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Fade in, Fade Out.


Today’s show was a strange one in that it started well, but then halfway through I seemed to lose them.

I’m not  sure what happened, but for the first thirty minutes or so the laughs were big and pretty constant, so much so, it took me by surprise. The moment the audience truly got on board was when I did the bit about the arrogant statue in my local Oxfam, which was going so well that one woman was laughing uncontrollably, but somewhere towards the middle of my set, these laughs began to drop off, and while there were still bits that got a good response through to the end, it was definitely more muted; I can only assume I blacked out for a few minutes and inadvertently said something racist.

One thing’s for certain: I’m relieved to be nearly done. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed myself - it's been great - but it definitely reaches a point when you need to wind things up and head for home, as the stamina required to bring a show to the Fringe - particularly when you’re essentially a one-man band - is pretty exorbitant.

I have to say: self-producing a solo show at Edinburgh is a thankless task. I’m tired of being the centre-point of everything I do, yet for some reason I find it hard to get someone in the industry to buy into me, even though I’d like to think I'm fairly consistent. Perhaps the fact I multi-task and am not just a comic, but an actor and a musician adds to the confusion, but I don’t really know why, but it certainly frustrating when so many of my peers either have a producer attached to their shows, or at the very least have appropriate representation.

One bit of good news I stumbled across this afternoon when doing an inevitable self-Google was that my Henry VIII joke had been included in ‘Comedy Central’s 35 Funnest Jokes From the Edinburgh Fringe 2017’ list (see the image below, which I stole from their website). So now this historical pun has been singled out by Comedy Central, featured in the Daily Telegraph and read out on BBC Radio Four; I’m starting to wonder if I could have stayed at home this Summer and sent the joke up to the Fringe in my place.


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