I had one of those gigs the other night that we all have, a horror gig where you just die and deservedly. It was the 1st time really where my mind went blank and I forgot what I was going to say. My self esteem or stage confidence was not there that night either, I had little or no presence on stage at all which is often what carries me as my jokes are still not quite strong enough. I know if I'm to progress I need to be consistently strong but I have figured one way to get there is to have better quality control and to lose the fear of failure. If I have a bad gig trying to be better and lesser experienced or even dare I say lesser quality acts are showing me up and smashing the gig in question then I will look hopeless, but it may be what I need. The gig in question was not a make or break thing but one where I really needed to do well in order to progress with a particular booker, i failed so move on.
One of things that struck me was that I was doing some 'new' stuff, now it could be argued that as I have only been performing for 14 months everything I do is new but anyone who has seen me twice may think I need to freshen my stuff up more.
This gig was a learning curve in that sense as the new stuff as it were, got laughs, however, i had a lot less faith in it than I usually do in my normal set. I have opted for crafting one strong 20 min set and a further strong and hopefully tight 10/15 mins that I can add to it when required. This means I am still doing a set I was doing 12 months ago, however it is now totally different in structure even if the words and some of the jokes are the same.
I was asked to close a small gig called Saville Row cafe bar in Hull, this would be the 3rd time I have been asked to close a gig but importantly this would be the 1st time I was asked to do so with a fee attached. If I am to do this I need to be able to deliver something polished, ok so you can polish a turd but this is not what I mean! The meaning is I need to be able to provide a solid set (25 mins) that if nothing else was given a lot of attention and taken seriously. The gig itself was lovely, Steve Rimmer who hosted has a lot of support for this gig and gets a full room every time. The feedback I got from his lovely audience was positive although I was pulled up for being hack by another act. I understand what this act means when they say this, I used some very cheap old tricks to buy cheap laughs, I used an old joke all be it twisted and re written, this is considered hack by other acts but i'm not there to please the other acts, and also this accusation (I call it an accusation as it was merely an observation that I am already aware of) was meant in jest, but I know what I do that needs to change in some ways to avoid these kind of things. That aside I was happy with the 25 mins I performed, it needs work, it needs to be much much tighter and in fairness would then be nearer 10 or 12 mins again but on the whole I'm happy that my decision to just work 1 set into the ground so to speak is paying off (to a degree). I am aware that closing a small gig for a small fee is not all of a sudden making me a comedy expert or allowing me to go around saying I can headline, but it is confidence boosting, although the gig I crashed and burned at the other night came after.
It is a low feeling when you think you are going in the right direction and then you die on your arse and its all your own fault, but I did manage to take things from the death too, for example I have been doing a lot of opening 20's and 15's (yes with the material that is really only a solid 12) and the gig in question was a 7 min spot, I could not adjust, I did not time myself well, and I had no flow. I have now broken things down into blocks of 5 mins, so yes I will keep the set from a year ago as a work in progress until it is tighter than tight and it will be chopped up into 5 min segments, re written in places and presented in a way that means I can do 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 min sets and hopefully eventually half an hour to 40 mins solid stuff by this time next year.
Another thing that helps is MCing, a lot of my paid work comes from MCing gigs now and I really enjoy this aspect of comedy. I am aware that being the MC is actually less about me than the show itself and all the other acts and with that in mind I am not to hog stage time, but it does sharpen reaction to heckles and comments, prepare me for strange audience comments and allow me to wedge in new ideas that can go on to be bits. I recently MC'd a gig with a small number of audience members all of whom had attended the earlier version of the same gig that I also MC'd, I struggled as I could not repeat my who are you what do you do type thing and instead had to ask odd question or as Paul Savage once pointed out to me, ask things I wont know the answer to in order to keep it fresh. An appearance at this gig from my pal fingerless Nick (see earlier blogs) was very welcome too as he accompanied the superb headline act Harriet Dyer (she was excellent on the night, as I presume she always is). Sadly Nick was not performing (real name Nick Clarke) but it was nice to see someone who I gigged with so much in my early days and feel like I was evolved as an act.
I am still learning and still working hard, gigging 3 times a week, travelling all over the country, writing and re writing things, I am a million miles away from becoming a comedy grown up, but I think i'm hitting puberty (an awful analogy but fuck it I'm tired) oh and if I thought the death would affect my confidence I can confirm I did a gig in Hull recently, Laughing Mash. It was busy, the stage was set for a lot of new acts held together by Jed Salisburys superb MCing. Some acts were good some were requiring more work and one, Monty Burns, Smashed it.... but just before I was due to go on a guy (who had heckled earlier) was up to do his 1st ever gig. I was closing (or going on last as it is really called) and was going to do 15 mins but the night was over running, this act had been asked to do 5 mins. He had antagonised a few people and was not very self aware so it should have come as no surprise to me that he did 17 mins and it was very poor. it was his 1st gig so I shall not slam him for it but his attitude was very bad and at one point a slow hand clap began as not only had he used up more than his time, he had used up all mine and killed the atmosphere in the room. I was asked to still perform but only now do 5 to 7 mins, I was now ready for this and delivered my set bang on 7 mins and with the confidence that had deserted me a week before, the point, learn from everything and every gig and you will get there. I am pleased to be picking up paid work, now I must improve further to get myself tested against the weekend audiences.
I hope readers who haven't seen me wish to come and watch, maybe make up their own mind.. so a little plug I am on in Barnsley on Friday 26th July ( i am plugging as I am involved in the promotion of this too) drop me an email jimbayescomedy@gmail.com for details.... next blog will hopefully not take as long to get done.
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Friday, 21 June 2013
Groundbreaking comedy
I have spent some time reading through all the comedy forums recently, there are a lot of strong opinions on them and a lot of people who talk sense with contrasting view points from other people whom also talk much sense.
I have my own opinions on some of the things I read but my stance has always been that just because I think something about a particular subject, person, group or anything really, then I should not expect everyone else to share my opinion or be considered wrong if they do not. Now that makes little sense in some ways but it's that I don't believe in myself and of course I think I'm right otherwise my opinion would change as no one wants to knowingly be wrong about something unless they are trying to save face when proven wrong.
In comedy there is a lot of opinion about all kinds of things but one thing I have noticed with the forums is there are a lot of opinionated people too, they just don't accept that there are other points of view, and why should they?
Opinions are important in comedy, if you can make someone think differently and have a laugh at the same time its a strong position, especially if you want to make your opinion heard.
This leads me to the question should comedy have a point? By this I mean should each comedian be tackling hard hitting, political or globally important topics with their materiel??
Does there need to be a preach in among the laughs? I ask this, in many ways rhetorically, because I am starting to get regular paid work for my comedy. I am realistic, it is only the smaller promoters that are offering it and I have much work to do to tighten up my set properly, for example I have 45 mins of stuff but realistically only about 15/20 mins that is strong enough. My paid work is often to open or close a small promoters gig, the occasional 15 min middle spot and a fair amount of MCing, but.... none if it was with the instructions 'make a point', instead the instructions 'make them laugh' are what I hear and I do to a degree (this isn't me patting myself on the back, or at least not intentionally) but I have no thought provoking materiel, no political satire, no world issues thrown into the equation, just silly stories of things that happened to me that I have embellished and of course turned into materiel.
I did a middle open 10 not long ago with a pro headliner who was coming from Manchester, this was a guy who I had met twice before but I doubt would remember me as he was MCing a gong show when we met. He is one of the friendliest and nicest blokes I have met and also hilariously funny. He did his closing 45 mins at said gig and was asked back for an encore, he smashed it out of the park even having to break up a fight in the audience when someone heckled and someone else opted to defend the comic. I can tell you this guy is excellent I really like him, yet, his reviews on a well known comedy website are less than favorable because he does not do anything 'groundbreaking'? now why would that matter? what he does every time I see him is make everyone in the room laugh, yes there are dick jokes but so what they are brilliant dick jokes!
So should this act be considered in the wrong because he does not really have an agenda, he is seemingly apolitical and he just tells funny jokes. I don't thin so, I have I guess answered my own question there but really there is no answer to that question which is why on the forums many comics row with each other. I just think whatever you do you have to be funny consistently through your set.
Open spots often go for the obvious stuff, I do, I have a dyslexia joke that I fucking hate yet keep using, this is not me saying there is an excuse to not be a better act. I believe you should be the always working and tightening your stuff, but if your stuff is not groundbreaking then so what?
Audiences have had a week at work, the stresses of their daily grind are put to one side and they have bought a ticket to a comedy club to laugh, relax, release all the endorphins that laughing produces. So if you are the purveyor of that laughter through dick jokes (the act I was referring to earlier has a lot more than dick jokes by the way) or through some kind of thought provoking masterclass then hat's off to you, because you are a comedian and you are doing what you are paid for and it is commendable no matter how achieved.
I have my own opinions on some of the things I read but my stance has always been that just because I think something about a particular subject, person, group or anything really, then I should not expect everyone else to share my opinion or be considered wrong if they do not. Now that makes little sense in some ways but it's that I don't believe in myself and of course I think I'm right otherwise my opinion would change as no one wants to knowingly be wrong about something unless they are trying to save face when proven wrong.
In comedy there is a lot of opinion about all kinds of things but one thing I have noticed with the forums is there are a lot of opinionated people too, they just don't accept that there are other points of view, and why should they?
Opinions are important in comedy, if you can make someone think differently and have a laugh at the same time its a strong position, especially if you want to make your opinion heard.
This leads me to the question should comedy have a point? By this I mean should each comedian be tackling hard hitting, political or globally important topics with their materiel??
Does there need to be a preach in among the laughs? I ask this, in many ways rhetorically, because I am starting to get regular paid work for my comedy. I am realistic, it is only the smaller promoters that are offering it and I have much work to do to tighten up my set properly, for example I have 45 mins of stuff but realistically only about 15/20 mins that is strong enough. My paid work is often to open or close a small promoters gig, the occasional 15 min middle spot and a fair amount of MCing, but.... none if it was with the instructions 'make a point', instead the instructions 'make them laugh' are what I hear and I do to a degree (this isn't me patting myself on the back, or at least not intentionally) but I have no thought provoking materiel, no political satire, no world issues thrown into the equation, just silly stories of things that happened to me that I have embellished and of course turned into materiel.
I did a middle open 10 not long ago with a pro headliner who was coming from Manchester, this was a guy who I had met twice before but I doubt would remember me as he was MCing a gong show when we met. He is one of the friendliest and nicest blokes I have met and also hilariously funny. He did his closing 45 mins at said gig and was asked back for an encore, he smashed it out of the park even having to break up a fight in the audience when someone heckled and someone else opted to defend the comic. I can tell you this guy is excellent I really like him, yet, his reviews on a well known comedy website are less than favorable because he does not do anything 'groundbreaking'? now why would that matter? what he does every time I see him is make everyone in the room laugh, yes there are dick jokes but so what they are brilliant dick jokes!
So should this act be considered in the wrong because he does not really have an agenda, he is seemingly apolitical and he just tells funny jokes. I don't thin so, I have I guess answered my own question there but really there is no answer to that question which is why on the forums many comics row with each other. I just think whatever you do you have to be funny consistently through your set.
Open spots often go for the obvious stuff, I do, I have a dyslexia joke that I fucking hate yet keep using, this is not me saying there is an excuse to not be a better act. I believe you should be the always working and tightening your stuff, but if your stuff is not groundbreaking then so what?
Audiences have had a week at work, the stresses of their daily grind are put to one side and they have bought a ticket to a comedy club to laugh, relax, release all the endorphins that laughing produces. So if you are the purveyor of that laughter through dick jokes (the act I was referring to earlier has a lot more than dick jokes by the way) or through some kind of thought provoking masterclass then hat's off to you, because you are a comedian and you are doing what you are paid for and it is commendable no matter how achieved.
Thursday, 13 June 2013
The Comedy Game, non league player
I have neglected my blog duties (it is not a duty more a thing that I do but i'm going with that) a bit recently.
There are numerous reasons, one being that I am very busy at the moment. I am busy in a good way comedy wise as I am starting to pick up a decent amount of paid work.... decent for someone at my level, more on that in bit. Another reason is I'm hearing that people are not liking the way I mention their set in my blog, this is fair enough I should not mention others but I have always portrayed things as my point of view only and not a review as some have taken it. I rarely said negative things and the fact that people doing stand up have gotten all pissy because I said something they did not like does not bade well for them as many people will dislike their stuff as they do mine (to be honest I dislike my stuff anyway, but I'm working on that).
That said I do not want to upset anyone and will limit what I say about other acts at gigs.
So moving forward, whats been happening since I last blogged, well I have had oodles of gigs some of them great, some not so great. I am past 170 gigs now but lost count (will try regain count at some point). I have closed some small new act rooms, I'm not a headliner but I am capable of doing a job in these smaller rooms. I will use a football analogy as football is what I know, so last season or my 1st year I was playing in the park with jumpers for goalposts, doing gigs that were not so well run, not good for comedy etc just whoring myself out to get as much stage time as possible. This season I am promoted to non league level. Occasionally I will get a big match where a few people pay to come watch but i'm still turning up at Rushden and diamonds on a rainy Tuesday with a crowd of 4 to stay match fit! ok so the analogy is poor but I think I need to be clear I know where I am in comedy and what I need to do. I have done some great gigs to help me along though travelling to Glastonbudget festival (a tribute band glastonbury) to headline the New act comedy stage.... a mental experience is the best I can think to describe it although that is not very well articulated. I also toddled off to Plymouth (yes Plymouth for an unpaid 10 spot) to do Volksfest which was lovely. I have popped up on the frog and bucket stages in Manchester and Preston and also even closer to home the wonderful Pigeon Hole at the Brudenel in Leeds. It is pigeon hole where I will focus my attention for this blog, I have always thought of myself as not the kind of act they would want and to a degree this is true, however, I have my positives and they suit Pigeon hole's audience in some ways (I wont smash it but I can still get laughs there). Being booked to perform there came about as a result of an act having dropped out ill, the same act that dropped out ill when I was last booked in back when they had the small room, so I have still officially never been booked by them but I will take that given the aforementioned. I was nervous, all the other acts on the bill were of high quality, MC Eddie French, Jack Evans opening, Si Finnigan, Will Setchel and of course the superb headline act Nish Kumar.... I was a small fish in a big pond in some ways here but I still believed I could make them laugh and so my performance was one of my more confident ones.
The gig itself has come under fire indirectly on the Yorkshire Comedy Forum. The people attacking it are talking some sense in some ways but not when it comes to calling pigeon hole a negative gig on the comedy scene in Leeds or Yorkshire.
Prior to starting out as a performer I was a promoter, I made numerous rookie mistakes as a promoter but I learnt and moved forward. Pigeon Hole is very well run, organised, and a credit to the team behind it. They have a budget for top acts (Nish Kumar an example of that) and have a door charge which is £2, whether or not this should be £3 or £4 is a matter not for me to question but they are not making the rookie mistakes I made, these are intelligent guys and they are passionate about comedy. Pigeon Hole is a superb gig and everyone should go there.
The gigs that should come under fire are the ones that pop up for a self serving reason, I have done gigs recently where the promoter is the MC, He or she does not care about comedy like pigeon hole do but more about themselves. They make the gig all about them often MC for 20/ 30 mins, book their mates as acts or open spots who need stage time. They dont put up a budget and book acts that will be able to give a proper show. I myself have appeared on these gigs and felt I am not strong enough to make this audience want to come back. Often there are new act type gigs that some audiences are sold as COMEDY NIGHT, they are not told it is a new act night or given a real perspective of what the night is about. Some acts are billed as circuit Pro's when they are not, some gigs don't mention who is on as the MC makes it all about them and some are just badly run with poor quality acts (who of course need the stage time and will improve).
These re the nights that cause a problem, they don't all fade or disappear I can think of 3 awful gigs 2 of which I have performed at, that are thriving despite being terrible.
My Portion of Quips night in Pudsey is MC'd by me so some may say I'm no better, but I MC the night with minimal of impetus on me, its about a show with newer acts and a headliner someone who has been going at least 4 years usually. I now book a pro night in Barnsley too with the budget a likely to be one that gets me 3 pro acts and an open spot as I move forward with that. I have been the bad promoter, but I wasn't an act then, it was not self serving, just poor promoting from a man with no experience. With so many people taking up comedy there are a lot of god awful gigs out there but gigs like pigeon hole are superb so there are plenty of new ones that are good, and at each end of the scale there are other well run nights such as Comedy cellar at the verve for new acts new materiel or The Library with their pro night which is great value.
Comedy cream will rise to the top, but these nights will always pop up and for me the people moaning and whining need to just accept it as much as it is unpleasant, and just concentrate on their own progress. The industry (if we can call it that) will be fine.
There are numerous reasons, one being that I am very busy at the moment. I am busy in a good way comedy wise as I am starting to pick up a decent amount of paid work.... decent for someone at my level, more on that in bit. Another reason is I'm hearing that people are not liking the way I mention their set in my blog, this is fair enough I should not mention others but I have always portrayed things as my point of view only and not a review as some have taken it. I rarely said negative things and the fact that people doing stand up have gotten all pissy because I said something they did not like does not bade well for them as many people will dislike their stuff as they do mine (to be honest I dislike my stuff anyway, but I'm working on that).
That said I do not want to upset anyone and will limit what I say about other acts at gigs.
So moving forward, whats been happening since I last blogged, well I have had oodles of gigs some of them great, some not so great. I am past 170 gigs now but lost count (will try regain count at some point). I have closed some small new act rooms, I'm not a headliner but I am capable of doing a job in these smaller rooms. I will use a football analogy as football is what I know, so last season or my 1st year I was playing in the park with jumpers for goalposts, doing gigs that were not so well run, not good for comedy etc just whoring myself out to get as much stage time as possible. This season I am promoted to non league level. Occasionally I will get a big match where a few people pay to come watch but i'm still turning up at Rushden and diamonds on a rainy Tuesday with a crowd of 4 to stay match fit! ok so the analogy is poor but I think I need to be clear I know where I am in comedy and what I need to do. I have done some great gigs to help me along though travelling to Glastonbudget festival (a tribute band glastonbury) to headline the New act comedy stage.... a mental experience is the best I can think to describe it although that is not very well articulated. I also toddled off to Plymouth (yes Plymouth for an unpaid 10 spot) to do Volksfest which was lovely. I have popped up on the frog and bucket stages in Manchester and Preston and also even closer to home the wonderful Pigeon Hole at the Brudenel in Leeds. It is pigeon hole where I will focus my attention for this blog, I have always thought of myself as not the kind of act they would want and to a degree this is true, however, I have my positives and they suit Pigeon hole's audience in some ways (I wont smash it but I can still get laughs there). Being booked to perform there came about as a result of an act having dropped out ill, the same act that dropped out ill when I was last booked in back when they had the small room, so I have still officially never been booked by them but I will take that given the aforementioned. I was nervous, all the other acts on the bill were of high quality, MC Eddie French, Jack Evans opening, Si Finnigan, Will Setchel and of course the superb headline act Nish Kumar.... I was a small fish in a big pond in some ways here but I still believed I could make them laugh and so my performance was one of my more confident ones.
The gig itself has come under fire indirectly on the Yorkshire Comedy Forum. The people attacking it are talking some sense in some ways but not when it comes to calling pigeon hole a negative gig on the comedy scene in Leeds or Yorkshire.
Prior to starting out as a performer I was a promoter, I made numerous rookie mistakes as a promoter but I learnt and moved forward. Pigeon Hole is very well run, organised, and a credit to the team behind it. They have a budget for top acts (Nish Kumar an example of that) and have a door charge which is £2, whether or not this should be £3 or £4 is a matter not for me to question but they are not making the rookie mistakes I made, these are intelligent guys and they are passionate about comedy. Pigeon Hole is a superb gig and everyone should go there.
The gigs that should come under fire are the ones that pop up for a self serving reason, I have done gigs recently where the promoter is the MC, He or she does not care about comedy like pigeon hole do but more about themselves. They make the gig all about them often MC for 20/ 30 mins, book their mates as acts or open spots who need stage time. They dont put up a budget and book acts that will be able to give a proper show. I myself have appeared on these gigs and felt I am not strong enough to make this audience want to come back. Often there are new act type gigs that some audiences are sold as COMEDY NIGHT, they are not told it is a new act night or given a real perspective of what the night is about. Some acts are billed as circuit Pro's when they are not, some gigs don't mention who is on as the MC makes it all about them and some are just badly run with poor quality acts (who of course need the stage time and will improve).
These re the nights that cause a problem, they don't all fade or disappear I can think of 3 awful gigs 2 of which I have performed at, that are thriving despite being terrible.
My Portion of Quips night in Pudsey is MC'd by me so some may say I'm no better, but I MC the night with minimal of impetus on me, its about a show with newer acts and a headliner someone who has been going at least 4 years usually. I now book a pro night in Barnsley too with the budget a likely to be one that gets me 3 pro acts and an open spot as I move forward with that. I have been the bad promoter, but I wasn't an act then, it was not self serving, just poor promoting from a man with no experience. With so many people taking up comedy there are a lot of god awful gigs out there but gigs like pigeon hole are superb so there are plenty of new ones that are good, and at each end of the scale there are other well run nights such as Comedy cellar at the verve for new acts new materiel or The Library with their pro night which is great value.
Comedy cream will rise to the top, but these nights will always pop up and for me the people moaning and whining need to just accept it as much as it is unpleasant, and just concentrate on their own progress. The industry (if we can call it that) will be fine.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)