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.
