Job Done!

Last week was my big super fun but slightly stressful week. In general I loved it. I've been working on my show for months and I finally got to do it in front of real people instead of just doing it badly in front of Dan, or doing it in the car while commuting. People were super lovely, over 100 people came over the two nights and they were super friendly generous laughers.

My wonderful sister-in-law took these lovely professional photos from the first night. I mean her camera was worth 2000 packets of baby wipes (mummyshare joke) but she is also very talented, check out her stuff here.

I've decided, after about 6 ish years of dabbling in comedy, that I actually want to try at it now. It's a bit scary to say that because you can't really fail if you don't try. But it was a deliberate decision when I started that I wanted to do it only in Liverpool and not try to make money from it because I wanted it to stay fun and not complicate it in my head with work. After one night at hot water comedy club years and years ago, where my stuff went down ok but not brilliantly, I thought these are not "my people" I'll stick to my crowd, the slightly middle class drama graduates with arty ideas playing for free in dingy venues: they're my people. Not those rowdy mainstream commoners.

But with the fresh sense of freedom that comes from not having to breastfeed anymore, I thought I'd give hot water another try. I needed to practise bits for my show so I signed up to do 5 minutes. The crowd were scary and heckley and loud and I wondered what I was doing there: a mum on her own late at night without her husband or anyone she knew, who now speaks in the third person.
But I met a lovely Scottish comedienne and then it turns out 2 friends did turn up to watch and the loudest mouthiest women got thrown out, and my stuff went well and I loved it! It felt like much more of an achievement to make people that I don't know laugh. So then I decided to do it for real and actually try to be a real comedian even if that means gigging to people who hate me or driving out of my city. I signed up for another set at hot water, this time 15 mins. I can't say I smashed it but I didn't not smash it. I guess I cracked the glass a bit if this is the metaphor I'm still on. But I feel the areas which most need improving are the performance related things, like not saying "err" between ever sentence, and if you forget a bit not going back to it if you have moved on, because unless it's essential to the plot the audience don't know.

So my goals now are:
to improve my performing
to preform my show in another city
to gig at least once a week
to gig outside of Liverpool
to at least break even on petrol costs of gigging
to see a bit more live stuff, especially women,
(I went to see the scummy mummies in Manchester, they were ace)
to host my own night (I'm planning that at the mo: more details to follow)
to let touring comedians stay a couple of night in our spare room (when Sarah moves out)

I was really impressed when I got to the Everyman and the legend technician Kieron had set everything out and it looked amazing. I was stressing about it a bit but in the end I hardly had to do any set up which put me in a super happy chilled mood.

That awkward moment when I tried to breastfeed a snake

I'm probably meant to be making the "oooh" sound here like my sister

What a guy! I did originally try to get the baby boy costume but then this second hand girl one was £10 cheaper.

2 years ago Dan dressed as the Suez Canal for my show about my school days. so this was a step up really: at least he's human.

On the first night my intro to the Bonjela song didn't go exactly to plan. 

*picks on random audience member*

H: Have you got kids? how many have you got?

Woman: 3

H: And can I ask you a personal question? How many times have you been in love?

W: Errr 3

H: Are those 3 children a result of the 3 different times?

W: Yes!!

H: Oh! (awkwardness) well err that's fine I'm happy for you. next question, how many times have you been up in the night with a teething baby?

W: Approximately 245423385 times.

H: And how many songs are there about being in love? and how many songs are there about being up all night with a screaming baby? None! so I've written one cue song:

If you haven't seen it yet, heres 6 minutes of show highlights: click on me!

That is almost the end, other than to say thanks for the overwhelming responses to last months blog (synopsis: I may or may not have cancer). Everyone has been super amazing about offering every kind of help. People are lovely. My operation is next week on 11th Oct so unless the worst listed side effect "death" comes into play, I'll be sitting around watching Netflix and skiving off parenting for most of October.

Love Ya. x