Edinburgh Festival - 5th August 2013

5th August 2013  Pleasance Court Yard 

6th show in the run

Length 55 minutes.

Before Gig

I arrive an hour early at the venue. I arrive so early that some of the staff don’t recongnise me and challenge me for being back stage. I look over my notes, but an attempt to set up a Camcorder eats into vital pre-show preparations. The show is sold out today. The audience sound subdued as they come in. They respond to the off stage mic announcement in a subdued manner. I have thought of a joke about the Grand National. I will do it in the show. I feel revitalised. Its amazing what a quip about dead horses can do for the spirits.

During Gig

I open by asking the audience, who are the gamblers. I haven’t done this before. I do this as I sense the audience are warm but a little reticent. I think an ice breaker is required and then when most of them are not gamblers (as is usually the case) I can use the opening as a riposte to their supposed non gambling lives. This anchors the opening in something concrete and gives it more of a point of view. I am effectively opening the show by calling my audience all liars. I think it is important to start as you mean to go on and its gives them a flavour of the warped logic that will feature throughout.  The energy quickly builds through the “we all gamble” bit and they love the Begbie bit. A suspicion, later confirmed, that it is largely a Scottish audience I am dealing with. I should have tag lines here. 

“Odds of existing” This routine ends up arse about face. The words are delivered in the right order but almost everything else about this is is back to front. The delivery, energy and shape of the routine are topsy turvey. The routine starts on a massive rolling laughter and ends on eager expectation as though the audience are listening to a set up.

Gordon Brown punchlines goes down badly, more evidence it is a largely Scottish audience. But this section of the show which has been moved, still seems in the wrong place and increasingly seems redundant. 

Mirapex section is strong. The “Vicious Circle of debt” not the funniest bit but it is becoming increasingly poignant and that this is the emotional heart of the show. The point where it gets closest to touching on the obsessive nature of the addict. 

All the sugar, dentist stuff went well. Today, see I told you they were Scottish. The bit where I do an impression of a guy describing marsbar in the midst of a sunday roast worked really well and has a different sound to it than much of my material. I think I bale too early on this. I think it can run further. The “Hairdresser” section which usually rolls off the back of the “Dentist” stuff as though it is the same section. Tonight I don’t so that. I deliberately take a break and come back to it. Why do I do this? Not sure. I am aware that I may have sacrificed the momentum here but  I get the audience back. This audience are a joy. 

They all know what tablet is, more evidence of being Scottish. 

I think “Dad Embarrassment” is perhaps my favourite routine. But tonight I decide to change the order of some of the words needlessly sacrificing some laughter on the alter of experimentation. Sometimes it is better to not tweaking.

“Tipping point” is the best yet tonight. I have really worked out how to get into it now and two out of the three examples are delivered well. But the last example Hugh Grant doesn’t really work and it is time to retire that for a new exception. “Probability” is the most reliable part of the set now. And reliable tonight. 

One woman cheers the mention of Aberdeen University I decide to banter with her but my tone comes across as too interrogative. She clams up a bit.  I apologise for being Jeremy Paxman and move on. This is the only bit of banter that didn’t really work and it is a lesson that even when it is going well, I don’t have carte blanch. There is a difference between banter and just talking to someone. 

Despite the warm response my grasp of the order of the show is tenuous today. I am trying to think more in the moment but this may be an excuse for never learning  the show properly. I forget one bit about getting a tip of a stranger (forgot before). Furthermore I miss out “Feel the Fear” and then drop it in late as the show is building towards the close. It provides a clunky logic at the end and is frankly a needless risk. It could have ruined the end and I would have been better to just miss that section out entirely. I am not sure other audiences would have been so forgiving. 

The audience really feel on board throughout. There is an elderly couple on the front row who don’t seem to be enjoying the show at the start. I seem a bit more sweary tonight and without changing the words the tone seems a bit more bawdy. I imagine they are disapproving. Perhaps they are just deaf? Or ambivalent? But actually they come around as the show progresses. First the woman and later than man warm to the show and it feels a little personal triumph over adversity in what with otherwise a lovely gig. Ending is the best yet and it is not quite there but I am more happy with it that ever before. 

The gig has gone fast. 

After Gig

I love comedy. I love the Edinburgh festival. I want to do it forever. I am too pleased with myself to apply rational analysis to this gig. Favourite Show.

That said this audience seemed more clued into my way of thinking than previous audiences. They were quick on the uptake but also sometimes not clued up making them good to but slightly unpredictable. Knowable but mysterious. Appreciative but I had to work for it a bit but also forgiving at the same time. Basically everything I look for in a wife. 

I can’t get the feeling out of my head that I missed out something tonight. 

I think of an idea for a bit of material in the ‘Tipping Point’ section about German Army Officer Van Stauffenberg.