24nd August 2013 Pleasance Court Yard
22nd show in the run (3rd last)
Length I hour 3 minutes.
Before Show
Today is the last Saturday of the Fringe. The previous two Saturdays have provided sold out houses of entirely innapropriate audiences. Tonight is sold out but what kind of sold out? Sold out comedy literate folks or sold out lad central? Which is it to be? Part of me doesn’t care anymore. Part of me feels the festival is over but another part of me knows that I owe my audiences a good job on the last few nights and that who knows who could still be in the audience? It is with a mixture of relaxation and anxiety at my relaxation that I walk to my venue. A meet a friend who tells me I look tired. I don’t feel tired but I notice I am walking slouched and all low energy. When he tells me I am looking tired, I try to look untired. “You still look tired he tells me.” Backstage now, I think about the start of the show, but that is all I can think of. I listen to the audience come in, the sound up for it but chilled. There is no air of Stag-Do tonight. I remind myself that this is my space and I should own the stage. I do the off stage announcement. I have some fun with it . The audience seem warm.
During Show
I attempt to make my delivery slightly more persuasive in that particular tone of somebody trying to convince you it’s not their fault when it clearly is.
The audience are really on board from the off, literally from the first joke, they are there. They are on my wavelength. We have an understanding. It reminds you how good things can be when you have an audience that shares your sense of humour. They make me feel like a comic genius, like every line is comic gold. There is a shared believe between me and the audience that this is going to be a good gig. I like a good start, it relaxes me and gives the audience faith but this start is almost too good. It can’t really build from here. It is already at max. In a way it can only go downhill. I feel far more pressure than say a gig that starts averagely. With an audience already this on board, they will forgive mistakes. I may therefore get complacent and let more minor faults slip in. Eventually the attritional effect of the accumlated minor faults will start to erode confidence and the gig will go down hill. Even if ends on a high but not as big a high as the start then it will be a disappointment. This is not so much an audience as a precious vase that I am carrying across a highly polished floor. This is such a good audience and such a good show that I can only really screw it up from here.
There is a big laugh and partial wince on the Tracy Emin line, sometimes from the same audience members. They are a good audience but with a slightly sensitive streak. But this I like. I can tell that they are the audience who enjoy being slightly pushed beyond their taste barrier and that their occasional queaseyness will add to the add to the energy.
“National Lottery” material takes it higher. Some late comers come in during “Scratchcards” and sit at the back, I am in midflow and choose not to break off to acknowledge the newcomers. I am sort of past the point of no return on the build up the punchline so I have to go for it, on the other hand the distraction at a key moment in the set undoubtedly dents the punchline but I can’t see any alternative. “Amanda Knox” boosts the gig further. I really slow this routine down tonight as though I am weighing up the pros and cons in my head, this is really effective. I let the audience run ahead of me here. I am very much enjoying “Risk in Manly” now, ever since I worked out an onstage voice for Ian. I deliberately keep this routine loose but at the start I screw up the timing and it gets little at the start, I really feel out the room here and by the end they are back on board but it serves as a warning against sloppiness. I am never taking my foot off the gas here. I know that by this stage in the festival my energy levels are depleted. I keep running through a checklist of dos and don’ts in my head to keep me on track. I can feel myself slouching and pull myself straight. I am not always making eye contact with the back and have to remind myself to do that.
I enjoy taking water breaks more than I ever have. Just taking a moment to break off from talking and have a drink and enjoying the time I am taking. Not feeling obliged to do anything for a few seconds, it almost becomes a feature tonight.
Going into “vicious circle of debt”, everything is tickety-boo but somehow this routines doesn’t quite land. I think it is a pacing issue. This is problematic because the next section “Understanding Addiction” is a slower story part that needs the energy of “Vicious Circle of debt” to carry it. Tonight I am going in without that energy. Is this where it all starts to slip away? Is the precious vase is about to shatter on the parquet floor? I am suddenly aware that I need a big laugh at this point. There is isn’t one here. So somehow I contrive to make the Bob Geldolf section into a big laugh and somehow I do it, I sort of will it to happen. We are back on track. Surprisingly the Dentist material, which is invariably plain sailing, struggles tonight. I think I am messing up the delivery but I am too jaded by the festival to fully observe what exactly is happening now. This should carry the energy into “Dad Embarrssment” but again I am going into a slower bit with little momentum but this section comes alive again and to be honest it is on course from here on in. A slight dip at “Feel the Fear” but after that from “Tipping Point” the thing just builds right through “Probability” and “Nate Silver” lands almost note perfect. I miss out the line “Unless Nate Silver is prepared to submit his work to the approval of 50 random strangers in a room then there is no merit to what he does” but apart from it the whole thing lands. I get to the end and there is a momentary pause like they are not going to applause and then they do.
There are cheers and whistles and sustained applause better than any show this fringe run.
After Show
The best show of the run in terms of audience response. I will have to check the video to see how my performance stands up. I feel happy but exhausted at the end of it. The show seemed to go quickly and over ran. A friend told me I looked tired during the performance.
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