Today (Sunday), I reached my secret self-enforced mental cut-off point for writing new material to go into next weekend’s Bath Comedy Festival ‘Work in (Hope of) Progress’ dates.
I'm surprised by how much new non-projection based stuff I've accumulated, but I suppose it's no wonder when I think of how few gigs I've been able to use the technology at in recent months. That's not to say there won't be more of it to squeeze into my Brighton and Edinburgh show - there are more than a handful of routines I have in mind for it - though I'd sooner draw a line under what goes into the Bath setlist, than put in too much half-formed half-learnt stuff I won't yet be able to do justice. It’s reassuring though, as it gives me a firm sense of the direction my show will take in the next few months.
My Bath ‘Work in (Hope of) Progress’ dates will be markedly different to Brighton and Edinburgh’s ‘Mostly David Ephgrave’ show, but no less free-standing and self-contained. I want to keep them loose and unpressured, though that doesn't mean they’ll be unstructured. I’m putting in a couple of routines from last year's show to make Bath feel more robust, though, having said that, the nature of the new material nights I've been frequenting recently (that mostly give you only five minutes to perform) have indirectly contributed to the content, resulting in little chunks of story-based stuff that reach a small resolution in and of themselves.
This afternoon, I ran all of the new stuff that's likely to go in, and was pleasantly surprised to find I had just under forty minutes of material to play with, before padding it out with my so-called tried-and-tested stuff. This has definitely heartened me as to what will come over the next few months when I throw in the more tech-based stuff, but it's good to stick to my self-prescribed cut-off point than to try and do too much. I'll now use the next few days to choose the running order for - and tighten up - my Bath set. Now, I’ll stop talking and get on with it.