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.
No comments:
Post a Comment