Tom's blog

This Wednesday was my final night hosting 5 Minutes of Fame at Rudy's Revenge, and what a night to go out on!

The room was absolutely packed, and the crowd was one of the friendliest I've ever performed to. This was a big help in getting me to relax, and adopt a more conversational style, which worked well for compering the night, and there are elements of this I could inject into my normal sets. However, watching back the video I took, I had a tendency to ramble a little when I hadn't carefully planned what I was going to say. This would screw up the timing of some of my odd little thoughts over the evening. I've been focusing on brevity in my writing a lot, and maybe I need to keep this in mind more when I'm improvising as well.

I'd put together a little "prepared" audience interaction piece, which wasn't brilliant, but was a good start. Definitely something I need to continue with. I had a brief gag about where someone lived (checking they hadn't stolen my wallet) which seemed to work well - although I might need to come up with different gags for different sorts of places. The rest was a little off, but with a bit of time writing, I can probably get a decent minute of banter together. Possibly something to pad out a shorter set. And after a few weeks, it looks like the phrasebook routine will end up being a lot shorter than I originally thought.

Watching my video, I noticed that I still have a habit of glancing down when I'm thinking, and adopting a defensive stance. I really need to cut that out, and be out there the whole time, even when I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing.

All said, it was a great night, and everyone had a good time, acts and audience alike. The quality was really high over the night, including a few folks I hadn't seen before, and look forward to seeing again at other nights. Hats also have to go off to Denis Krasnov for actually telling the Aristocrats in public. Been waiting a year for someone to do that!

Wow, time really flies. Here's chapter four of what some people are calling a "novel".

This one brings the word count to 9000. That's precision for you!

[Read Chapter Four]

[Novel Main Page]

In an age when your average video game controller has no less than 12 buttons, and games are so complex they still need 3 different control modes (GTA4, I'm looking in your direction), its refreshing to see developers come out with something as simple as a one-button game.

Such a game, One Button Bob landed in my browser today in all its Flash glory, courtesy of a link from the Funsmith's blog. The aptly named Bob is controlled by only one button, but exactly what that button does changes from level to level. So you have to puzzle out what the button does and how to use it to get past the obstacles in your path, then you have to make sure you get the timing just right before you can progress. How many clicks will you need?

For such a simple concept, there is a wealth of variety here, and I often found myself itching to get to the next level just to see what Bob would do next time I clicked. The pick-up-and-play simplicity of it all gets you started, the ever-changing gameplay gets you hooked.

Just goes to show how much variety and longevity you can really get out of a relatively simple concept. I'm tempted to use the word elegant. But that might be a little too pretentious.

For the last 2 weeks, the internet has been rife with speculation over who would win this monumental showdown.

The votes have been cast and counted, and you can discover the victor in the video above!

My first time compering this year, and its pretty clear I'm a little rusty. After a couple of months working on keeping to tightly scripted material, I was a bit reluctant to really interact with the audience.

I opened with some tried and tested material, which went down really well and got the night off to a nice start. For the first section, I just rattled through the acts without saying much in between. Although when I did say anything I hadn't scripted, I felt massively out of my depth, which hasn't happened to me before. I kept stopping and laughing at how ridiculous what I was saying was. Not good, and a clear indication to the audience that I didn't really know what I was doing.

I tried the phrasebook material I did last week in the opening of the second section. Its getting better, but I really need to tighten up the gags, get rid of excess words, etc. Again, all down to rehearsal. Unfortunately, I think that doing something so new at the opening of a section was a bad move in this case, and it got the section off to a low energy start, which I felt pretty bad about. There were a few places where I could have dropped in a gag in between acts (or said something) to get the energy back up, but I really didn't have any material that was short enough. I keep saying I need to write more short-form material, this is just another reason.

By the third section, a lot of people had had to leave (with sincere apologies from most, so I guess it wasn't because they weren't enjoying the night). But paradoxically, this left the remaining folks determined to have fun, and everyone got a great reception. Including my horrendous attempts at pun callbacks to other people's acts (mental note: don't do that). Special mention has to go to Liam McKay for improvising some great audience interaction after his set's main topics had been covered earlier (even if I'll be detagging the photos should they ever make it to Facebook).

I think the biggest thing I can take from this is that I need to have something of a plan for everything I say beforehand, even if I want it to seem totally spontaneous. Even for audience interaction, which feels like something you need to do a hell of a lot of to get good at. While I want to get some practice with it, I should probably ease myself into it by making a "flowchart" of sorts for conversations (having responses for each possible answer to a question). Engaging in a few improv games would be well worth a try as well.

Has it been a fortnight already? Time for Chapter Three!

Seem to be getting the hang of this writing malarky. I even have a plan for Chapter Four already!

[Read Chapter Three]

[Novel Main Page]

After a couple of months getting a really solid 5 minutes together, I thought I'd try to get some semi-new material on track.

It was a pretty good night to try stuff out, the crowd were lovely, and whipped into a frenzy of excitement by Renata Muss, our wonderful compere for the evening. On the other hand, I went on first.

I got a nice reception (being friendly with the audience really does help), but nowhere near as good as some other recent gigs. A few of the "good habits" I'd been working on went out the window as I struggled to remember what I was going to say next. This hammers home how important it is to know your material, and how much rehearsal I really need to be doing. And unfortunately, I didn't quite manage to find time to rehearse my new stuff as much as I would have liked.

Now is possibly the time to get tactical and set up something of a "conveyor belt" for material. Have several sets on the go at once: sets I'm performing in public (some polished, some with a view to polishing), sets I'm rehearsing in private and sets I'm still writing. Rather than letting an idea languish in the back drawer until I think I have time to use it. This way I have a clear route to getting ideas out there.

On the plus side, I got some good feedback from other acts on which of my new gags they liked and ones they didn't quite get. Even better, it gave me some inspiration for new gags and improvements on the ones already there. Win!

A question that has plagued mankind since possibly before time began.

Who would win in a fight: The Doctor or the Pope?

Cast your votes in the video above!

An interesting gig this Wednesday, wherein I learned something about myself I didn't know before. As it turns out, I'm actually rather uptight.

The room was packed and the audience were lively, if a little laddish; some of the particularly good gags were met with cheers of "go on, my son". This was an atmosphere I wasn't entirely used to, and it made me a little uncomfortable. Maybe its something to do with going to the theatre a lot over the last 7 years, or maybe it goes back further, to school assemblies kept in line by conservative-types with a combination of hard stares and the phrase "we show our appreciation by clapping".

As a result, I felt a bit out of my comfort zone and didn't really give enough to my opening. I felt strangely insecure when faced by a crowd who verbalised their appreciation, perhaps in fear that this might distract from my act. After a few lines, I caught myself not really making much contact with the audience, and the slightly muted reactions to this point really hit home how important it was. I managed to get back in touch a bit, and the latter parts went much better (I even managed to get a callback to the previous act in with just a look at an audience member, which was fun). But suffice to say, it wasn't my best gig of recent weeks.

As it turned out, the audience members I was most worried about turned out to be incredibly friendly guys who were eager to thank the acts at the end of the show. And aside from the impact on my own confidence, they had been good for the atmosphere and energy in the room. The lesson here is one I've heard before, that you should always treat the audience as friends. Every audience will react in their own way, and I shouldn't set myself up to fail by assuming they won't like me from the start.

That, and I need to write some knob gags. 

Hot on the heels of my Laughing Horse heat, was a 5 minute spot at the William IV Comedy Night in Kensal Green. A night I can recommend wholeheartedly to stand ups looking for a friendly open mic.

The room at the William IV had a great atmosphere, with loads of comfy chairs to put the crowd at ease. And although the majority of the audience were acts, there was a sense of cameraderie that made for a really friendly crowd. I was on last, which ordinarily would make it harder to enjoy the rest of the show (worrying too much about my own spot), but being in such a friendly room helped put me at ease.

I toyed around with a new opener, which is still in need of some polish. Luckily, I was able to get some laughs from it mainly through the delivery, which shows all the practise is starting to pay off! And once I'd got going, I can honestly say it was one of the best gigs I've had, even thought the audience was small. There's something about having to wait for a laugh to subside before continuing that makes you feel like a comedy demi-God (like Hercules, but with less of the centaur blood poisoning thing).

Being relaxed certainly helped, and gave me the confidence to try out some ad-libbing. Which a fellow act remarked really helped make the act more friendly and accessible. Definitely something to try more often; I should probably aim to trim my sets a little to allow room for it.

All in all, a great sociable night of comedy. Congrats have to go to Fred Barber and Simon Barker for putting it all together! Certainly a night I'd do again.