It was very heartening when the virtual doors opened on our first-ever ZOOMostly Comedy last night to see so many people logging in and know we had lots of interest.
We'd only announced we'd be pushing the podcast aspect of the originally-billed show online under a fortnight ago, so the turnaround was tight. The fact the interview was with the main pull of the night - Arthur Smith - was likely to go in our favour, but there were no guarantees people would be tech-savvy enough to want to try it. It shows how attitudes have changed since lockdown began that asking audience members to join us via the meeting software Zoom wasn't a big deal. And in many ways, I think the interview we presented was probably all the better for it, which is fortunate as it's likely to be the way Mostly Comedy will run for a good few months at least.
Arthur was, as ever, the perfect guest. He's always warm and friendly and - unlike many younger, less experienced and less astute comedians - he always listens to you and is happy to laugh with you, rather than outdo you. And another thing that Glyn pointed out afterwards, he'll always refer to you by name. Even if he's just a few steps ahead of himself when remembering - which would be perfectly acceptable when being interviewed by a double act - it's details like that that make a world of difference.
What was great was the situation worked perfectly for the podcast recording. And the punters watching were happy to submit questions and comments for us to share with Arthur as we went along. The nicest part was when one of the virtual audience-member just posted a simple, "This is great" in the chatbox; that's a validation of the whole project. And as long as we can get a few people watching and balance the cost as much as we can, it will at least bring in a small amount while keeping the Mostly flame burning.
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| Us, chatting to Arthur Smith via Zoom last night. |