I spent the first half of the week searching for a new venue for my monthly comedy night, Early Risers Comedy Club. I did this in the evenings so that I didn't have to drag my two year old round them. I was a bit nervous about going by myself in to random venues and asking if they'd host us. I'd already had a lot of email rejection, and because we pay the headline act £50 there is no budget for the venue, so I felt like it was a difficult task. People were surprisingly nice though and most seemed open to the idea of it, one venue that wasn't suitable even wrote me a list of all the other places I could try. I narrowed it down to two venues and then went back for a second viewing with Jess and Martin the couple that help me with the night. I am super chuffed with our new venue, it's nice looking and cosy, parking should be a bit easier and the best thing for me is that they seem to be really up for having us.
All this venue hunting was pretty time consuming, it took 3 evenings, and didn't leave me much time to practice my stand up. I hardly did any gigs in Jan and I need to practise to get stuff back in my head again, plus I've written 4 1/2 minutes of new material about introverts and extroverts that I needed to try. So I was a little nervous when I turned up at a comedy and poetry night in Manchester, but it turned out to be a lovely night, my new stuff went well, I met up with a comedian friend Evaldas - last time I saw him he was in a car that had been driven into a ditch along with some other comedians that I had booked to do a corporate gig with me. (They were fine and hopefully one of them will get some new material out of it.) This Manchester gig was also they first time I'd ever performed my Somalian pirate joke directly after a Somalian comedian has just been on, which made for an extra punchline. I had venue envy about the super nice venue they had, all in all it was one of those nights where I just felt like I love being a comedian and the world is a wonderful place.
In total contrast the next night was the kind of night that would make people quit comedy forever. It was at a cricket club near Burnley. The average attendant was a 50 year old man, although the were a few women and one dog. I was booked as a paid middle for £20 which is about what it would cost in petrol to get there. But I was penciled in for another, better paid gig, that I would get if I didn't mess this one up (no pressure). I realised on arriving that this was not my ideal audience, but I have often done fine in an audience that doesn't look like they'd find me funny. Once a guy in his early 20s wearing a north face top told me he loved my set about breastfeeding. So never judge a man by his north face top. I felt pretty out of place, all the other comedians, the mc and the organiser were men, and the opening act did what I think is quite old school blokey comedy. That's not a criticism, it went down well so it's obviously what they wanted, but I was pretty aware that my stuff was the opposite end of the comedy scale.
I got up and was immediately heckled. "Stand up," a guy shouted. Implying I was short, which I am. Genius. This is when I made my biggest mistake. I'm not a great improviser, but no one is at their best when they feel like they're the odd one out. I couldn't think of something to say so I ignored it, like I was told to by my mum when I was 10. But although his comment was the kind of thing a kid would say to another kid in the playground of a primary school, my mum's advice does not apply to all situations. Ignoring is the worst thing you can do! If my kid ever gets bullied at school I will teach them some good heckle put downs, as soon as I take the time to learn some myself. So I carried on with my set, although my new stuff went well in Manchester, this was only the second time I was doing it so it probably wasn't the right stuff to start with. It was not enjoyable and I knew they were not on my side, some of the more well tested stuff went better and I did get some laughs. When it was over some people said well done which was nice, I think some people genuinely did enjoy it. But one particularly horrible man decided to come over to me just to say "you're shit" and then walked off. Thanks random man, it's always good to get some helpful constructive criticism.
The next day I left for Leicester Comedy Festival, which I was looking forward to, but after that night I felt a bit weird about everything. I'd been booked to do a paid 30 minute set of comedy for kids, the problem was I don't do comedy for kids, and this booking was a bit of a mistake based on the bookers not very thorough googling of me. He probably would have told me not to come, but as I'd already booked my train he told me to come down anyway and he'd put me on something. So I ended up doing a 10 minute slot on a show with 5 other comedians and a 20-30 minute solo show. The 10 minute slot went ok, a friend I haven't seen for 9 years came down to see me on her lunch break which was lovely. I did the new stuff again and it was fine but I think it could be better. If I got the 4 1/2 minutes of material down to 3 minutes with the same amount of punchlines I think it could be a good bit. I had an hour between shows to rewrite my longer solo show, I decided to completely take out the new bit and added in some material about pregnancy instead. I arrived in this very trendy venue:
to see my tiny but cosy room, and a guy showed me where I could plug in my ipod for my parody song finish. Then that guy disappeared, the room filled up, it got to 5pm (the time I was meant to start) so I just started not knowing whether the man was ever going to come back. (He didn't.)
It was a friendly chilled-out crowd, it felt weird at, first the room was too small to need a mic and the stage was a pallet on the floor. The lights were bright all over so I could see everyone, it felt a bit unnatural to be able to see them so well, but after the first few sentences I relaxed into it and it was all ok. A friend of a friend that I'd never met (Pippa) came to watch and it was great to meet up with her. She is someone in the very rare Venn diagram of comedian, mum and Christian. A weird conflicting Venn diagram to be in. I meet Christian mothers all the time and mum comedians sometimes and I've know a few Christian male comedians but I don't think I've met another Christian mum comedian before. We've made plans to go and do a gong show in manchester soon.
People were very generous, especially in my solo show and I made most of the money back that I spent on the train, and then the booker guy topped it up from his own pocket as it was his mistake, which was super nice. The trains back were annoying, but I was glad to be finally home. I can't relax properly till after Early Risers this week. but then I will take a few evenings to do normal things that normal people do like watching TV and sleeping.
I sort of don't know why I do all this stuff sometimes, I think I just don't want to be normal.
