Skip to main content

Open My Spots.


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 the gig isn’t run by me, is turning up to a venue alone and not working with a projector. I’m so used to being in a double act that I’ve not spent much time in comedy clubs without company. I know my place in a conversation with Glyn by my side, but less so without. Likewise, the combination of being on stage with him with slides to fall back on, gives me more time to think. We create more distraction together than we do apart. If it’s just me and a mic, without the clarity of pictures to reinforce my words, I’m forced to work harder.

I may as well use these opportunities when I’m under the radar, to experiment with newer, half thought-through ideas, to see what sticks. I did in my early days working with Glyn, after all. We debuted the Star Trek Porn Letter at the second ever Mostly Comedy, for example, not knowing whether it would work and it turned out right. We still perform it the same way to this day (to the disdain of any Mostly Comedy regulars).
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...
Read more

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...
Read more