All in all,
today’s show in Brighton was a good way to start the run.
I travelled down
alone, case in hand (except for when I stowed it), which was fine, as it’s a
journey I’ve done a lot, but it was a long time to be in my own company. In
some ways this was nice - it meant I could finish my book (‘Conclave’ by
Richard Harris, which was very good) and meditate for a bit - but it made for
quite a culture shock, going from speaking to no-one for three hours to
speaking to a room full of people.
I’m already
feeling the benefit of scaling down the things I carry; so far, the show is
prop-less, save all the projector gubbins, which consists of a small suitcase,
a music stand and my manbag (when I’m playing a room with a projector and screen
rigged). As it stood, I used their projector, which worked fine, but it’s always
good to know I have one with me that I can trust if the technical shit hits the
metaphorical pan.
I arrived at the
venue two hours before the show kicked off, which gave me enough time to set up
- accounting for the inevitable problems - and about forty minutes to quickly
run through some of the material before the guy doing the door arrived. That
guy was Dave Chawner; a lovely chap who I’ve met briefly before of whom I’ve
heard great things about his stand-up. He arrived about twenty minutes before
kick-off and acted as my depressurization from the deep-sea silence of the
journey.
I was very
surprised to see the room fill up when the doors opened, as me being me, I’d
expected to perform to one man and his emaciated whippet. They were a nice
bunch, but a little restrained, though they were probably confused by the
sweaty mass of man in front of them. I’m still aware there’s lots of work to be
done to the show (not that it really is the show yet, so much as a string of
things that might end up in it), but the first half particularly seems
reasonably tight. One tiny downside to the venue is the screen fills the whole space
with nowhere to stand next to it, so this reined me in a bit and made me upstage
myself occasionally, but that should improve when I’m back there
on Monday, now I’ve done it once. It was hard to gauge the laughs, but Dave
gave me some good feedback and a few notes to think about, which was very
helpful as it isn’t always easy to judge how things come across, or how things
could be tied together, without a good outside eye. This reminds me I need to
find a director, but it’s so hard to get anyone to commit.
My only fail tonight was I foolishly left my ideas pad behind at the venue. I’ve emailed
the landlord and text Dave in the hope he’s still there, so hopefully one or
the other will pick it up. The annoying thing is I know exactly where I left
it. Without it, I’m idea-less. Without it, I’ll need to find a writer;
applicants can leave their details below; I’m a reasonable
mistress.