Day 24 - Derbyite Theory of Shakespeare Authorship

So the end draws near.

3 Man Roast had its last performance. A triumphant barnstormer for all concerned. All we were missing was pyro and dancing girls to make the show complete.

What was even nicer was a number of the audience were current members of Lip Theatre Company, my old university drama group. It is wonderful to see that the old flame is still burning bright no matter how much alcohol they attempt to douse it with. Though it did put into perspective that the current president of Lip was 6 years old when I joined. But she had a pet sheep so nothing changes.

I then went to watch Nick Helm's Dare to Dream. A combination comedy show and exercise in ennui. Utterly inspiring in one sense and interesting how similar he is to Paul Foot though with an entirely different tone.

LOTWAA had the potential to be awful as there were drunken locals about being annoying.

One complained that Kevin Shepherds show CARonicle, a car themed show, was themed about cars. In her opinion some of the show should have been about lesbian sex and not just cars. I won’t try and contemplate such cast iron logic.

When doing comedy the worst thing in the world is the unknowing punter who wants to chat about what its like. Normally they begin with the "You must be very brave" gambit. Comedy is not brave. Firefighting or dragonslaying are brave. Comedy is what bullied kids do in game of long-form catharsis. There is a long list of questions asked which are all or some of the following;

• Tell me a joke
• What's your favourite joke
• You don't seem very funny off-stage
• What got you started
• When will you be famous
• When will you be on TV
• ll tell you my joke (it's a bit blue)
• Please validate the drudgery of my pathetic, baseless existence by talking to me

This drunken woman proceeded to go through all of these at length and by the end I was wondering if it might be considered impolite to end the conversation by vomiting.

This put me in a thoroughly bad mood for the show. LOTWAA had a small but reasonable crowd. We had 2 walkouts but I was beyond caring by that point.

Then I socialised with Will Howells for the last night and sat down to figure out the most important thing in all Edinburgh.

Where will I watch Doctor Who "Let's Kill Hitler" tonight?

Day 10 - Social Credit Parties in Canada

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