Gig 44 was a new one
for me, it was a talent contest gig that i had been given a heads up about via
txt, i thought why the hell not lets enter this and see how it goes. When i
entered i was swiftly contacted by the organiser Trixxi who sent me details and
rules. Basically there will be up to 8 acts performing music, singing, dancing,
comedy or Magic and one will go through, there will then be a 2nd
and 3rd place awarded and those 2 will go against each other for a the
other qualification place in a semi final. As a comedy act i was to do 10 mins
(or less) and 5 mins in the play off if i make it.
When it came time to
do the gig which was in Burscough (still no idea where that is but nearest big
city is Liverpool) i really could not be bothered to motivate myself to set
off. I sat for about 10 mins in my living room with no desire to move, but i’m
not one to book a gig and just not turn up the one time i have done that there
were extenuating circumstances and i don’t think cant be arsed is a valid
reason so i set off. My mind full of thoughts that were negative and pre
conceptions of what the gig would be like, i had no perception that i would do
well and figured i would use the gig as practice for stage presence as i still
think that needs work and it was one of the judging criteria although worded as
overall performance along with technical ability (of which i have almost none) personality
(which i have a little) and originality (well i’m rapidly learning a lot of my
jokes exist already so my most original bits are the true stories but im
working on this too) so taking all those things on board i had no real hope of
progressing.
The drive seemed to
take far too long and along the journey which took me through some very rural
areas i half expected a kid with a banjo to be sat in his rocking chair at one
of the petrol stations i passed.
I arrived and was
pleased to see a familiar face in Pat Devine, i had not really met Pat to chat
to before but i just kinda pinned the poor guy into a conversation and he was
too polite to tell me to fuck off!
Pat knows plenty about
comedy and could easily have forgotten more than i know! We discussed the
competition and what to expect and mid way through the conversation the MC for
the night came up to see if who would go 1st as there would only be
2 comedy acts, a singer and a musician.
The 2 comedians were
up 1st but there would be no warm up for the comedy as the Mc would
sing a sort of karaoke style opening. Pat offered to go 1st as the
more experienced act and i was more than happy that he offered this, i would
have gone 1st no worries but at least now i would get a chance to
see how the night would pan out and what kind of crowd they are.
So the show began and following
a brief intro Pat was on, he had to spend the 1st 4 mins or so
working the audience and trying to up the energy, i personally thought he was
being underappreciated as the audience seemed almost afraid to laugh. Pat went
through the gears and eventually brought the room round in particular with his
cartoon material and his Girls aloud stuff, but the theme of the night revaled
itself as midway through Pat’s set 2 blokes entered the gig, the door is right
next to the stage and the 2 guys stopped so Pat interacted with them as he
tried to regain a professional aspect to the night but the bloke uttered some barely
audible long winded response to the question whats your name then followed up
with, but you can call me Pat and this got the laughter fully flowing, they all
know each other and we were outsiders. But Mr Devine did a superb job and his
time was up, he was about to leave the stage as you would at the end of the gig
but was stopped by the 3 judges and in an x factor style given feedback!!! Oh dear
i was not expecting that! One of the judges is a talent booker and she spoke
sense but the other judges seemed to cite nerves as to why Pat struggled at the
start rather than realising it was a cold room.
My turn next, i was
nervous but i did not want to show it. The Mc mentioned how last week he could
not read a comedians name and called said Hardcock instead of Murdoch for an
acts surname so with me he would just say my 1st name.... bingo, my
nerve settler, i went on announced simply as Jim and said hi i’m Jim
Hardcock... luckily this got a laugh and i was ok to roll through the jokes.
My 1st 5
mins was working a treat, i was getting plenty of laughter from the cheap jokes
and really using the momentum that Pat had given me, i also had 2 moments where
i could buy time as mid set a girl screamed so i referenced that and during my granddad
bit a bloke answered his phone so i was able to bounce off that, i was now in
flow and enjoying myself so it was disappointing when i went flat towards the
end of the set with 3 mins getting me minimal laughs and needing much work. My final
minute or so pulled it back slightly but i was not happy and my time was up.
To my surprise the
judges were very complimentary of my performance and had nice things to say, i’m
not sure if they were a comedy specific judging panel that they would have been
quite so flattering but it was nice to get comments such as,” your presence on
stage is engaging and we wanted to like you” “your jokes are funny but your ability to
think quickly was even better” you have some clever (yes clever???) jokes and i
thought you were fantastic”
It was lovely to hear
this and it seemed i was in with a chance. Following the comedy was the
beautiful singer Bryony and then a talented young man called Cameron doing a
solo guitar acoustic singing set (there is most likely a more technical name
for this!)
After they had
performed the judges made their decision and it was singer Bryony who won in
what was described as a close vote. The surprise being that all 3 of the other
acts myself, Pat and Cameron were level and were all to perform in the2nd place
playoff, so 5 more mins for pat and i and 1 more song for Cameron. Pat used it
as a bit of a practice, he was not prepared really to make this stage not
because he did not do well but because he went 1st and dealt with a
cold room. He kind of had the same again as he was 1st after the
break to perform in the playoff but he seemed to ease through is set. Cameron followed
with his song but i was phased out while he was on and didn’t hear it. Me
next... 5 mins and i really have nothing!!! I tried to reference things from
the night, details from around the room and how Cameron had done well despite
having an unpopular name and i’m glad i’m not called Clegg!! I then did a
little bit of material from my original set from the early days. The 5 mins
went slow and i even mentioned the wicker man and pub from American werewolf in
London that this pub seemed like which was always mentioned at the royalty when
i was running the nights there, Pat had also mentioned that observation.
And so my 2nd
5 mins were up and it was time for final votes, judge 1 was a talent scout and
booker from the Liverpool area, she voted for me, judge 2 a singer from Ireland
and the event organiser who voted Cameron, so it was the venue manger who was
to have the final vote, he thought about it for a moment before voting for me. It
was lovely to prove popular and i would now be returning in 2 weeks for a semi
final against yet more talented Cabaret acts.
Next gig for me is a
MC spot in Hull, can’t wait i love the Hull audience i performed in front of
last time and hope its similar.
No comments:
Post a Comment