I killed a rat and had a good gig

Just a single spot this week, Monday at We Are Funny Project again. I’m in the middle of a big project at work which is kind of all consuming at the moment, and it’s staying that way until the middle of March. That means comedy’s taken a back seat for a while, I’ve not found time to write much new material, and I’ve been showing up to gigs feeling as though I’m not mentally prepared for them.

Since I decided to shelve the Racist Baby material, I’ve had about a one minute hole in my set that I’ve wanted to fill with new material but haven’t been able to. I got to the gig early and found a quiet corner to go through my notes and see if I could find any half-formed ideas that might work.

As it happened, earlier in the week I’d had to kill a rat I caught in my kitchen, and I’d been joking with a friend about getting aroused while I was doing it. I tried writing that up into a bit, but it was pretty dark and weird, and even though I liked the premise I was worried that it would be tough to get an audience to buy into it.

I was willing to give it a go, but while I was chewing the idea over something better came to me. I’d posted a joke on Twitter earlier in the week which got a mildly positive reaction, but I didn’t immediately think of putting it in my set because it didn’t have a strong enough punchline to work on stage, but it might work nicely as part of the setup to another bit already in the set. It wouldn’t fill the full minute, but I could dust off an old bit to fill my time if I needed to.

I really need to find time to write properly instead of just winging it like this – I know if I can actually focus on my material I could produce a lot better stuff than I do by simply scribbling down occasional ideas when they come to me.

The audience wasn’t quite as big as it has been recently at WAF, but there were still a few genuine punters in, including a front and centre row of giggly antipodean women who really lifted the atmosphere in the room. This made me realise I’d made the right decision about my material, they didn’t seem like the type of girls who’d laugh at stuff about middle aged men getting erections while they murder rats.

I went up sixth of the night, and the guy who was up before me (Giuseppe Gib) did me a massive favour because he did a bit about the number of toilets in Buckingham Palace. I had a half baked story about trying to go to the toilets on the tour of Buckingham Palace, so I started my set with that. Even though it was fairly mediocre the audience seemed to like it because it looked like I’d just come up with it off the cuff, and it filled enough time to bring my set to bang on five minutes.

Once I got started on my main material everything just flowed perfectly – I felt relaxed and comfortable with my set, the audience laughed at everything, it all hung together really well. The new bit, which I thought didn’t have a very strong punchline, got a pretty decent laugh in its own right and helped me build up towards a bigger laugh from the next bit.

At my past few gigs I’ve been conscious of mistakes I made and gaps in my material, but this time I felt much more upbeat about it – I didn’t fuck up any of my bits and I thought my delivery was as good as it has ever been. I got lucky with the opportunity to fill 30 seconds at the start with an improvised opener, and I know I still need to fill that gap with something I can use at every gig, but once I’m less busy and feeling less stressed about life I can find some time to do some writing again.

I feel good about how the gig went for me, and there were some other great acts there as well – I had a good chat with Vanessa Hua (who is a reader and I’ve met at previous gigs) and she delighted the room, as did William Harte (who is also a reader and did a sterling job considering how few spots he’s done so far). Charlie Foley also stood out for me.

A great night all in all, which left me in a much more positive frame of mind than I have been recently.

I was supposed to be at Comedy Virgins at the Cavendish Arms on Wednesday, but had to abandon that gig because I couldn’t find a bringer. I’ve reached the point where my friends are over the novelty of watching me do comedy and it’s getting harder to persuade people to come along to bringer gigs with me.

I think that means I’m going to have to quit signing up for those nights, I can’t face the regular struggle of trying to find somebody to drag along with me any more. It’s a shame, because nights like Comedy Virgins are great, but it’s logistically too difficult for me to keep doing them every month.

Gig Count: 78