Skip to main content

Mainly Mostly Me.


I enjoyed tonight’s Mostly Comedy, and had fun doing my work-in-progress set.

Me, after they told me I'd have to do an hour at tonight's Mostly
The turnout for the gig was considerably less compared to our recent run of sold out dates; a point that elicited a negative reaction from just about everyone I spoke to.

“Oh,” went the standard refrain. “You usually have a lot more than that,” as if I didn’t know.

The point is though: that’s fine. You can’t sustain high numbers every time. The fact we do as well as we do consistently is pretty astounding, but that’s not to say that there isn’t room for the odd quieter date, particularly on a night like tonight, where the line-up were trying out new material. What made this evening work as well as it did was the fact that people seemed to know what they were coming to see (as regards the event as a whole) rather than being enticed in by the headliner, without considering it’s a show with a mixed-bill.

Tiff Stevenson onstage, doing her thing.
Me, sweating profusely.
While I’m delighted by how Mostly’s grown over the years, my only slight reservation is the fact the line-ups have become so big that audiences no longer take a chance. When the club started nearly nine years ago, no-one knew anyone on the bill. They were all new acts, who just so happened to be the likes of Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster and Nick Helm. People just came to see comedy and it didn’t matter that they’d never heard of the line-up; it was more of an event. These days, the club has a slightly different fame-led polished dynamic that makes it harder to do something fresh like a preview from a lesser-known act like me.

Preparing Hitchin Mostly

That said, I still felt tonight went well. One thing I learnt a few years back is you should never chastise the people who came for the people who haven’t. Everyone there tonight came with what was about to unfold before them accepted in their minds - and while I’m sure most - if not everyone - had come to see Tiff Stevenson over me, my set still went well; it will just work better in a smaller room like I had in Bath instead of the cavernous space of The Sun Hotel Ballroom. Despite this, I feel happy with where I’m at; it’s a good place to be at this early stage, but I’d better still keep the work up.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more