(No) Help!


I’m probably being hypersensitive, but I often feel on the outside of the comedy community or clique.

What triggered this thought today - though it comes up a lot - was seeing someone I know who's performing in Brighton this month (and whose promotional tweets I regularly share) tweeting about someone else's show, and then clicking on that tweet to see it had been shared multiple times while remembering what little interest was given to my show earlier this week. I know I shouldn’t be this petty, but it’s hard not to correlate your popularity against others around you to find yourself lacking; I sometimes feel my role is to offer other people gigs and present reasonably high-profile line-ups myself while getting nothing back.

I know I shouldn’t put so much emphasis on what happens on social media when it’s fickle in nature at best. However it seems some people are permanently on broadcast mode and would never consider thanking you for helping promote them, or - God forbid - returning the favour.

After all, you should always BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHO YOU LINK YOURSELF WITH. YOU MUST LOOK EACH WAY BEFORE SHARING ANYTHING YOU’RE NOT CONVINCED WILL REFLECT ON YOU IN A GOOD LIGHT. WHY DO ANYTHING YOU DON’T STAND TO GAIN FROM YOURSELF? OF COURSE PEOPLE WILL SHARE STUFF ABOUT YOU; THAT’S THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS; WHY ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WHEN YOU RECEIVE A NOTIFICATION ABOUT IT? IT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE; IT’S ALSO CALLED 'BEING A CUNT’.

I’m well aware I sound bitter. I’m just tired of how one-sided things can be. I always go back to a particular act (who has a reasonable TV profile these days) who I once tagged in a handful of great photos taken at Mostly Comedy by my wife. He didn’t feel the need to make it clear he’d seen or liked them; of course people take pictures of him; that’s the way of the world. Call me old fashioned, but there’s no harm in just being nice.

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