ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MYSPACE

Wow… Just.. Wow.

Okay – so I’ve not updated the blog in a while. I’ve been having second thoughts about this whole comedy thing. I guess the problem was that it didn’t feel like me getting up on stage – it felt like me acting like a comedian when I was up on stage. And along with the nerves and everything else it just seemed too much hassle.

I knew I used to be able to do it, before I started thinking about it so much – so I kind of took a step back and reworked it from the ground up. I used my beautiful wife to tell me when it sounded like me, and when I sounded a wanker.

..As a general rule – don’t do that. It leads to a rather obvious comeback line, and.. Well.. You can see how it didn’t start off so well..

Anyway – then I rewrote some stuff and finally got a set I thought actually felt like me.. BUT before we get to that – this Kingston gig I wrote about before. The Invisible Pig Roadshow didn’t turn up (or perhaps they did – who’s to know). But I couldn’t smell ham so I assumed not. I, however, was AWFUL – in short I took every ounce of energy I’d used previously, and lost it. I looked like someone who really REALLY didn’t want to be there – (coupled with the ‘reading a script’ thing I talked about earlier). And you know what? People DON’T FIND THAT FUNNY!

So it went pretty badly. I had some of that ‘polite chuckle’ stuff going on, and scraped through to the next round by the skin of my teeth. (For reference – you will never see a DVD of a comic that quotes the words – ‘Brilliant! I didn’t stop politely chuckling throughout’. If that happens – you’re shit.)

So anyway – last night I did the quarter-final and for the first time felt like ME. I really enjoyed it and (to my surprise) so did the audience. A group of good friends came along, and were really positive afterwards. The nice thing is that some of them can be quite critical (in a good way) so it was particularly pleasant to have good feedback from them.

On the downside – no video. I was attempting to overcome my obsessive compulsiveness and told myself there was no need to check the camera three times like I normally do. So when we got there and found out I hadn’t put a tape in the bloody thing, I felt somewhat vindicated before untying and retying my shoelaces fifteen times and touching my left elbow with my right hand because I just need to ALRIGHT?!

Which brings me to the ‘Wow’ that started this – I’ve only gone and got put through to the semi-finals! And now I’ve got to perform up to 6 minutes. I asked my wife if she knew anything I could do to cover a minute.

Again – not a bright question to ask.

Thanks to everyone that just kept talking to me while I was have a bleak moment. Won’t happen again. Honest.