Opening the Fringe Floodgates.


Today’s show was a promising way to kick off my Fringe run, with a small, yet lovely audience who were pretty vocal and certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

It was reassuring to hear a lot of laughter at the top, what with all my worrying that the subject matter might make people think it wasn’t comedy. It certainly added a spark of energy to proceedings, though I only felt a step ahead of myself at times, what with it still being new. When you’ve been working on a stand-up show for a while, it easy to forget there are even laughs in it, so it was nice to rediscover that there were (occasionally in places I didn't expect).

One thing’s for certain: I’m going to sweat a lot this month. The mix of material and music doesn’t let up for long, though hopefully I’ll settle into it in the coming days and eventually find time to catch my breath.

Today’s audience was bolstered by my flyering team who came along to get a firmer idea of what they’ll be standing in all weathers for for the rest of the month. They seemed to enjoy it too, which was a relief, as it would be pretty grim to promote something you didn’t like yourself for the foreseeable future.

I don’t expect every small crowd to be so up for it; I’m sure some will be put off by a mostly empty room. I’ve written before about the psychology of watching comedy and how it doesn’t matter how big an audience is so much as how big they feel. If you’re Fringe-savvy you’re used to seeing shows with a small house and aren’t put off by it, but if you’re not, you can wind up feeling self-conscious, plus it can be hard to build an atmosphere in a large space if everyone is spread out; I may have to nudge the front of house staff to suggest people sit together as this usually helps.

While I enjoyed today, there’s still work to be done, particularly in the second half, which felt a little ragged. I had to cut out a whole section and edit my closing song to finish on the dot at 1pm. I plan to look over this over the next few days, possibly cutting a song entirely to give the show room to breathe. Speaking of breathing, I can let out a sigh of relief now I’m finally up and running; only another twenty-one shows to go.

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