mostly david ephgrave

My whole life currently consists of me rushing about to get nothing done. Today's a good example as there's a Mostly Comedy at the end of it that I haven't had the time to prepare for, and as I attempt to do this, my attention is completely split. It probably doesn't help that I don't feel match-fit to perform tonight, as I haven't really had my comedy head on lately (not in a Frank Sidebottom sense); I've been mostly knee-deep in admin (he says melodramatically), which is hardly a suitable warm-up. Hopefully the fact Glyn's back with us tonight - he had to miss the last show due to touring - will help. The plus-(and sometimes minus)-side to Mostly Comedy is we're seldom the focus and more the glue between the acts the audience came to see. That's not to say we can get away with not performing, but Glyn's and my time together is so minimal at the moment, there's no chance of us doing anything new; if I've been working on solo mate...

I just watched back my set from Wednesday’s Mostly Comedy (which Glyn edited down and sent to me) and was pleased with how it came across. It featured a mix of new material and a routine from my first solo show, which I haven’t touched since that particular show’s last performance. It’s a bit ridiculous really, but I scrapped pretty much all of it immediately after the last run, and have seldom performed any of it again, mainly due to one negative (and frankly not very professional) review that I received, that nearly made me give up hope as far as doing solo comedy goes; such is the potential impact of a poorly timed critique for your confidence. With a bit of distance, I’m starting to feel this decision was too overzealous on my part. Looking back on some of the bits and pieces in my first show, I’m actually quite proud of the writing. This has only really occurred to me as a result of dipping into a few videos of my early solo gigs and realising...

One thing that comedians often worry about is revisiting old material. Nine times out of ten, an act arriving at Mostly Comedy will ask what our audience turn-around is like – and whether they can get away with performing some of their older, tried-and-tested stuff. At our club it isn’t normally a problem: we do have a few regulars, but since moving to a bigger venue and securing better-known acts, we’ve noticed that a large proportion of our audience are often new faces; people will travel from further afield to catch the likes of Henning Wehn and Richard Herring at a small club like ours, rather than at a bigger, more expensive venue. When it comes to performing past jokes, we’re as guilty as the rest: thanks to time constraints (plus the added stress of overseeing the night and finding time to record our podcast around it), myself and Glyn will often resort to older, more familiar material; it gives us one less thing to worry about on an always ...