I have competed in gong shows a plenty in my 1st 6
months although never won one with a cash prize often coming 2nd!!!
(there is no such thing as second in a gong show you either win, are a finalist
or are gonged). One thing I had not done before is taken part in a competition
gig where I still get my 10 mins there is no gong but the audience decide who
was best (from 7) which is what this Dronfield gig was to be so I was exited
about the prospect of this.
My regular car share buddy Dave McAndrew was on board too
along with his mate Martin who is a comedy show in himself!! Also joining us
was Amy Gledhill a fairly new act who claimed not to have any jokes!! This despite
having gigged for silky on 3 occasions, Amy you big fibber!
We arrived at the venue parking in the tightest space eve (I
think it might have been for bikes…. And I mean pedal bikes!) and went inside
to find a nice little locals pub.
Daniel Kennedy was again on the bill with me, nice to see
him again sat in the bar confused as to where we wait as we all were. Organiser
Anthony J Brown was not present so the Fantastic Carl Hutchinson was to MC but
he had not yet arrived, taking charge in the meantime was a guy called chris, I’m
not sure if he was pub staff or worked for Anthony but I know he had a poor
attitude in the way he spoke to people belittling them and being generally
sarcastic as if everyone was a moron but him, I kept it to myself that I did
not like him but it later became apparent he was not well liked by the other
acts especially after he gave Carl grief and heckled him while he was trying to
warm the audience up. While on that note the audience were in no mood to laugh
either, a strange atmosphere generated which was not helped by Chris heckling
Carl never seemed to pick up. Now Carl I have seen headline twice at weekend
clubs and is a great act, he should not be struggling but it was not his fault
at all. The audience twice told him to get on with it when he tried to chat
with them and just had no oomph. It was going to be hard work for 1st
act Dave Mac to make any impact and he struggled at 1st but won them
over a bit towards the middle and end with the audience liking his Uncle bit
the most, but they did not laugh aloud. Carl tried again to gee them up but
midway through a bit he just called me to the stage deciding they weren’t going
for it. So I struggled, I do not yet have the skills to win these kind of
audiences over, I tried so hard, I did not reference how miserable they looked I
just did what I could but they were not having any of it. At one point I said
to a guy who I knew to be called Peter, “I don’t know why im looking at you” as
a playful part of my stuff but he just replied “I don’t like you either” so not
only was he not listening but he was not a fan!, I was dying on my arse again
but this time I felt it was not my fault totally but a bit 50/50 between me and
the audience on who to blame. I got through about 8 mins and decided to get the
hell off stage to minimal applause! This ended the 1st section. I
felt nothing, none of the shame of a bad gig nor the joy of a good one, just
nothing, as if I had not even been on, and I suspected they audience would not
remember me within 15 mins, sadly I will remember them for a while. The one
pleasing element of this was that Carl Hutchinson, an act I really liked came
over to me and said he really liked my stuff, this compliment was not hollow
either as he need not have said anything so I was happy.
Carl addressed the 1st section having gone badly
when going up to begin the 2nd section and he asked the audience if
we could start again in terms of them enjoying the show, they seemed to go with
that a bit more, but only a bit as the next act struggled too even stopping at
one point to ask Carl how to win them back?? But to his credit he carried on
and it got better, he had some good stuff and they were coming round. It was
the best reaction of the night to be fair.
Amy was next, claiming to be nervous (another porky Amy!! Ha)
if she was nervous her drama degree was worth every penny as she looked a
seasoned pro up there, confidently delivering her ‘jokes’ and intelligently
utilising the room demographic to her advantage. It was an excellent performance
and the audience were beginning to show some pleasure to be there! But that
soon went as Joe White took the stage, Joe not totally to blame but I have seen
him perform better and his jokes are very good although he is very defensive
off stage to the point of being a bit twatty when I try talk to him, all three
times I have met him now he has had a smart arse remark to a question or
enquiry and or general chat, no idea why maybe he’s nervous maybe he’s a dick? I’m
guessing it’s not intentional. 2nd section completed only 2 acts to go, Adam
Blaize who is it seems Joe’s car share buddy as they rather like Dave Mac and I
are often gigging together. Adam has what I call an acquired taste of material
but perhaps I’m wrong to use that term, what I mean is I think you like parts
of it while other parts let it down and its those parts that might stop him
from winning shows like this as the good parts are brilliantly good, but this
is just my viewpoint I could be wrong! On this particular night the reception
he got was as bland as everyone else’s as was to be final act Daniel Kennedy’s
response. Daniel has superb confident delivery and looked to really have this
audience on board with his start but sadly he seemed to lose them a little with
his normally reliable poem section, perhaps the poem should have come 1st
then all the energy he builds up come later? Or perhaps nothing would please
this audience?
Well something had to as they were scoring every one, I would
love to know the full scores but we only got to find out the £50 cash prize
winner which was of course Amy Gledhill and full deserved.
It was a night to put down to experience and one I really
enjoyed apart from the 8 or so mins I was on stage!!
Next for me another Anthony J Brown gig, Yorkshire act of
the year at the Lawrence Batley theatre in Huddersfield (I have already done
the gig I will write the blog Tueasday)
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