I am starting to get good at this! This is my 5th move in the last 5 years so thats consistency for you! Can a man relocate more often than once a year! Most likely I will move again sometime in 2012 but hopefully this time I will buy the place outright and stay there for a good year to 18 months at least! My lifes been living in boxes for the past 5 years! Maybe I should invested in a brand new cargo container and have it decked out as a portable studios. It will be so portable that I can even move it back to Australia on a cargo ship!

With my pass experience of house hunting I know I pretty much have to start the process ASAP! Now I am glued to gumtree/spareroom/moveflat website most of the day. Oh how I missed this! (not!!!)

Anyway one of the first flat I checked out was the old flat I used to live in when I moved out of the hostel. Back in 2009 I had to move out because the landlady was progressively converting the house into studio flats. Subsequent to this the council found out and now she has to convert the house back to 2 flats as opposed to 10+ studios.

So the old flat went from a 3 bedroom flat, than to a 2 bedroom flat and then back to a 5 bedroom flat! Its nuts! :-/ The flat used to have a large open plan kitchen/living room – now theres a wall divider that created a mini-living room and smallish gallery kitchen. The double rooms are now resembled more as decent size broom-closets with double bed.I guess such is the nature of living in Islington: The people who lived here are either very rich and can afford the Victorian terrace houses or trendy new built or they are foreigners who only planned to be in the area/country for a short time only!

Oh well! back on the flat hunting trail we go again!!  *Sigh*

Sound Stupid right? Hardly! bargain hunting is modern form of treasure hunting! Instead of pirates you just being amongst loads of European/Asian tourist!

Also 2012 is a leap year! Yes we get one extra day for February! The suffering is going to be prolonged for a bit longer! As for how 2012 will pend out comedy wise? Not sure yet! One thing I can tell you right now is I WON’T be doing a full run of Edinburgh this year: Don’t have any new ideas for a show, don’t have enough holidays to take a month off and can use them elsewhere instead. Might go up for a long weekend or something though.

On a side note: Sometime this year might have to look for another place to move to (Again!! Bwahahahah!!! ) and maybe get serious about buying a car so I can start driving to gigs and just driving around in general! Other that at this point 2012 expectation is quite low for the moment!

So between now and the new years will be more bargain hunting: Well when I said bargain hunting I meant more like scanning through racks to see if theres anything that fits and won’t make me look like a horned chameleon in more ways than one. Although having said that some people really do take their bargain hunting way too seriously.  I mean c’mon guys! Have you guys walked into a foot locker and see the trainers they have? If only they can live past their teens will they realised that these people are losing their future over SFA.

Yes thats right ppl! More moaning from me!! I am getting old! These are teh dying days of 2011!!! I only got like 3 more days or so to meet my whinge quota!!

Have a good one ppl!! x

On a relative 2011 winter is pretty warm and we still haven’t had any snow yet! I am sure it will come at some stage though!

Just came back from a weekend of Christmas drinks with other comedians: there were like 2 different drinks and most of the comedians who showed up are not the same people as pervious years! It seens 12 months is a long time and long enough to see a “generation” open mic comedians come and go! Sorry guys didn’t take any pictures so no photo for Facebook or blog. Actually since 2008 I stopped taking photos of my life and put them online. I think I should start taking photos again at some point!

Anyway I am going to use the last few days of 2011 “consolidate” and figure out what I wanted to do. Comedy is going ok: not great but otherwise ok and probably be around the same for 2012. I spoken to mum on the phone and topic of buying a house comes up. The price of flats in Sydney are getting extortionist! People are paying like $AUD 600,000 for a studio in the middle of no-where! You get way better value buying a similar property in London than Sydney, what happened to people of Australia? Have they all gone mad with properties?

From what mums been saying on the phone: dad is getting old and unwell, as far as I know no major problems just general decline when you get old. I think at some point in future I probably will have to pull up stumps from London and return back to OZ in the near future. Maybe one more year……….. We will see…… :-/

Sometime thinking about my parents does make me think whats will happened to me when I grow old as well. Will I have children in future? So many unknowns!!!

What I do wanted about is this

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/new-u-s-ambassador-sparks-emotional-debate-in-china-adam-minter.html

In particular this quote from the

Especially this particular quote from Wu Xianghong’ blog :

Most Chinese don’t have too many opportunities to have contact with people of other races. So their racism usually isn’t expressed outwardly … in many cases, it is a vague racist belief: that all Chinese have innate “Chinese blood” which will never change because of their gene inheritance … even he who was born in a foreign land will have an inalterable Chinese soul.

It is a peculiar type of racism ( I am not sure if its only applicable to Chinese) where you were pre-judge by people of your own race according to the way you looked regardless of your background and upbringing. In this case the appointment of US ambassador to China Gary Locke – himself a third generation ethnic American Chinese, sets off  debates amongst China’s netizens on how mainland Chinese perceive the Chinese diaspora.

Personally I found it surreal and absurd the belief that people who “looks Chinese” are better equipped to deal with China than people of other racial extraction. If you looked at Locke’s Wikipedia page it reads like atypical white political not a stereotype Asian guy. In his blog post Wu even argue that Locke’s predecessor has a better cultural understanding and experience in dealing with China than Locke.

I am not here to argue if Obama picked the right person to be the next US ambassador (I am sure they both competent statesman), what I like to pointed out even people of their own race can be “racist” to others by presumption of  racial homogeneity. Yes! He might looked Chinese but is he more familiar with American sit-coms or crappy Chinese TV soap operas? This form of “racism” is not part of the Western world’s public imagination but it’s definitely exist! I heard stories of Harvard educated ethnic Chinese being turned down jobs as English teacher in boarding schools in China simply because the parents prefer a foreigner because foreigners can do it better even if they are less qualify.

This is what us ethnic Chinese faces: being sandwiched in the middle of two polarised culture. From a comedy stand point I do worried one day people would call me a “Hanjian” for pandering to a western audience rather than sticking up for my people regardless of the fact of the matters at hand.

For the record: I left Hong Kong when I was 12 and spent the rest of my life living in Western world. looked at it like this: even Hong Kong itself can be considered as western for a good part of 80s and 90s! For all intents and purposes I am westernised ethnic chinese with a certain level of affinity to Chinese culture; this is not the same as someone who was raised and educated in China and hence have a very different world view.

So what is the point of this post:

• Racism is based on ignorance and everyone in this world are either born ignorant or wilfully ignorant;
• We are all “prisoners” of our external appearance – Let it be race/gender/religion/disability etc.
• Its in human nature to discriminate based on perceived values. We do it everyday: When you book one comic for a spot at your gig not another you ARE discriminating;
• Hopefully most humans have enough intellectual capability to workout which form of discrimination are ignorant and irrational.

As I meet and talk to more people around the world the more I see the same in everyone: We all waked up goto work than go home to our love ones and sit down to watch some shitty TV programs. :-/

P.S. Have a read of this as well! Pretty awesome China Law Blog!

http://www.chinalawblog.com/2009/10/your_chineseamerican_vp_dont_k.html

Same old story that all open-mic/open spot comic will face really hence why there hasn’t been any updates for a while as nothing exciting to report.

……..Than again maybe it just me not able to present my experience in a more “exciting” manner: I seen people’s Edinburgh shows and their topics are about a mundane everyday experience, but they infuse intelligence and humour into their story and present it with such story-telling skill that you felt like you been on an epic adventure. An Epic adventure even all you did was went to your local 7-11 and bought a slurpee!

Got to be honest here: I felt like I been going backwards for the last few months. Some of my peers that been going the same time as me are progressing to paid 20s now. For me? Over the last 20 gigs or so I felt like I broken my act and I dun even have a “5″ minute set anymore! I been chopping and changing so much that I only been doing material thats been couple of months old.

Its in human nature to envy others especially when looking at folks doing better than you: We never paid any attention to the people who dropped out and not gigging anymore. I should focus more on what I am trying to achieve through standup comedy rather than the gigs that I am doing: I used standup as a way to better express some of the idea I have – “to bring my inner world alive” and I will try not let what gigs I am doing defined my act.

Well……looks like I will have to prepared to do open mics for a bit longer! :-/

Did Barry’s Thursday gig at Camden Head: Lovely gig, lovely room with a massive audience packed to standing room only. I dunno how he does it but its quickly becoming the best open-mic gig on London circuit! The crowd literally loved everybody on the night.

My set went done great – ok theres alot of bits that needed work on but my 5 mins would be rated pretty well compared to gigs I done the last couple of days. One thing that both Barry and Daniel (a N0rweg!an comedian that is also a regular on London circuit) pointed out that some of the ad-libs I do on stage is funnier than the material itself. The suggestion was to tap into the persona more and focus on clowning and ad-lib.

Hmmmm…..interesting point: Over the last couple months I changed my delivery to a more “manic” style as opposed to the more laid-back delivery. It takes alot more energy but at the same time seens to be working quite well for now especially in the shorter 5 min slot, not sure how it will go in say a longer 10+ min slot but I guess we will see! I hope I dun ended up dying from heart attack by doing my set too many times!! Hell might even stick my clip on Youtube at some stage!

5 more weeks and it will be Christmas: Can you guys believed that? Another year will be over soon! Time passed so quickly! Yaks! This winters been quite mild with days running upto 12 degrees quite regularly, if anything its been pleasant winter so far.

Than again: with Euro zone heading for a deep recession, 2012 look to be a tricky year!!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Booked myself onto an alternative comedy night showcasing some of the weird & wonderful talent on the London open mic circuit. I thought hey why not! Since what I considered as “my act” is pretty much an alternative act anyway so this night should be perfect for me.

The first half of the night was pretty much as expected: a variety of acts that you can’t really classified as “setup punchline” and also a few established acts trying characters which is a bit kooky & mental but otherwise quite unique. The audience is made up of mainly acts with around 8-10 punters but the atmosphere was positive and everyone is having a good time. Matter of fact I was kind of looking forward to this!!

During the break I found out that I am going to be on last in the next section and the headliner is a no-show so I thought “Right. Defacto headlining..” and TBH in London Open mic nights the word “Headlining” really means you just going on last on the bill.  As the second half progress something happened……..

We started the second half with a new female comic singing a few songs and showing off her “Vajazzle”, a Jewish rapper, a really good new act doing his piss-take character act for a bit of fun, a poet getting his clothes off doing poetry and a venerable open mic veteran whos act is known to be a bit of a mental. The more I watched the more I thought “Wow these guys are ALL mental in their own ways! They are  either comics taking the piss and playing mental characters or are ACTUAL mentals!!!”

The more I watched the more it dawned on me: “OMG………. what have I actually gotten myself into??? There are three promoters in the room watching and I like to get some gigs off them in the future: How am I supposed to close this show? Do I act mental and looked even worst than the people who gone before me? Do I just discard my act and ad-lib? Or maybe I just runaway…..”

I came on and die on my ass: The people who are laughing are just comics which at the time outnumbered real audience (18:8) and they were laughing for totally different reason than a punter. By going on last I was tarred with the same “mental” brush and cemented my place in the halls of infamy. I was absolutely shell-shocked and felt utterly alone; one of the judges on the night said to me she wished to killed herself as she listened to my act, the more I think about it and listened to the gig’s recording I wished to kill myself too.

*Deep breath*

I do have made some caveat here:

• The night was never billed as a serious night. Its a bit of fun to showcase acts thats a bit “odd”;
• The judges are there “X-factor” style but what they say on stage is meant to be taken in jest and more importantly like the real X-factor judges: said with entertainment in mind so any ribbing is not meant to be taken seriously;
• The promoter is a lovely guy, really is! I can’t fault him at all and so is the MC.

So why do I felt “Shell shocked”

1. The realisation that I am taking my real act to this night where all other established acts are there either doing a “piss-take” or trying a character act;
2. Having to close the night and the horror of watching a sense of awkwardness rises as the more “weird” act strutted their stuff on stage. The audience is either a bunch of punters closing up thinking “What am I watching here…” or a bunch of acts manicly laughing at the ridiculous of the situation;
3. “Weird & alternative” is only a term in relative – in front of normal standup comedians I am “weird & alternative”, in front of a bunch of mentals I am just “shit & awkward”;
4. I should have discarded all material and ad-lib and take the piss out of the situation, I didn’t and thats a mistake;
5. I have no jokes and if you dun find what I do on stage “funny” than combined with my accent I am just “cringe”, I guess thats why the judge said she like to killed herself. *YES!! I know she said it in jest but she was also making a fair point.

I dunno: last night’s gig left me with alot of self doubts. Am I really funny? Or am I doomed to take Ray Presto‘s Mantlepiece of open mic legend thats doomed to do open mic? BTW Ray is a lovely man and a legend of the London Open mic circuit and he might “make it” one day but than again thats not very likely based on current status quo.

*Sigh* This is an existential crisis of my own making. I needed to get over this………… Or I might as well quit comedy altogether. Oh I really needed a hug, or a smoke or both.

*Edit: maybe I am taking a fun night WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Maybe I should have lighten up and keep going, but i have my doubts……. :-/

Comedy update – theres been quite a few gigs having to close down recently: Comedy Bin in Carnivale has to end because the pub itself is shutting, Saturday at Queens Head in Piccadilly Circus has to close because of Christmas bookings (Although I suspected that it probably more because there was a change in management and comedy is not pulling in the numbers anymore) and a few other London gigs going. This does make you think that nothing lasts forever.

I still remember the days of Comedy Brewhouse at Camden Head before Barry took over for Thursday and Saturday. Sure it wasn’t a very well run night but to us comics its a nice and convenient gig for us open mic comics to get on. Which is probably why it shut in the first place – Lookout promoters! If you booked me on your bill most likely the run for your gig will be ending really SOON!! Than again: new comics joined the circuit, new promoters will come in and run rooms and some of them will take over existing night and so on.

What I am saying is nothing stays over – whether its good times or bad times there will always be an end; focus on making the most out of everything and try to enjoy the good along with the bad times!

*                                          *                                                     *                                                      *

On another note dad retired a few months ago and is doing his best to adjust to life as a retiree; I hope both mum and dad stay well and healthy for years to come, but than even I am starting to feel the effects of aging. I noticed that last few years the amount of my hair started falling out and blocking the shower drain. I am not bald yet but my hairline is definitely receding.

Its uplifting thinking about aging isn’t it? </Sarcasm> Growing old is part of growing up though so its one thing that we all have to experienced and get used to. Off a tangent of growing up I visit Eugene over the weekend and him and Jamie just had their second kid. The last time I seen their pervious kid was like 18 months ago but it sure felt like yesterday. I love to have a children of my own, but than my inability to form relationship with woman also seriously hampers me in that department. Over the past 5 years I came a long way on alot of things but that is still one thing that bugs me till these days. *sigh* :-/

Sorry the update isn’t more exicting – but maybe this blog is a bit like me getting a bit old and stale!

Well! till next time!!

Turns out the 2 acts I am sharing my car with are Kelly and Tom; I met both of them before through the open mic circus but haven’t seen them at a gig for quite a while. Main reason I haven’t seen them is they been doing alot more out of London gigs Both Tom and Kelly are drivers and the last few months had clocked quite a bit of driver miles.

Before you jumped to any conclusion: Both of them are great acts and not just “mini-cab” drivers that tells joke! Tom was the MC and both me and Kelly are the open spots for the night. The gig itself is in an art centre with somewhere around 70 people in. Its alot of people for most gigs however it felt sparse as the room can swallow 150 people in relative comfort. Theres 2 row of LARGE tables at the front and a mini theatre stand closer to the back. The tricky bit is theres a big gap between the tables and the theatre stand so its hard to “bounce” energy from the front tables to those who sit on the stand.

I did Ok-ish. Not one of my good gigs and will give myself a 4-5 out of a 10. I did my surreal seagull stuff and the audience didn’t really went with it which is fair enough! At this stage it still work in progress and needed a bit more time to grow. Throughout my set the front tables enjoyed it the most: also with the bright spot light on stage it means you can only really see the first 2 tables and the stand was in total darkness. It puts you off a bit when you fling one of your gags at the stand and there is only silence: It makes you wondered whether they are sitting there smiling and enjoying the joke or they sitting there frowning with their arm cross. There is a moment I found amusing – amongst the darkness of the stand I can see the sound guy laughing his ass off in his sound booth brightly lit like a lighthouse in a harbour, like the metaphor it does provide a certain sense of assurance.

Tom did a great job mc-ing and Kelly had the best reaction out of everyone on the Bill! I haven’t seen Kelly for a while now and his act really came along nicely! He put the effort (and mileage) into his comedy and he certainly reaping the reward. Tony Law was the headline of the night and he delivered his set with the usual gusto and bonkersness. It was warmly received but it wasn’t exactly what the audience were looking for tonight. They are nice and amuse when it comes to surrealists but what they like and laugh at are interactive cheeky/naughtiness which Tom managed to delivered. It’s hard to be an alternative act on live comedy circus, not every gig will be your audience.

When Tom and Kelly shared a lift back to London we have a catchup chat about what each others are upto and what gigs are coming up. We ended up discussing the “gap” between 16+ act open mic nights vs out-of-town open spots on pro bills. Theres not much in terms of “progression” if you only do London Open mic unless you can have a competition win under your belt. Sure! Theres competition every year but then every year there will also be another new act who are “doing really well” on the circus.

For the rest of us not stellar but “competent” comedians its more important to build up an act and establish a relationship with promoters rather than winning competition (IMO). This means to gig at more places and seen by more people than just the areas of London inside the M25. It will mean miles of miles of road trip to far-flung outposts like Taunton and Yorkshire and getting back at 2-3:00 a.m. in the morning for a 10 min open spots. You won’t get much in terms of payment either: it will at best whatever the promoter can throw at you to cover for travel expenses!

Here lies the crux of the problem that all comic will have to choose – keep doing London open mic gigs with 15 other comics for 5 min slot and get home around 11:30 or jumped in a car and leave London at 4:00 for a 3+ hour round trip out of London for a 10 min spot and get back around 2:00 in the morning.

Tough choice this comedy thing we do! Open spot comic vs Open mic comic were literally “MILES” apart!

*                                                                      *                                                                     *                                                             *

I rarely talk about the material I do on stage but if you guys know me and/or seen my act before I open with a joke about racial stereotype of my family eating pets. Its crude but for most times effective and gets the laugh straight off the bat which makes the rest of the set alot easier to swallow. Most of my set is not heavy in stereotype compared with my first minute.

However this gag about my family eating pets is a “blunt” comedy instrument which can also put people off side too early in my set and making it a chore to win them back. This point is evident in a gong show I done on Thursday where I was gonged off stage in 50 seconds during a comedy “gong show” because the crowd didn’t like my opening joke.

From my POV the joke gets laughs and since my set does not wallop in Asian stereotypes so one gag like this in my set is IMO perfectly acceptable. However to open with this joke is a high risk strategy – you are gaming on the fact the audience are not so put off by being feed a stereotype that they feel reluctant to follow you to wherever you like to take them. This joke has been with me for almost 3 years since I first started comedy and most of my sets had begun the same way, the gag is sentimental to me but the last couple of gigs its been missing the mark. Maybe its time to drop that as the opening gag and just open with the seagull jokes.