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 a bit of momentum with it this time around.
I’ve managed a paltry three gigs since my last post, another 10 minutes at Sam Rhodes Comedy Explosion, 7 Minutes at Vauxhall Comedy, and 5 at Comedy Virgins. I feel like I’m in a bit of an awkard phase at the moment – I’d got to the point where I was fairly comfortable with my 5 minute set and it worked reliably most of the time, so I was ready to start start trying new stuff and doing longer sets.
The problem is that after you’ve got used to things going well at pretty much every gig, it’s a real kick in the spuds when things stop going as well. I think the mistake I’ve made with longer sets is changing too much – I’ve reorganised my existing bits and added in too many new bits. This means I’m struggling to remember it all, so I have to use notes, which means my delivery is shit and my confidence takes a beating, and the whole this is just crap.
A few more seasoned acts have suggested not trying to do so much – just because I have twice as much time, doesn’t mean I need to do twice as much material. So next time I have a ten spot I’m just going to try doing my best five-minutes of stuff, but taking a more relaxed pace with it instead of trying to hit as many punchlines as possible in the time. And if I still have some time left when I’ve finished, I’ll try out a couple of new bits.
Next week I’m doing a spot at the first of the rebooted We Are Funny gigs in Dalston – as well as a new venue, the night is going to have new people running it and everybody involved is trying to make the first night one to remember, so if you’re at a loose end then your attendance would be greatly appreciated.
After that I’ve got a couple more spots at Sam Rhodes on the 23rd and 28th of this month, but I need to get my shit together and book some more spots because I’ve really taken my foot off the pedal recently.
I’m probably not going to be blogging about every single gig any more, because there’s really not much to say about so many of them. But I’ll write up the ones where something interesting happens, and try to post a bit more useful stuff about what I’m learning along the way.