TOP SECRET COMEDY CLUB 29TH SEPTEMBER 2017 - LATE SHOW.

* This is my third gig of the evening, not to brag.

There are two late shows tonight. One in the main room downstairs and one in the upstairs room. I have already done the upstairs room. It was enjoyable but as it was the end of the show the audience were starting to loose focus and energy. I question my choice of material. I am trying to fit material from my Edinburgh show into my club set.

I am now doing the main room downstairs. The audience is much bigger here. There is perhaps a five minute gap before I am on downstairs. I don’t really have much chance to think about my choice of material before I am on.

I think my coffee breaks were mistimed earlier. I may be flagging. I drink a coke. The compere has said he will bring me straight on. But I am not ready for just how straight on it is. I am still in the zone from my previous gig. I am very much in character as I walk on stage. It really feels part of the performance tonight (it is).

It is a young crowd.

I open with the Heroin material/ MDMA and then go into Heart Attack material.
Given the youth of the audience tonight, the subject of heart attack has almost has a surreal quality to it. How could any of these people ever have a heart attack? There is a guy down the front stage front who does a sort of groan/laugh. Which is a combination of surprise/mild shock/disapproval/amusement. This ongoing theme will prove comedically useful but irritating on a personal level. I really don’t understand young people any more.

I haven’t quite got the pace right. I should be getting bigger laughs. I spend the first few minutes trying to find the grove, but to no avail. I slightly pick up the pace. That makes it worse! I slow it down. Ah, there we go, we’re in the grove. That picks up the laughs and I am able to get them rolling off each other.

I am now really enjoying doing every line of my set. Savouring the set ups too. I should be taking this time to plan ahead but I am enjoying it too much. Mistake. This is eating into time.
I haven’t gamed planned this enough. I decide to do the entirety of the Air BnB material from my Edinburgh show. This is 7-9 minutes. Given the size of the chunk I have already started it too late in the set now. It will come in just before the end. I am still fine tuning this material for club sets. So it is a bit of a risk and will not give me enough time at the end if I need to put things back together.

The main section of Air BNB works well. It seems that it doesn’t really need fine tuning for clubs - it is already there. A good mix of character material plus, a poke at the Americans. This is the best it has ever gone in a club. I am very pleased with this. I can quit at the American section but I decide to go into the Greek section. This is a whole different tone. It is really a separate routine but subject wise comes off the back of the previous bit. I don’t know if I am going to do it until I do it  This bit of material is scatilogical. As I start it, I realise how sensitive this audience are to this kind of subject matter. They are ahead of me too - which is usually a good sign - but they are ahead with disgust. There are a lot of groans and winces in this section. And not always groans going to laughter. They are enjoying it but they are more uncomfortable. Ideally, I want an audience with the right level of uncomfortableness to obtain the maximum comedy frisson. They are too sensitive. This is perhaps the wrong audience for this bit. Well too late now! I am just going to have find my way through this.

I work my way through this trying to tease the audience through it. I land the end. But it has changed the dynamic of the gig. Ideally I should have done it a few minutes earlier in the set. As it is I finish it with two minutes stage time to go. This is not quite enough time to build the ideal crescendo at the end. I pull out a well tried routine at the end to close the show. But could have wished for a few more minutes.

As the audience file past some people come up and say they have enjoyed my set. All men tonight.  No women. Interesting. There was something about my routine tonight that did not appeal to woman as much as men. I make a wild guess.