No Rest for the weary.

No…… none at all!

Last monday night went to Anthony and Phil’s Laughing Horse quarter final gig. Good to see both of them qualify through and they are both easily the top 3 of the night, in a way its a place well deserved and good to see the amused moose graduates all dong so well….. however….

The nature of this competition is such that its a game of “how many friends you can bring?” There were around 30 people on that night, half of them are there to see Anthony and Phil, the other half are there to see another guy who completed a different comedy course. I really felt sorry for the other comedians: Most of them hardly got a laugh for the night. As much as you like to think you are unbias and all, people tended to laugh at their friends joke better than from a complete stranger. With jokes from a friend there a certain sense of intimacy that a standard comedian cannot deliver. Still, this is a hazard of doing standup comedy.

The other act who pull the audience completed one of those weekend standup comedy course, it turns out that their showcase also doubled up as a qualifier for the laughing horse competition. Let just say that we wooped their asses!!

Spent most of the past week either watching gigs or playing gigs planned in advance or rescue a promoter’s night where other acts dropped out. It does drain alot of energy out of me but at least it keeps me active.  On that point this is my current 8 min set, the full streetfighter set is nice but however I really needed to tighten the set up.

 It make me cringe watching myself on video and the number of “you knows” really needed to be cut down. Also ended the night 150 quip down, but thats a story not for these pages….

Joys of hell raising without the hell raising

Just woke up from a 10 hour slumber. Feeling tired and not quite refresh.

This past week I went saw 4 of my mates did their Laughing Horse New Acts comp quarter final.

Sunday

 Anthea was on Sunday and she didn’t qualified, there was a 14 year old kid who qualified and his family was along to support him. He didn’t gone through in the end but hope he keep at it. Highlight of the night is seeing my favour act on the circuit Denis Krasnov qualified for the semi and Jake the 18 year old kid stormed the night. He was the best act of the night and the scariest thing was most of his act he was just “riffing”.

Tuesday

Chris did his in a small stuffy room in Soho on tuesday. He didn’t qualify either but unlike Anthea’s quarters Chris quarters really left me feeling bitter. The crowd was essentially make up of 2 groups: Mates of one of the comedian and friends and family of a double act. Both acts got through and its really questionable if they were the best of the night. The mates of the male comedian were total twats and were drunk and keep yapping throughout the night and they were seated right up the front so you cannot missed them. Luckily for comedians they did laugh on cue so it helps.

The double act was made up of two 16 yo gal who sang basically a parody songs about – well home renovation. They were amusing but hardly the best of the night, but they did brought their friends who not only mark them up but also mark other comedians down. Highlight of the night was the double act’s mum who were hand signalling to her friends to mark acts down while comedian is on.

Chris has a Strong set and delivered it to the best he can, matter of fact this night is probably the best I seen him. However he did ended the night with a Jade Goody joke (shes a UK reality star who only have weeks to live from cancer) and this sort of material tended to split the room. Some people will found this funny and some will take great offense, as comedians we are the boss of what we can and can’t deliver on stage. Whatever we chose to talk about there will be consequences and we have to accept this no matter what. The (low)highlight of Chris night was this guy who came on in the second half and talked about how much he love prostitutes and he loved kicking people in the gutter……… absolutely killed the room and I feel sorry for people who came on after him!

Friday

My mate Stevie is on. Stevie is a lad from Oldham who has a Manchester accent, and geniunely a nice guy. His set packs alot of solid gags and he has a lovable personality on stage. You might think this is a soldout but he took alot of swearing and sex jokes out and found his set gone so much better. Anyway he was up for some stiff opposition for the night but he ended up qualifing through to the semi finals. Hurray! For someone who only been doing this for 3 months and never performed on stage before this is a great result. I watched Stevie in his heat and I have to say out of all of us hes the one that most likely to qualify through to semis. Great result he did and I has to say I do feel a bit envy.

Saturday

  Harriet did hers on saturday. I think Harriet is from Cambridge but shes a voice actor by trade, so shes very good with multitude of voices, talking badgers are my favour. Harriet  drew the number one alot which is the toughest slot to follow in comedy. She did well to get laughs and the room is significantly warmer than before she started. She didn’t go through in the end. The people who did has been doing comedy for years, it does look like I might have to do this for years to get any results.

I got more gigs to play/support the next couple of days. God I am feeling I am going to wear myself out!

*I am on Twitter http://twitter.com/blah78 * Cheers!

Results!!

Did a bit of flyering at Licester Square on wednesday night to helpout Paul’s gig. You can tell times are tough in London when the place is so dead that you have to chase people down to hand flyers to them. I hope we will all do OK! 

Won this last night at the comedy virgins at Cavendish Arms.

 

 It was a dart trophy awarded to whoever wins the “clap-off” at the end of the night. Yes, its not that special! David (Owner of Cavendish) has 100s of these and its award at the end of every night. Also the fact that people that won it before comeback can still die in the arse, BUT its a sign that the winner did well for the night and the crowd loved it!

The night was a bit oddball: I wasn’t supposed to play last night because the spot was actually under my friend’s Stevie’s name. But Stevie has to drop out because he was offered a 10 min spot elsewhere. Than theres the issue that there were no people supporting me (You needed to take 2 ppl along as audience menbers to get a slot) so I was thinking about drooping out to support my fellow course graduates playing on the night. Luckily Trudi and her flatmate turned up and so I can go on.

I was the last act of the second half and the crowd was pretty much dead by that time. A few of the acts on before me just die and there were no energy left in the room. I remembered seeing my circuit hero/friend Denis Krasnov deal with this situation before: You psyche yourself up, pumped up the energy level and hit the audience up for rent! Which is what I did!

The coolest part of the experience is that I always LOVE to win one of this trophy and it took a brand new 5 min set for the task! The set was born out of a writing session between my fellow Amused Moose graduates Tom, Phil, Marc and Alex. It took me a full weekend of writing and I only just finished the first version during the weekend. The first time the set was on tuesday night at Pangea Project, it ran on for two more nights before hitting Stockwell. (Funny enough besides the gig at Pangea none of the other nights were booked in advance) The night before that the set actually failed: It was a gong show in front of a bunch of middle age women, not exactly the place for brand new material but fuck it!!

After you read that you might ask what was the set about? Two words:

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STREET FIGHTER!!

 Hmmmmmm………. Wonder why I don’t have a GF……