So Edinburgh is progressing absurdley quickly.
3 Man Roast was a hard gig. The audience laughed by I dont think they believed in us at any point in the show. I feel a lot of stand-up is about making people emphasise with you and the audience did'nt do that at any point. They laughed intellectually but at no point were on they the journey with us. Which is a shame as we had a fire regulation scaring 42 in the room.
LOTWAA was a delight. The audience were all in the right frame of mind and a hour away from drunkeness.
Mark Simmons compering was pitched perfectly and set the right tone for the evening. I opened and, despite a quiet stage right, the audience were all on board.
I made the psychological error of concentrating on the quiet stage right, and did'nt enjoy myself as much as I should which was a shame.
We had John Fleming in to watch us. I have been in e-mail communication with John for a while now and it was lovely to finally meet him. One of my major interests is the origins of the alternative comedy movement in the late 1970s and it was a pleasure to meet somebody so connected. As he runs the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards and he has watched us I think we should now claim we were considered for the award. I think thats in keeping with spirit of the whole thing and I doubt most punters will pick up on my selective use of language.
Mark Simmons had some very complementry words about my set when he said I was a "Non-generic comedian" and my act reminded him of the comedians you would see at The Stand. It was'nt necessarily for everybody but thoughtful and funny. I had never considered my material in those terms before but it was the biggest compliment I think anybody has paid me.
As with these things form follows funtion. I have a peice of material in my set about martial arts. It is a very niche peice of observational comedy which I have broadened out to make accesible but its origins are very specific. After the gig an audience member complimented me on how accurate and lovely it was to hear it observed. That had now vailidated that for me.
The audience was also made up of two people I was at Dundee University, two friends from Norwich and an old Fringe friend. My set talks a lot about my University drinking days which were over long before I came into the comedy world so it was nice if strange to have people there who were part of that period.
Also according to an audience member I had the best shoes on of any act that night. Damn right. I have better shoes than any comedian with the exceptions of Mick Ferry, with whom I once spent an hour discussing the virtues of Loakes and Barkers, and Paul Foot.
I then toddled off to Brookes to bath in ego run-off and the most miraculous thing happened. Somebody in Brookes schmoozed me. This has never happened before, ever, and if it never happens again at least it has happened once.
I have no shows to recommend as I took the day off from watching shows as my mind could'nt take it
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