Tonight’s Mostly
Comedy was one to be proud of.
First off, with
Hattie Hayridge and Henning Wehn on the bill, we had an exceptional line-up.
You’re off to a good start when you play host to familiar faces;
more-often-than-not, an audience feels most comfortable when the people they're
watching have form and a television presence; such is the nature of promoting
comedy – but the atmosphere can go through the roof when those acts are
on top form, like they were tonight.
It was probably the
one date in Mostly Comedy’s 2016 diary that made us most tense, what with the
difficult task of moving a sold-out audience en mass from Henning’s originally
scheduled appearance last month. Ticket holders had four weeks to decide
whether they’d like to stay with the April date or switch to the new one,
before the event went on public sale. Thirty people did nothing before the
deadline, which made us paranoid they hadn’t seen the message (well: the
numerous messages, by email, social media and in the local press); those thirty
tickets were quickly snapped up, meaning they wouldn’t have been able to attend
if they'd turned up, expecting to be let in.
Thankfully, it
wasn’t a problem in the end. Only two people made this mistake, who we managed to squeeze in. This was a relief, as I’d envisaged a riot, with us having to erect a Les Miserables-style barricade.
It was pleasing
on a personal level too, as I tried out a snippet of new material that has
promise, and made a second stab at something I’d only performed once before that had previously died
on its arse. I’d suspected this was mostly to do with an older crowd who’d come
specifically to see an older headliner (who shall remain nameless), and
consequently weren’t prepared to listen to routines from an act they don’t
know. It had a much better response tonight, which bodes well for when I
tighten it up.
All in all, the gig was pretty slick. I took a moment to look around the room during
Henning’s set, and felt a swell of pride what Mostly Comedy's become. It’s pretty
incredible for something we’d set up largely by accident. As I’ve said before, we
run a comedy club by mistake.