Diary of a Newbie Standup Comedian

This week I did one of the We Are Funny Project challenge shows, which involves writing and performing a completely new five minute set based on a topic that they give you. Under normal circumstances that would be the full story, but there was a bit more to it this time because the theme was … Read more

I’ve done a few spots since my last update, three at Sam Rhodes (including a weird night where I got “called out” by another act who was offended by one of my bits) and one at Comedy Virgins, where I was pleased to see Steph Aritone has taken on regular Monday MC duties.  But the … Read more

I didn’t manage to do a gig last week because I had a lot of social stuff on and couldn’t risk the wrath of my wife by adding an extra night out to an already busy week. But on Monday of this week I did a spot at the first of the rebooted We Are … Read more

The past few week have been a little busy, so I’ve been slack in posting an update here. If you’ve been paying attention you’ve probably noticed the podcast is back from the dead – we’ve got into a regular weekly cadence and already had a few decent guests on, so hopefully we can build up … Read more

I just did one spot this week, ten minutes at Sam Rhodes Comedy Explosion. Sam’s been kind enough to give me a few 10 spots this year and I’ve had mixed success with them, sometimes they go ok, but a lot of the time it feels like a massive step back. This week was a … Read more

I get a lot of messages from people asking my advice on where they should do their first open mic spot in London, and the answer really depends on what you want to get out of the experience. For most people your first open mic spot is all about just taking that leap and getting … Read more

I’ve been away on holiday for a couple of weeks, so I’m a bit late writing up my last gig because I couldn’t be arsed doing it before I went away. The gig was my heat of the Comedy Virgins summer competition, with the first prize being a full year of bringer-less spots at the … Read more

I did a ten minute spot at Sam Rhodes Comedy Explosion last week, gig number 98 by my reckoning. The weather was hot and I was on at the end of a long night, but despite that most people stuck around, even though the energy was flagging. I’d spent most of the night sitting at … Read more

I’ve done three great gigs since my last post, which has left me feeling pretty good about this ridiculous endeavour. First up Sam Rhodes gave me a 10 minute spot at his Comedy Explosion night. Those nights are run in the public bar area of the Cornershop Bar in Shoreditch, which means you get an … Read more

Feeling a bit more upbeat this week. The other night I did a spot at We Are Funny again, and I was worried about how it would go because, against my better judgement, I’d agreed to take a bunch of colleagues to the gig as they’d been asking about coming to watch me. I’ve been … Read more