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Mostly Civic Halls.

The first Mostly Comedy since losing my dad went by without a hitch, though there was a strange sense of unreality and disconnect to the whole thing.
Backstage with Hal Cruttenden and Simon Brodkin.

The day itself was stressful, mainly because everything I had to do before I could leave for the Town Hall seemed to take forever, and the fact it was a Glynless show at a new venue meant I wanted to be there early enough to not be backfooted by life. That said, stress and Mostly Comedy go hand in hand, so it wouldn't have been right if I wasn't wound up. It's a good job our new sound guy Billy is so on-the-ball though as, when I arrived over an hour late, he was pretty much already set up.

The holdup was partly due to a conflict between a sudden burst of inspiration for some topical material about the terrible state of UK politics and a laptop that wouldn't unfreeze for long enough for me to put a slideshow together; perhaps this was a case of art mirroring life. I'd actually taken a lot of files off of my computer the day before in the hope it was speed things up but this was evidently to no avail. I also had some banking to do before I got to the Town Hall, so by the time I arrived, I was suitably frazzled, though it didn't take long for things to calm down.

Setup was stupidly easy and a world of difference from how things were at The Sun. It was lovely to arrive to see all the seats out, the PA set up and the bar a hive of activity. All I had to do was connect my laptop to the rigged projector that was already set up and switch it on; it was the theatrical get-in dreams are made of with the added bonus of Nick, Gemma, Sam and Billy just getting on with what needed to be done.

Inevitably, the echoey beast of a room was a setback, but Billy's so good at what he does that he soon had control of it. Consequently, at time of writing, there have been no complaints about sound, which is the opposite of how things were for last year's Harry Hill gig. The atmosphere during the show itself was great, which only goes to show how well people could hear what was going on.

The atmosphere in the room was great for the show, with long laughs throughout. It helped that the line-up of Simon Brodkin and Hal Cruttenden are so nice and easy to get on with, and they spoke highly of the new venue, which was a step for the positive. I dedicated the night to my dad at the top of the show as images of us together came up on the screen, which resulted in an impromptu round of applause, which was lovely. My material got some good feedback too, so all-in-all it was a good one; not a bad way to kick things off at the Town Hall properly.

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