The Stand (Not by Stephen King).


Today’s show went back to being fun again, after the quietness of the day before.

Setting up for today.
Performing comedy is like an exercise in psychology. I find it fascinating how two similar-sized audiences can respond so differently from one day to the next, often due to how comfortable they feel about the numbers in the room. Both today and yesterday’s shows had less than ten in, and while today’s crowd were very vocal, yesterday’s seemed self conscious and ever so slightly perplexed, like they’d wandered into the room not expecting a performance to be happening at the far end of it, but didn’t want make a scene by leaving

I always try to establish from the off that the audience size doesn't make me feel awkward in the hope this will help everyone relax, but it doesn’t always work. It’s like when you go to an event you’ve been looking forward to for ages, but when it comes to it, you start to over-think things and don’t settle and end up not having the good time you’d hoped you'd have as a result. You often need a few big laughs early on at a small comedy gig for the audience to feel they’re allowed to make noise, as without them it can wind up being silent throughout, which only ramps up the sense of unease; today people got on board very quickly, whereas yesterday, everybody’s buttocks remained tightly clenched throughout (you don’t want to know how I know this).

While today’s show was one of the most enjoyable so far, the lead-up was pretty fraught. I received an email yesterday afternoon from the comic Daniel Cook - who’s in the space after me and is sharing some of my equipment - to say my projector stand had broken post-show. He told me he’d ordered a replacement on Amazon, but it wouldn’t arrive until too late for today, but he’d do his best to temporarily patch the old one up so it would be usable in the meantime. He was hugely apologetic and it really couldn’t be helped, but it still put me in a panic, mainly as I had some industry people coming today and didn’t want to have to compromise my set-up.

No sooner did I receive his email than I began furtively Googling for somewhere nearby where I could pick up a temporary replacement. Thankfully I found a company quickly that hired out AV equipment at a reasonable price, but they closed in less than an hour. I phoned and reserved a stand, before my wife and I sped to Waverley Station in hope of hailing a taxi to take us to the company’s base at an industrial unit close to where the Royal Yacht Britannia is docked (for point of reference). Unfortunately the queue for cabs was way too long, so I phoned the shop to say we'd come over to pick it up the next morning instead.

Me, doing a one-man Please Please Me before carrying the projector stand up the stairs to my digs.
Spin forward to today and my wife took the taxi to collect the stand for me to save time while I got ready for the show, before we carried it in two pieces to the venue. It took me a long time to get it set at the right height for my screen, but I eventually managed to sort it with minutes to spare; there’s nothing like sailing close to the edge.

My wife and I prove we're hot, at the Camera Obscura.
After the show was finished my wife and I turned into tourists, enjoying a lovely meal at a Mexican restaurant on the Royal Mile, before visiting the Camera Obscura. It was nice to do something entirely un-show-related, particularly after the stress of the previous evening. Tonight, we’re off to watch Phil Kay, as it frankly isn't the Edinburgh Fringe without him.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
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

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

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane
Read more