...Camdenand Ephgrave #1.


Five words, uttered nonchalantly by the Etcetera Theatre’s Duty Manager after tonight’s show that put the fear of God in me: “You had three press in”.

What made her comment more alarming was there were only nine people in the audience. The ‘crowd’ watching my show this evening was one-third reviewers. There was a journalist for every pair of standard punters. I think I’ve made my point.

Me, with sign, tonight.
It will be interesting to hear what they think, particularly now the show starts with a brief dissection of my unfavourable Chortle review. Will this win friends or gain enemies? I’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully they came from different sources, for variety. I'm delighted to have such a great journalistic turnout (the best I’ve ever had), daunting though it may be.

The show was okay for a first night. I was a little flustered by the get-in and took a little while to relax. The audience were quiet in places, which makes more sense in retrospect, now I know about the reviewing contingent. They were smiley, but not very vocal, but it was a small house, which often makes an audience self-conscious. The Shed Seven section was met with silence initially, which threw me a little in my not-yet-Zen state, but things picked up again after that. I’ll be more at ease tomorrow, now I’m comfortable in the space.

The bit that connected most from my perspective was the off-the-cuff interacting with the audience. There was a lovely couple, sitting dead ahead of me, who were enjoying joining in; so much so that I ended up having to hammer on with the material, so I didn’t run over time. Still, it made for a fun diversion.

All in all, I was mostly happy with tonight. It wasn’t as slick or as laugh-heavy as I’d have liked, but it wasn’t a bad start. I’m looking forward to Show Number Two. It’s a shame the press didn’t come tomorrow, when I will have all already had a gig under my belt, but such is life. At least they came. I wonder if they'll accept bribes?

Panaramic view of the Etcetera Theatre lighting box. Just because.

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