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Looking Back and Looking Forward.


I just watched back my set from Wednesday’s Mostly Comedy (which Glyn edited down and sent to me) and was pleased with how it came across.

It featured a mix of new material and a routine from my first solo show, which I haven’t touched since that particular show’s last performance. It’s a bit ridiculous really, but I scrapped pretty much all of it immediately after the last run, and have seldom performed any of it again, mainly due to one negative (and frankly not very professional) review that I received, that nearly made me give up hope as far as doing solo comedy goes; such is the potential impact of a poorly timed critique for your confidence.

With a bit of distance, I’m starting to feel this decision was too overzealous on my part. Looking back on some of the bits and pieces in my first show, I’m actually quite proud of the writing. This has only really occurred to me as a result of dipping into a few videos of my early solo gigs and realising that a lot of it was actually quite well-constructed - probably mainly as much of it started life in the form of prose written for this blog.

I think the time may have come to reconsider some of this content and see which bits could still be used. This also may be a bridge to what I write about next. It goes to show that sometimes you should trust your original instincts and not let someone with an axe to grind temper your feelings about what you do; be true to what you like and you’ll believe in it more and do it to the best of your ability.

(Watch me forget this tomorrow though.)

I was quite heartened by how the new bits came across. It gives me the strength to keep working on more new stuff, which had been waning, thanks to a drop in my confidence in my ability that has come about post-Edinburgh. I don’t even really know why this happened but it did. It’s probably partially due only having myself (and my wife) to talk myself up and motivate me to keep doing what I’m doing; it can be hard when you have little outside input or anyone cajoling you on with what you do.

I’ll try to keep hold of this small, slightly more positive outlook for the next few days as I carry on writing more new stuff; the guy who wrote that review can - quite frankly - sod off.
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