EDINBURGH FRINGE - 13TH AUGUST 2015

SHOW 6

13TH AUGUST 2015

AUDIENCE: 25

WALKOUTS: 4

LENGTH: 1 HR 2 MINS.

BEFORE

Today is my forth gig of the day (including a prior 1 hour play). I have been up since the crack of dawn (9am) I am feeling bouncy. 

As the audience come in, I get the impression they may be trouble. One woman sits in the acts area, an area from which you cannot see the stage, so totally pointless, and I suggest she moves. She grudgingly accepts but she seems drunk or mad. As I prepare to start the show, I go behind the bar to switch off the house lights. The husband of the drunk or mad woman warns me about revealing the location of the light controls as his wife may fiddle with them during the show.  He doesn’t appear to be joking either. 

DURING

Despite feeling buoyant before the show I realize in the opening minutes of the show that I am tired. I have no extra gear. The beginning is not quite gaining the momentum that I would wish. I feel that I am not on my game. That I am making small unforced errors. That I am not landing the material. They are also a heckly audience from the off. I am not sure whether they are taking their cue from me or would be like this even if I had been on my game? There is man down the front who looks like a metal head head and who is a cat lover. He keeps putting in his five pence worth. I cant even get through the initial routine about Kittens without his chipping in. I think this sets the tone for the rest of the audience. There are an older couple who chip in, in their case I may be almost prepared to except that they are helping. The older woman shouts something about “The Worlds End” Pub. This is a reference to two murders in 1977. The Worlds End Pub is about 100 metres from my venue. Despite this, the reference goes over my head. I am now totally devoid of cultural references, even famous murders from the 1970s. 

During the AIDS routine a woman shouts out in an indignant tone “You are Socially irresponsible!” She seems adamant that now would be a really good time for a discussion on public sexual health. 

I am not entirely sure how to deal with this. I can’t exactly break character to admit it is just all a comedy routine but neither do I wish to engage with an argument on her terms. So I kind of fudge it by suggesting to the rest of the audience that she doesn’t quite get it. I haven’t exactly broken character but I have stretched it. 

I then address her directly and suggest that she may meet with an accident. I mean it in a light hearted way - a light hearted accident. But my tone is all wrong and it sounds like a genuine threat. It is merely misjudgement due to tiredness and not anger but it sounds bad. I am worried it could alienate the rest of the audience here. So I have to acknowledge that I went in a bit hard and joke around it. But I am having to sweep up mess from mistakes I wouldn’t ordinarily be making. 

Given that the AIDS routine is a controversial routine at the best of the times, and that today it has been besieged by problems, it is a minor miracle I have kept it on the road at all. I am actually impressed by the fact I hold the show together at this point. 

I cannot legislate against people’s stupidity.If they turn up at comedy shows and take everything at face value some people are going to get upset. I am not prepared to accomadate people’s obtuseness. 

During a subsequent heckle on the other side of the room, the “Socially Irresponsible” woman leaves along with a couple of other faint hearts. I could sense she wanted to leave for some time but would not budge so long as I kept my eyes on her. But as soon as I was distracted she slipped out. That is the power of eyes.

A lot of the usual punchlines are not landing today but then at individual points the show suddenly comes alive unexpectedly. This happens four of five times. Where the show catches fire for a bit before reverting to type. This makes me thinks that the audience are there for the taking of only I can nail the performance. 

AFTER

This is the worst performance of the show I have done. I was tired throughout. I had no second gear. The timing was off and I wasn’t always landing things. I had to focus hard all the time. It felt like I was sitting an exam. This coincided with the most lively (i.e badly behaved audience) I have had to date. Still most of the time I felt that I wasn’t really fighting them, I was fighting myself. I could probably have cruised it on an easier audience but . At times I was running on conviction alone. Still I was heartened by the way I held the line on this and kept the show on the road, it never fell below a certain level and there were individual moments where it really flew.  This was a good bad gig.