down for the whole journey. I negotiated
my way through Manchester city centre found somewhere to park and walked the 2
min walk from my chosen parking spot to the Ape and Apple pub where the gig was
held. When i arrived the girl behind the bar told me it was not open upstairs
yet so i sat with a drink and waited to go upstairs while mulling over my set
in my head, i did not want to forget the newish bits that i forgot in Hull.
I finally mooched
(slowly walked) upstairs to introduce myself to Jason the organiser and also
meet the other guys. Jason apologised to me that it was quiet, it had not occurred
to me that there was only 3 people in the room, the weather and the Jubilee
weekend has left the night a little short on audience members! Oh well i
thought, it is worth the travel just to get another chance to perform my stuff.
As i tried to become acquainted with the other acts a few more audience members
filtered in, the other acts all said hello but little else, i found it
difficult to get any conversation from them, they seemed to all know each other
and were catching up or reading their new bits that they had come to practice
so only one of them gave me any real response. I didn’t mind this, they didn’t
know me and it could just be down to the way they prepare pre gig.
The MC for the night
was not present yet, it was Will Duggan, i had seen him do an 8 spot at MR
Bens, he recognised me when he arrived and was more forthcoming than the others
with chit chat. Will kicked off the night and i really enjoyed watching him MC,
he was very engaging with the Audience that was now up to around 15 people,
discovering that of the only 2 women in the crowd one was called Sheila and the
other was an Aussie! The Australian was there with her boyfriend and another
Aussie they had befriended in the UK. I watched and enjoyed as Will warmed the
audience up ready for the comedy. The running order would be John Briscoe who
was also at just over 20 gigs, Steve Bujega then a break, Myself the Rex
Purnell and Tony Bassnet then a break then Rich Massara doing an Edinburg
preview. Only Myself and John were doing their best 10, everyone else was trying
new stuff which meant the night was a bit disjointed with some new jokes that
did not land but all in all i thought the crowd were quite receptive and nice.
My set went ok, there were moments when there was not as much laughter as i had
hoped but all in all i thought it was ok. Still plenty to work on, a few umm’s
and erms and i still swear too much but i will iron out those issues hopefully.
The thing that got me a bit out of the blue was the guy who came to tell me he
was married to a woman from Otley and that my joke about the girls of Otley was
‘disappointing’ !!! ha all the way to Manchester to find a guy who knows
Otley... but he wasn’t the only one, one of the other acts told me he knows a
lot of people from Otley and he would have done an Otley is a shithole routine
like mine had he thought it was any good!! I think i’d have preferred him to
say, that was a bit shit rather than the subtle insult but never mind i guess
he didn’t want to be rude.
So my trip to
Manchester was not anywhere near as much fun as past gigs, sure there were some
good moments, Jason is a nice bloke, Will was great, i got on with John and
also there were free brownie’s that Jason brought. All that though was not
enough for me to say i enjoyed it, a real come down from the great gig at Hull
2 days previous. I guess it won’t always be great gigs and lots of fun.... but
while this is a hobby and not a job (not to presume it will ever be a job for
me) i’d like it to be that way.
Next gig for me will
be my 8 Spot at Mr Bens in Leeds
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