EDINBURGH FRINGE 8 AUGUST 2015

8TH AUGUST 2015 

“THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO STEPHEN” @ CANONS’S GAIT 

Audience: Approx 40

Walkouts: 3/4

Running Time: An Hour and Five. 

Before

Tonight is my first show of the Fringe run. I haven’t performed the show for nine days and I feel I don’t know it that well, that nine days is way too long. I have been looking forward to the show all day but about half an hour before the show I feel sick.  I have eaten too recently (beef). This late meal was not a tactical error but forced on me by scheduling problems. I hope don’t get an after meal slump although I think that is caused by potatoes (I ate those too). There is no Green Room at the venue and I don’t really know what to do with myself as the audience come in. There are no corners to hide in. I just mill about aimlessly; I could chat to them before the show, but I don’t. 

During 

The audience give me a strong round of applause at the start. That is healthy. 

About fifty percent of the audience have seen me before. 

As I am establishing who is in the audience, some late comers come in and the door squeaks. - makes the noise of a fart - hilarious of course. What is better than an actual fart? Something else sounding like a fart. I ad-lib around this for about a minute and it really breaks the ice

Bit about the pint of milk and the repetition of newspaper reviews doesn’t really land but I get away with it because of the good will I have accumulated over the farting door incident. But during the Kitten routine I rebuilt the momentum and this ends on applause. 

The God material is the most fraught. It is the only time I seriously think the show might slip away from me. It is a bizzare change of gear after the Kitten material and I have never notice just how much before now. I sense that even this audience don’t know where I am going with it and are a bit worried. It all feels disjointed and a bit of a minefield. By the end of it, when I am telling them that God is homophobic, I have the audience on board and I don’t seriously worry from there on in.  It is strange to think back on it, but that was a potentially sticky point, because the show went well from there on in, but I know in a parallel universe somewhere, the gig went into terminal decline at that point. 

I have the audience on board from here on in. By that I mean 4 or 5 people walk out at this point. They do so quietly in a non fuss way but they have decided it is not for them, just as everyone else has bought into it and is getting on my wavelength. I think this is how it is going to go for the rest of the run. No matter how well the gig is going, I think some people will walk out of every show. Perhaps this is an improvement? Maybe I need to weed people out? 

The Homophobia material lands and there is a real momentum about the gig now. 

The jacket works rountine works despite me slightly fluffing the delivery of the ending. 

AIDS is a bastard of a routine. If I can pull this off it they will like the rest of the show. If they have doubts about me, they will hate it. Even if they do like it there can be bits that fall flat. Tonight everything lands. Particularly “The Never Get AIDS bit” which I think performance wise is the trickiest part of the show. I have trouble remembering the routine as I am doing it. I am really stumbling around in it thinking. “What do I think next?” 

Driving works well but when I state that “men going through relationship break ups shouldn’t be allowed to drive”, a guy stage left says “Uh-huh?” in a really judgy way and I get disproportionately annoyed about this. I have to tell myself to take a step back and calm down. Given how well the gig is going it seems irrelevant to pick a fight over but I still nearly do it.  Instead I hold my ground and deliver the material as intended and it lands at the end. Round of applause. 

Jesus routine, I feel, a bit flatter but I am trying to vary the performance. I can sense that the audience are not as on board with some of the ideas but my confidence is up so I just make them like it. The “Third of a house near Glasgow” line goes down well. 

I slightly botch the ending. I do the bucket speech second to last and this is a big mistake as it ruins the flow of the show and breaks the character a bit. Bizzarely it feels the most fake part of the show. I have tried to give the allusion from the start of a stream of continuous thought but the reality of money just breaks it all. I then go back into “Love/Hate” the routine goes well but not as good as it could have gone. I am also aware how much I am over running now and this too effects the delivery. I think I rush it. And I miss bit about Love being finite out and this lessens the impact of the hate being finite bit.