10/08/08
Stephen Grant: Performer, Compere... and Judge -
Categories:
Just a short blog from me as I'm completely knackered - today's diary had me compering the EdCom showcase at the Cabaret Bar at the Pleasance (a sell out), doing my own show at the Pleasance Upstairs (a must-have-been-way-over-capacity sellout - some of the punters were sitting on the stairs), opening the show at the Glasgow Stand (a 50 minute drive away in torrential rain; weather was so bad I saw a crash unfold in front of me), and then racing back to So You Think You're Funny... to be a judge.
Which I've never, ever done before. But it was going to be my job to sit alongside 3 other industry people (who I have to keep their names quiet) and choose a winner form. This was heat 4, and I won't mention the contestants because
1) I can't remember their names as the Gilded Balloon took our marking sheets off us at the end
and
2) no 2). Just 1). Sorry.
But it was easy to be impartial as I didn't know - and hadn't seen - any of the acts before, and I didn't know any of the judges personally (Karen Koren was not present for this heat) so I wouldn't be swayed by any opinions that I had previously agreed/disagreed with. I'll be honest, I was excited.
After a quick introduction to my fellow panelists (a director/producer, a TV comedy person, and a journalist) we discussed what we'd be looking for. Overall, we weren't 100% sure, even though the GB (Gilded Balloon) had provided us all with clipboards, pens, and a sheet of paper for writing notes on each act (with no categories on them; just a name as a heading). I said that I was going to do two things; mark down if material was overly generic or 'borrowed' and try to make sure the act up first was treated as fairly as all the other acts, as sometimes the first on has to deal with a very difficult crowd reaction and being the last on the Judge's conscience when they come to decide a winner.
And there's a reason for my conviction here; back in 1997 and in 1998, I entered the three main competitions (BBC, Daily Telegraph, and SYTYF) and I'd only ever lost a round in any of those comedy competitions where the running order had put me on first (SYTYF, DT) or last (BBC). So I was adamant I would treat the first and last act up as if they had gone on 4th and 5th and not allow audience 'frostiness' to cloud my judgement of their perforamce.
Not that I was likely to get that; as the compere, a very bouncy Hal Cruttenden set out his stall nicely for the acts. Hal is a 'material' compere in that he uses his (perfectly good) banter with the crowd to segue into his preprepared routines. That said, the funniest bits of his show tonight came when an audience member offered to strip semi-naked (waist up) after Hal suggested he might want to do this (rapidly changing his mind), and then on discovering he was Austrian, accused this punter of 'only following orders'. His timing on the night was impeccable.
And then came the acts. I'm not going to divulge too much of how my personal judging process works; but the main bits included me marking up for originality, performance, material delivery, and of course laughs.
What a good night. The quality was high, the nerves appeared very low (why? why? What are new acts so bullish? At their stage, I was shakier than the Udderbelly's huge plastic legs) and the originality was on the whole, highly refreshing.
And just to prove a point to me - the winner was the guy who was up first, but my God it was damned close. I shall consider those demons exorcised; it's no barrier to success; it just took someone better to prove it!
Sorry there's no photos in this blog, but I was too busy judging *actual life* to start snapping away anyway. Still, by way of a compensation, here's a little picture search for you; one of the groups of charicatures on the Pleasance Doom walls. Who's who?
Comments:
Permalink
10/08/08 @ 10:32 · http://markcornell.co.uk Permalink
10/08/08 @ 11:02 · http://www.chrismayo.co.uk Permalink
10/08/08 @ 11:15 Thanks for the blog entries Stephen! Keep the photos coming!
Permalink
10/08/08 @ 11:15 Leave a comment:
Trackback address for this post:
http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/htsrv/trackback.php/1526
Trackbacks:
No Trackbacks for this post yet...
RSS Feed