I Don't Want to Spoil the Party Piece.


Continuing my 'fit-as-many-gigs-in-before-April's-Bath-work-in-progress-dates-to-try-out-new-material' run, I did a short spot at Party Piece at Shaker & Company on Hampstead Road tonight.

First off, I have to praise the venue for their exceptional vegetarian burgers (a phrase that has seldom been used before or since). I arrived an hour before I needed to sign in with the emcee, so I decided to make the most of the pub's gourmet burger selection, devouring my second veggie burger in so many days. Yesterday's was ingested whilst out on an Old Man Pub Crawl with my friend Steve at one of my favourite Hitchin pubs, the Half Moon. It was described as a beet & bean burger, which sounded violent; appropriately so, as the resulting patty was an alarming shade of blood red. It was delicious, but today's burger still knocked it out the park. Tomorrow, I'm gigging near Liverpool Street - and if there isn't a meat-free snack on offer within its environs to rival tonight's, I'll be a very disappointed version of me. 

The gig itself was fun, despite playing to to a room of comics in lieu of a real audience once again. The room itself was lovely, and perfect for comedy, and the acts on were a nice receptive bunch. I got chatting with the comedian Dan Licence, who happens to have been on the bill at just about gig I've done in the last few weeks. We bonded over our mutual love of Buddy Holly and The Beatles, which is always a good subject to strike up for me. I hope I didn't bore him with my tales of actor / muso touring. He's a thoroughly nice bloke, and I like his stuff. 

I tried out a new bit tonight, which went reasonably well. It felt a little too ‘written’ rather than spontaneous, but I think it will work better in the context of a longer set, as it’s slightly different in style to my usual delivery if I pitch it right. I have another chance to run it in tomorrow at Touching Cloth, so hopefully I’ll come away from there with a better idea of whether it works or not (and with more herbivorous snacks as sustenance).      

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