16/10/07
90 seconds of badness -
Categories: After now being on the circuit for a reasonable amount of time I feel I can judge most comedy situations accordingly. I like to feel I've learnt from my mistakes and can do ok to good in a rooms where before I would screw stuff up.
However, tonight proved a itself a massive example of me still being able to ruin the easiest of gigs. Background excuse lined up: I am still ill (see last blog. I am aware that by blogging so close to my last blog, that blog may be neglected. Don't be poo, read them both!). Illness can account for poor judgement but not really enough. Unless you are mentally ill, then that can actually count. Or dying ill, which also counts. I am neither of those though.
Tonight was the 'Best Of' Amused Moose Hot Starlets, a heading for a collection of comics that I MC'd last year at the fringe. It was a great line-up of newer to more experienced acts doing a range of sets from 6mins to 90 seconds to allow more acts stage time than on a normal comedy eve. When offered a 90 second slot, I quickly agreed while slightly scoffing at the idea. I am by no means a quick gag comic and find it tough to do even a 5 minute set now that I regularly enjoy being able to pace my gigs and chat to the audience. So I had stressed about this minute amount of comedy time and spent ages working out exactly what I should do.
Despite this, 3 minutes before I was due on stage, I decided to change my material having no idea whether it would fit to time, walked on stage, needed to cough a lot, and raced through my gags at 100 miles an hour, while still managing to bumble through the material. Truly poor effort, especially considering there were many a comedy promoter in the crowd, as well as a large amount of very nice actual audience members.
I have somehow developed a wonderful ability to screw up when important people are at a gig, even if, like tonight, I don't know they're there. I can trace back countless competitions and 'talent spotting evenings' where I have chosen the set badly or gaged the crowd wrong, and yet on any other evening I'll be fine. The past week has been a lovely mix of stonking 20 sets, and great MC gigs, until tonight where a mere 90 seconds became tough. I am starting to believe I may have some sort of ancient curse due to the ancient mosaic I once drove a catering trolley into at the V&A Museum 11 years ago. As the manager said just before he fired me 'you've fucked that right up, now you will be cursed forever by the sun god Ra'. Well he didn't really say that, but it was something along those lines. Well not even along those lines. And he didn't fire me. I quit before he could, because I'm sharp like that.
On the plus side, I chatted to lots of nice comics/comedy related peoples that I know and like and I also did speak to a comedy related fellow diabetic and got some handy tips about things I didn't know, which was thanks to me doing the diabetic material I shouldn't have done. So perhaps, despite the poor set, my health may improve. Swings and roundabouts as they say...when designing a playground.
Other quick notes. Gig last night in Leicester Uni. Thought it would be horrible, but turned out bloody nice if disorganised. Not all students are bad at all. Although there was one who got upset at an acts 'suicide' gags and how insensitive they were and complained to me about it in a whiney way during the interval. I was tempted to tell him to go jump off a bridge, but instead explained about comedy and that he was an idiot in a nice way. He then left crying and I couldn't help but feel I may have accidentally played a small part in his own life attempts. I do hope not.
Fat Tuesday tomorrow/today! Al Pitcher, Marek Larwood, Chris Martin and James Kettle, all of whom are ace. Should be a stonker!
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