Today, in an unprecedented
moment for Mostly Comedy, we sold 150 tickets (our total capacity) for Jack
Dee’s appearance next month to our mailing list in just fourteen minutes; a remarkable way to mark our club’s ninth
birthday, which was sullied by a slew of complaints we received almost
instantly from a few of the punters who missed out.
Not all of the emails, tweets
and Facebook posts were like this; plenty were balanced and
understanding of the fact the gig sold out so fast purely to the huge influx of
interest. But while some people quickly grasped the situation, others couldn’t
get to grips with it and continued to hammer the point, even after we posted
the following statement - all within an hour of the show going on sale - to explain
why things fell the way they did.
The comment that sticks in my
mind the most came in an email from someone who said, “I’m so disappointed in you guys”.
That hurt. So much work goes
into what we do and even into just confirming that line-up - and the fact it
was such a coup was illustrated by how quickly those tickets went.
Fourteen minutes: that’s no time at all; up until now, the fastest we sold out
was in just an hour, and that was in a smaller room. Yet despite trying to
clarify the situation as much as we could, someone felt the need to tell us
they felt we’d personally let them down; as Alan Partridge would put it, “This
country”.
Thankfully, tonight’s ninth
anniversary gig at our old haunt the Market Theatre went a long way to redress
the balance, even though I felt I’d spent more time responding to people’s
complaints today than in preparing for what we'd do onstage. It was a cracking sold
out night to add to the long list of cracking sold out nights - and to top it
all, we avoided being lynched. Personally, I’d pictured a 'Blues Brothers
singing Rawhide behind chicken wire to a room full of Country & Western
fans while they threw bottles at them' situation, which thankfully didn’t play out - though there’s
still time, I guess.
The nicest moment for me was
at the top of the gig when we showed a video of Sean Hughes performing in the space,
as a tribute to the fact he sadly passed away last week. When I watched it while we
setting up, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end; it’s such a
sad loss. We’ll miss him.
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| Tonight's line-up (left to right): me, Frank Sanazi, Katy Brand, Glyn and Paul Sweeney. |