Last night was my best gig of the year, but then I have only done three so far. It was an enjoyable evening with a friendly crowd – I’ve not written that for a while.
Although I did start to worry when just before the show kicked off, two men came in and sat at the back and when the MC was opening proceedings, they insisted on heckling at every opportunity and didn’t seem to be put off by being put down by the compere. They weren’t being malicious or nasty with their heckles, but even so, sometimes people like this can derail a gig and I began to fear that my set would be continuously interrupted.
I was on first and it wasn’t long into it before they started making themselves heard; not heckling, just talking amongst themselves. I decided to engage them and went off on a bit of a tangent, but it was all good natured and I managed to get laughs from mocking them. I continued with my set uninterrupted, so I think I won.
I didn’t do too badly for opening, I got some good laughs but bottled out of the new stuff I’ve been trialling of late in favour of the older stuff that has served me well, I did slip in a few unfinished new bits, but I still need to find a better way to end my set.
In non-comedy news, I have discovered that the building used for Gotham City Police Station in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films happens to be 30 seconds walk from where I work. When I heard that they had been filming the next one nearby last summer, I found a map of where I thought it would be but this lead me about 15 minutes walk on the other side of town. Today, I discovered that it was actually just around the corner from my office. I wouldn’t make such a great detective, certainly not Gotham’s greatest.