mostly david ephgrave

Today's show got a quieter reaction to yesterday, mainly due to a rather bijou audience spreading themselves around the room in pockets instead of sitting together, which counterintuitively made them feel more self-conscious than safe that they were tucked out of the way.  Me, during tonight's show at The Quadrant. The success of live comedy in a small venue is an exercise in psychology; if the audience and comic don't feel like they're in the same boat, it just doesn’t work. You can sometimes literally feel people wanting to get onside, yet some subtle awkwardness in the air renders it impossible; it’s like watching a film you’ve endlessly praised to a friend for it to fall completely flat when you show it to them; suddenly something you love seems completely barren when seen through someone else’s eyes. While the response was muted, it still went reasonably well, despite a slightly clunky beginning; there were a few nice moments of connection here a...

I’m purposely keeping my approach to the open spot I’m doing in London tomorrow a little loose, as a social experiment. This seemed to stand me in good stead for my short solo set at last Thursday’s Mostly Comedy. The fact it was such a tiny fraction of the evening, and Glyn and I had already been on to a good response, meant it wasn’t important; as a result, I did a better job. If I can sit back on the material a bit, as I do when I’m performing my hour-long show, I might enjoy it more and get a more enthusiastic response. Ultimately, the point of me taking open spots is to try stuff out. It’s not about getting stage experience, other than in the sense that I’ve done less stand-up on my own. I may as well play with what I do, in hope of improvement. It’s better to take risks and fail, if it helps me find new ways to succeed. (I sound like an internet meme.) The strangest aspect to performing stand-up on my own, particularly when th...