28/09/07
The empty space. With a mic in it. -
Categories: There has been a major lack of posting this week, for which I apologise. This has partly been to do with carting myself around the country for gigs as the comedy season is getting into full swing again.
I've been to some very nice areas and had one particularly nice gig which took place in a big tent out the back of a pub in Bradford Upon Avon. This Bradford in not like the Bradford and thus has no curries or racists, and is all rather twee and nice. We had a rather hazardous trip to the gig due to traffic and a motorway 'incident'. I always find the term 'incident' rather ominous. Its the sort of term middle class people use if a pet has shat on the carpet - 'Fluffy's had an incident'. It seems highly demeaning to use that same term to describe a car that has gone up in flames and people that have possibly burned to death.
So during the hellish journey, when one of my fellow acts rang the gig, we found out it was going to be in a tent. Now our immediate thoughts were 'oh god, this will be crap'. My only other tent gig experience was my not great set at Bestival, and the tent we were heading to was definitely not festival size. All the panic lights were going and we continued in the frame of mind that we would have to plough on through and take a bullet for the team. On arrival though, it was a huge tent with a regular comedy savvy crowd who enjoyed every gag we all said and wanted us to stay for the beerfest that weekend. What could be nicer than that sort of reception?
The bizarre thing about this was that while the unsure gig in the tent was great, a gig earlier in the week in a nice seeming pub, was truly bad. There was a nice crowd, it was a nice place and from that you'd think it would be a cinch. However, what was completely wrong was the room. Some people scoff if an act blames their gig on the room, but it plays a massive factor. At this gig, the audience were on all three sides of you, so wherever you turned, you ignored one side. This wouldn't have been so bad if there weren't loads of pillars blocking the view everywhere and the stage hadn't been so far away from everyone. Essentially an atmosphere could not be created, let alone developed on.
I was a drama student some years ago and regularly the idea that the space was important would appear. I became increasingly bored with 'finding a space and making it become something' and tired of reading dull book's such as Peter Brook's 'The Empty Space'. Ironically its only since doing stand-up I've realised how vital to a good gig it really is. Sadly many promoters still don't. Or perhaps don't care. All it takes is finding the right place for the stage, lights for focus and the audience close together. I've been to gigs where the weirdest room has become nice because it was set out right. Yet at the same time I've been to rooms that could have been good but were placed all wrong, as well as many many venues that should never have had comedy there in the first place. This includes a mic on a carpet in front of a fire place in an estate pub, a massive dome with ceilings so high people could've parachuted in, a venue where most people are in separate rooms watching you on a TV (why not just stay at home and watch TV?) and anywhere outdoors ever (with the exception of performing on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh because that was ace). I simply suggest that there should be some sort of list that promoters have to check before running a gig in a place. It can include questions such as: 1) Can the audience see the act? 2) Are the front row of the audience more than 5ft away from the stage? 3) Are there livestock running around during the show? and things to that effect. A 5 minute checklist could save hours of pain for comics for years to come. I might send round a memo.
The other reason there has been a lack of blog this week is because on Monday, my girlfriend and I acquired two small kittens called Bella and Rosie. They are 12 weeks old, very small, and already adapt at ruining our living room with scratches and poos. Strangely they have the ability to make the small space that is our flat very full of humour on a daily basis and thus its very hard to get anything done. There is little more entertaining than watching a tiny animal chase its own tail for half an hour. Not only is that distracting, but Bella (who is all black. Rosie is a grey tabby) seems to really enjoy sleeping across the laptop keys while I'm trying to type. Handy. And so little will now happen until they grow a bit and keep themselves busy without providing me with hundreds of cheap youtube moments. Right now I must leave this blog here as they are trying to chew through the electric cables on the TV. While the cruel of you might think that it would be a quick way to stop them from distracting me if I allow them to continue, I think I'll be nice and gently remove them from near death because I'm nice like that.
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