Today felt pretty productive.
Aside from the odd bit of personal admin, such a dropping off prescriptions and buying bin bags, I spent much of the day running material and starting to piece a set together for this weekend’s show. I felt quite energised and enthused by the results, which was an exciting place to be this early in the week.
My only sticking point at this stage is whether to be bold and make my setlist predominantly new, untested (and relatively untested) stuff, or whether to pad it out generously with things I've tried before, such as material from last year’s show. I'd initially intended on doing the latter, but working through my notepads today, I reminded myself of various bits and pieces I'd vaguely worked up, or blogs I thought would be appropriate for stand-up, that I could probably learn sufficiently over the next week. I remembered the reason I'd booked the Bath dates in the first place: as a chance to openly try new ideas out. I don't expect what I do this weekend to be particularly like the show I do in Brighton and then Edinburgh as regards structure; I also have a number of blogs I know are likely to wind up as part of it, that I clearly won't be sticking into a set in the next week...but I'd sooner remain true to the original point of the weekend’s dates: to - as the blurb says - road-test material. So why not use it for that?
(That’s a rhetorical question.)
The other thing I need to decide over the next few days is my set for the New Act Competition I'm taking part in at the end of this week. It only need be short, but - like this weekend’s ‘Work in (Hope of) Progress’ dates - I'm not sure whether to go for something older and more familiar that feels a bit stale, or go for my newer, more animated stuff. I’ll have a think as I work through my prospective set for Saturday and Sunday and see what stands out.
I also wrote and sent out the press release for April’s Mostly Comedy to the local press, which thanks to last month’s later-than-usual date, takes place practically tomorrow. On top of that, I scheduled a mailout to our mailing list (poor double use of the word ‘mail’ then) and watched a couple of episodes of The X-Files; all in all, a successful day. Good work, everyone. Lunchbreak.