103.... Compere.com

You get what I did with the title there?, huh?, huh? I was compering in York last night. Compering is like jumping out of a plane with a parachute and parachute instructions. Trying to figure out how a parachute works whilst your falling. I literally went on stage with no prepped material just ideas. It's scary cos in the back of your mind you think "what if I can't think of anything to say?". That then grows into a fear and that fear blocks you from thinking. Then you move to "I can't think of anything to say". Then you stuck in a verbal cul-de-sac. The good thing is your not required to remember a shed load of material, you talk, introduce an act and whilst they are on figure out what your going to say next. It's bite size chunks. The audience were responsive and went along with all the wierd things I did which was great. The stuff was untried but I can ntrsnsfer alot across to the next compere gig. Compereing is so much better than rehearsed material. Well to me it is. It's an incredible high and it makes you look at you not at the material. It trains your reactions to find the funny in the moment, use it and throw it away.

103 The cynic in me.

It's nice to go off the circuit. Most gigs I do are organised comedy nights. Comedy for a comedy audience. This one was a "charity" gig, (notice the inverted commas. Charity gigs are okay, stand up comedy is a cheap way of organising a night, they're a different type of audience and all experience is good experience. Plus some worthy cause gets some money. It's all good. However, no matter how much you may like deadly snakes, it's not appropreate to put them on a plane. Watch the film "snakes on a plane" and you'll understand. Comedy needs a environment made for comedy, deadly snakes need an appropreate evironment (far away from me). My first look at this gig I thought, "oh! God!". The room was big, no stage. The rooms was set up with round tables so some people have their backs to you. The room had half naked waiters. The room was rowdy. Comedy requires a degree of quiet, concentration, listening to appreciate it. So, bearing in mind, I'm there, I'm going to do it. How am I going to do it?. The thing I've noticed is when all else fails audiences respond to "the here and now". Picking on the audience members, interacting with the audience, commenting on the venue, on the room. My best comment of the night... "my god, look at the waiters, it's like looking at spitroast chickens in tescos". The audience related to that. Luckily, there was a roving mic and a dance floor in front of the audienceso I bounced around the room like a crazy person. The problem was, I only have so much material that's quick and in the here and now. That's where I fell down. But I did okay-ish. I have to keep exersizing the "find the funny" bone. It's an ip hill battle to come up with stuff on the night but worth it if I can become better at it. Going down this road has pushed me back to the "not very good" category. By not doin the standardised routine, I lose the audience and I lose the rehearsal time to make the material better. I hope it's worth it in the long run. Now the cynic bit. This "charity" gig was for an under 11s rugby team. There's many charities I have sympathy for under age rugby teams are not one. I did a gig for a child with a rare disease, I got paid enough to pay for petrol and something to eat. Like many not comedy organisers the event organiser (not the comedy organiser, who's a great guy btw) didn't have any understanding of how the comedy business works. It cost me around £35 in petrol to get to this event to help raise money for a rugby team. I refuse to believe that this event didn't raise money into the thousands, these were not poor people, if she didn't make a shit load of money, she's incompetatant and her making money cost me money. Not the way it's suppose to work. Then it cynical bit, all experience IS good experience and I'm glad I did the gig. Got to talk to the brilliant Chris Lumb. Got to chat with me comedy mates again, I love that bit, sharing stories, gigs and comedy news. I could literally talk comedy all night.

102 tylesdale + canx

This gig. The compere's job. Get the attention of the audience by engaging with them. Show them that this is the most interesting thing going on. Get them in the mood to laugh. Get them laughing. It's hard, in some instances impossible but if they can't do it the night won't work. Its like this an audience starts at zero. The compere has to get them up to 30%. Theyll take 20mins to do this, they get extra time to get the audience up there. Okay, a good comedian can do it without a compere but it's at the expense of the tried and tested material they came to do. Given the 30% the comedian can then raise the room to 60%. 60% is a sucessful night. Course, I've done gigs where no one is going to successfully compere it. That comes down to the organiser and how to run a sucessful comedy night. 102... It never got up there. No one raised the audience. Performers better than me couldn't do it. I certainly couldn't do it. Give me two more years and I can attempt it. ................. Am I wise or stupid?. Say after I had a gig in Preston. Took me an hour to get ready. I set off, I had some petrol in the car and £30 for petrol. I travelled 30 miles, put £30 of petrol in the car then I did the math. £30 gets me 180 miles. The journey was another 230 miles. I came home. Felt bad about aborting the gig but ringing someone at about 1-00am in the morning to fetch me petrol would have been worse. I hated not doing it and I miss my smart car (smaller engine, less petrol).

interview wih... Comedysportz

Manchester's famous and only (as far ss I know) improv group. i was lucky enough to catch their show in Nottingham a few day ago. For those who don't know about these guys, they do a umique inprov show. They do family friendly shows, not so family friendly shows and comedy courses. soooo.....

Podcast Powered By Podbean

101 headliner??

First I knew I was a headliner was when I read it on Facebook. That was an interesting moment!. Just to say, there's no money involved. What it means is I'm on last and (this maybe my own interpretation) I get more time or I have to do more time.

Three was a comment made after the advert saying "Holly is really funny" (or words to that effect). Really?. I have my doubts, recently I haven't been that funny, even I don't think I've been that funny.

This one though, being named as headliner made me want to raise my game, that plus some new stuff made me want to really do well.

And I did do well. I was hyper, I kept the energy on high all the time. Bouncing from one subject to the next. It's tough because you have to take the audience with you, if they don't follow you're just a manic person being stared at. Interesting lesson is for this to work you have to physically break the audience/comedian barrier. You have to get out into the audience. This kind of explains why I don't do so well with big audiences. You come off the stage, you walk away without the mic people can't hear you, people can't see you.

It was great finally doing a gig that I can call a success. The idea of walking on stage without a well prepared, well rehearsed set is almost asking for failure but it's the only way I can learn to think on my feet, only way I can thoroughly learn to enjoy it.

If I ask myself why I do stand up, it's hard for me to answer. I recently did a gig and the act on before me was literally bouncing to get on stage. Me, I'm thinking I hope my appendix bursts so I can avoid this. I didn't enjoy doing the spot, during the spot. It's like I'm too busy focusing on it to spend time enjoying it. Afterward, though, after this one.. I was sooooo high!

A point of education here... There was a comedian on that rocked on the previous gig, whereas I stunk up the place. This time?. This time I owned it. I've seen it time and again. Theres no guarantee that the next gig won't see you die.

Being successful is dealing with failure. (How philosophical is that!)






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Sully O'Sullivan Interviews

Hiyas Most new comedians eventually head toward a smallish club in Leeds called Mr Bens where their regular gong show is up there with the famous and infamous. When there you'll see a compere called Sully O'Sullivan.