Blogs

Realising that the last stand up video I posted was very nearly a year ago, I thought it was high time I got another clip together, especially seeing as I've had at least three new sets over that time.

Digging through my archives, I managed to find not one, but two videos! Hope you like them.

Jester Jesters - April 2010

5 Minutes of Fame - Jan/Feb 2010

Want to catch me live? Check out my upcoming gigs list. Would be great to see you!

You might have noticed a new link that's appeared in the Menu block: Gigs & Appearances. Well, surprisingly enough, this is a list of my upcoming stand up gigs and appearances.

I've just added a heap of new dates to the list, so why not take a peek? If you're in the area on any of these dates, you'd be more than welcome to come along. It's always nice to see a friendly face in the crowd.

Here's that link again: [Gigs & Appearances]

This week, I was at Mama Jong's at the Horse for a little election night stand up, and in the political spirit, Ian from Human Resources made an appearance, but with a new career in the civil service.

I'd made a few minor tweaks to the routine to fit with the election theme, and had spent much of the night before frantically rehearsing, which helped quite a bit. I'd also dropped some of the weaker gags, bringing the routine well under five minutes, so overall I felt a lot more relaxed going into the spot.

The room was a little subdued, and I think everyone was struggling to get a big reaction, but everyone was attentive and seemed to be enjoying themselves. The first couple of minutes of material didn't seem to get more than polite titters, and I really think I paused too long on a few occasions waiting for a laugh. Things had warmed up a little once I got to the blunt instrument of the list of sexual practices, and I managed to go out on a bit of a high. I'd thrown in a new gag as a bit of an experiment, and that probably got the best reaction of the whole set. As it turns out, pop culture references work surprisingly well, even references from the mid 90s.

So all in all, not the greatest night I've had, but a lot of fun. There's still some mileage in Ian's character yet, and having to re-work the routine to fit a theme was a great way to make me change the whole routine for the better. Ian will be back in his Human Resources guise next Tuesday!

Almost in time for my self-imposed two week deadline (thank God for bank holidays!), here's chapter nine.

The "plot" is almost developing in this chapter, in which a dinner party results in Ben getting some unexpected advice. And the upcoming election is almost discussed.

[Read Chapter Nine]

[Novel Main Page]

Another week, another couple of gigs and another horrendously late gig report. This week, I was at the monthly night at William IV (now moved to a Tuesday), and Touching Cloth, a new material night at Dirty Dick's near Liverpool Street.

Sticking to my phrasebook material, my recent foray at Jester Jester's had given me the confidence to try playing around with the set a little, trying different emphasis and pacing. Overall, the reception I got was pretty good, although the room was mainly full of acts, about half of which were either worrying about their set or possibly trying to maintain the straight faced melancholy their character demanded.

I might have gone a little overboard with the energy at times, in particular with my rant on the French. I rekon I finally crossed the line between enthusiasm and having a minor fit. Lesson of the day? Articulate rage is funnier than fevered raving.

My second gig of the week was the very next day, at Touching Cloth, a fantastically well fun new material night (hats off to Frank Cassidy for keeping things well under control and cramming a huge number of acts into a very strict time frame).

Quick tip if you're going to do this night: use the street address to get an online map (hint - its near Liverpool Street), Google seemed to be convinced that the postcode was smack in the middle of the Barbican centre, which left me a little confused and with a bit of a longer walk than I expected. Luckily, I was running rather early. Excessive punctuality triumphs again!

Wasn't my best gig, this. There was a guy sat smack bang in the middle of the front row who was either extremely drunk, or on a moderate quantity of drugs, or both. He wasn't exactly heckling, but was chipping in whenever he seemed to think the person on stage was talking, which was decidedly off-putting, as he tended to chip in over punchlines. The compere (the aforementioned Frank) did a good job of controlling him, basically threatening with moving him if he didn't shut up (entirely reasonable given the kind of night it was), and his friends were forever poking him and making "zip it" gestures. The first act also did a great job of putting him down, and speaking to him later, had a good 3 years' experience - a good case for keeping at it.

I ended up going on fourth, when it was still unclear as to what the guy might do. So I was nervous as hell, trying to look anywhere except the centre of the front row. I got a few titters, and some people looked like they were enjoying themselves, but stuff I'd counted as 'A' material before was getting hardly any reaction. Again, I really need to stop letting things like this bother me, as it saps my energy. Also, I think I need a stronger opening to the phrasebook routine. Perhaps cut out the rubbish audience participation bit and just get straight to the statistics...or I might put a joke in first.

On the plus side, I had a few nice comments afterwards about my material, and one guy even said I looked extremely confident on stage. If I look confident on a day like that, I must look positively arrogant when I'm not nervous!

As a odd twist to the saga, the chemically-addled heckler in the front turned out to be an act. The audience weren't having any of it. He didn't even get into material, just started spouting rubbish, until his friends started yelling at him to actually do his act, and the compere cut him off. Karma can be oddly satisfying sometimes.

Another crazy week at work, so I'm a tad late in getting this report out. So late, in fact, that it'll be two reports! First up, What Am I Funny Huh? at the Queen's Head, Piccadilly.

Saturday was a tough one, the night being somewhat dominated by a gaggle of young women out on a birthday party - who had a tendency to all start talking at once if you addressed them directly - and the world's most miserable man, commenting on every act to the people next to him, and not really getting involved when an act tried to lure him into a conversation. Still, we soldiered on, and I have to hand it to the acts that managed to get a good reaction and stay in control (one in particular - who's name sadly escapes me - that I'd been chatting to in the break and had commented how worried he was about the situation).

I chose to play it safe, and rattle through my material without giving anyone a chance to chip in, which worked reasonably well from an attention point of view. Unfortunately the sour-faced chap in the third row started a semi-muted conversation early on, and the best comment I could come up with was "are you finished?" which did shut him up, but I got the feeling it turned off the audience somewhat. Before this, I was getting a few muted laughs, afterwards, it was almost as if people were embarassed to. I was put a bit on edge by the whole thing, and think I lost a lot of energy. Its not the first time I've had a hard gig, and won't be the last. I really need to learn not to let these sort of things bother me so much, as it can clearly make a bad gig worse.

On the plus side, I got a lot of nice comments after the gig (even if those comments didn't come along with laughs) so at least I know I'm on the right track, kinda.

Monday, I was back at Jester Jester's, where the crowd was decidedly more friendly, consisting mainly of acts and a few of their friends. I was still a little nervy after Saturday, but once I got that first laugh in the bag, I felt back on form. I'd thrown in my old opener from my "polished" set to have a more solid start, and it payed dividends (although made my set longer than I'd hoped).

As my set went on, I was loosening up more and more, focusing on individuals in the audience for longer, and even getting a decent comeback from an unexpected (although not at all hostile) comment from someone in the front row. There were even points I had to wait for laughter to subside, something I'm more than happy to wait for. And for the first time in a while, I really felt like I was feeding off the audience's energy to put a bit more into my performance. Again, I really need to find a way to add that energy without getting it direct from the audience first, as it made for a much stronger set.

I've been tweaking around with some of the jokes in this set (which I've been calling the "phrasebook" routine), and its begging to feel like its complete. Now I can focus on other aspects, such as emphasis and pacing, rather than trying to identify which gags work and which need replacing.

Ok, so I'm a little bit behind with this one, but I've been busy! Still, here's chapter 8, hope its worth the wait.

I'm gradually start to weave in some more plotlines at this point. We might even get something approaching a story "arc" soon! I'm very excited!

[Read Chapter Eight]

[Novel Main Page]

My third visit to the William IV pub's monthly comedy night, and for the third month in a row, I'm doing a totally different set to last time.

After last week's "experimenting" at Jester Jester's, I figured I'd start honing my phrasebook routine to try and cut it down to a lean 4 minutes (or even less!) to make way for a little improvisation. So after some feverish editing (most of it on the train), I trimmed down the routine to only the highest quality gags.

I still think the material is a bit weak initially, although it does include some nice audience interaction. Something I need to pep up with some madcap performance, methinks. However, once I'd got to the "meat" of the story, I started getting a much better response, and built up enough momentum to keep it high right to the end.

I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with this set, and think it could really go somewhere. Just got to keep working at it. Probably my biggest cock up of the night was not timing or recording myself, so I'm not sure how effective my trimming has been. Will have to do plenty of rehearsal over the next week or so, with a real eye towards timekeeping.

Just in time for the 2-week deadline, here's chapter seven of my 2010 novel!

I was almost expecting that I wouldn't get this one done in time. Luckily, I managed to get past the writer's block thanks to a new tool: MindNode on the iPhone, a great mind mapping tool I've been using to outline ideas for this chaper. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to do mind-mapping on the go.

Thanks to the folks of Facebook, I've also chosen a name for my protagonist. So the character's name is now (drum roll please) Ben Marsden! I'll have to go back over the next few weeks and add the name to some places where its lacking. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions, and in particular to Linus Lee Bowman, who suggested the final name. Kudos (and beer) to you, Linus!

[Read Chapter Seven]

[Novel Main Page]

After a week's break, I was itching to get back on stage, and absolutely terrified I'd forget my material. So I didn't do any.

I was down for a spot at this week's Jester Jester's, and just as well I'd pre-booked, as the drop-in spots filled up fast. And deservedly so, there was a fantastic, friendly atmosphere there on Monday. Despite the audience mainly being made up of acts - can't expect much different at an open mic night -, they were acts who were eager to see some comedy as well as perform it.

Before things got underway, myself, Nelson, Stephanie Laing and Andrew Rodgers sat having a bit of a natter and slowly developing a sketch concept in which Anne Robinson flips children the bird after making them guess which hand she hid a coin in. During this and other amusing banter, I recounted a news story I'd seen at work that afternoon. Nelson's response was to challenge me to tell the tale during my spot. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and I hadn't learned since last time, so I took him up on the bet.

The set I had planned on doing was a bit tight even for five minutes, so I ended up completely throwing it out to just throw out the news story and a few random thoughts (about the shape of the room and something a friend had said the other day). This took about 2 and a half minutes, at which point I asked the organiser how long I had left, something that probably smacks of unprofessionalism, but what the hell, I'm not a professional. With the remaining time I rattled through my Nazi/Pirate gag, taking a moment to address a random comment from the crowd.

I was surprised how relaxed I felt just winging it. I think the audience made it easy on me, seeming pretty receptive to "experimenting", plus the fact that I wasn't actually telling jokes forced me to rely much more on mannerisms and energy to eke out some laughs. And luckily, I didn't do too badly in the laughter stakes.

I've been having a lot of problems with timing of late, crafting a set for exactly 5 minutes and invariably running over when something unexpected happens. Now I know I can get away with improvising a little, I'm going to try cutting my prepared material down a bit, get together a 3 minute core of really solid stuff and give myself the remaining time to just play around and enjoy myself. This is currently a hobby for me, if I'm not enjoying it, its not worth doing.

Of course, if I want the freedom to be spontaneous, I'll need to be more organised with respect to timings. After all, I can't rely on rough timing of something I might not have said before (or may have said in a different way). So I'll have to start setting an alarm on my phone, being very careful remember to use the vibrate function. No, not like that.