22nd August 2013 Pleasance Court Yard
20th show in the run
Length I hour
Before Show
I was blown away by Paul Currie’s show, which I watched last night. I am amazed his show did not get nominated for the Edinburgh Award. He is a phenomonal performer and it really inspired me. I have his example in my mind as I prepared for the show today.
I have a lazy day before my show and am well fed and rested and thus I feel more tired than if I had been active. This feeling of lethargy combined with Paul Currie’s example spurs me on to try and up my performance.
I am also aware that yesterday was a good show and that with the comedy gods this counts for nothing. I have to start all over again,
During Show
I take to the stage in a very measured and stately way almost like I am a ghost coming on to the stage.
The audience don’t really go for the opening but I just stare them down and hold my nerve and keep the timing and they start to come along. There is one middle aged guy with a beard who is well into it and some other guy at the back who I can't see because of the lights. They are sort of islands of laughter and I attempt to build a bridgehead between them and then spread the love to the rest of the audience. They start infecting pools of laughter around them. I need to get these pools to join up. This will become a constant battle all through the gig.
“Bookies shop” struggles but I give Ian an accent in the “Risk is Manly” section for the first time and it transforms the routine. The show really lifts here and shows the potential this gig could have. I battle through “Possessed by Demons” but things come good in the “Mirapex Section”
In general I have to battle for every routine but the audience are still there if I do something worthy but they are not going to give me this gig on a plate. Perhaps on anther day I would have thanked my lucky stars but after yesterdays gig - which was a good one- i feel disappointment. The result is that I am forced to stay vigilant and focused throughout the gig but the high levels of concentration start taking their toll now.
The festival is advanced now. However much I may feel energetic, energy levels are depleting. Little mistakes are creeping in. I make a mistake I have never made before. For a moment I involuntary say my internal dialogue out loud. Terry Alderton does this to great effect but then he is doing it on purpose. I just babble out “... perhaps switch position of routine with previous...” In the middle of another routine. It makes no sense and I don’t even reference it. I wonder if the audience notice? I wonder of they know what is going on? Find it bizzare or what?
I worry that the audience may not be there for me now. I may have fought to a dead stop but as I go into “Nate Silver” the energy picks up and it is a strong end. The ending works well and this is always a good sign of my ability to control an audience, if they suddenly rise up at this point then I have managed to keep them on board. Today they are on board. A strong end but after yesterdays gig where I felt I licked it, I am disappointed that I couldn’t repeat it.
After Show
I realized today how I should have been performing “Risk is Manly” all along, which is to do it an accent and thus highlight the ridiculous of the opinion, rather than assuming that audiences will be on my wavelength and immediately comprehend that I don’t actually believe it. Equally I changed “Vicious Circle of Debt” so that I now described an obviously very specific experience as if it were a shared one. These adds gives the routine more of an attitude as I am avoiding responsibility for my own actions by claiming “we all do it”. This phenomonon also occurs in real life. In both instances there is a shifting of responsibility from myself to others, in one case overt and in the other covert.
Of course both routines should have been done this way from the start but it is good I am finally getting routines straightend out as the Edinburgh Festival comes to a close.
Having watched the replay of the tape today, this was the best performance of the run. My entrance to the stage was interesting because I kind of glided out of the curtain. It was a very unceremoneous but effective entrance. My disappointment that I felt immediately after the gig has evaporated and I feel a great pride. The best performance of the run and possibly the best hour I have ever done.
Timing was also good and It was obvious I was determined to do it my way. Interesting the performance looked effortless because it didn’t feel that way at the time. I was really working it and it felt a battle where I fought for every laugh and punchline etc. At the time yesterday’s gig felt the stronger but this is the one I am more proud of now.
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