Yesterday was a good day for both shows, particularly my earlier show.
We had seven people in, but it was a wonderful anomaly of a gig. I was on first and it went ridiculously well, the audience were really friendly and loud with their laughter. I would happily take an audience of seven friendly people over a stony-faced crowd of 50 any day. And then in our collection bucket at the end we made £31.
More ego boosting came from one of the three people in the front row saying it was better than a paid show she had been to, and the man she was with bought both me and Gwilum a drink.
Experiences like this gig make all the hours of flyering and apathy encountered seem worth enduring.
Later on, after a break of a few days, I was back to dropping my Dirty Laundry flyers on the Royal Mile pavement again. Despite this, I felt it had been a productive couple of hours and I had done enough to get a few people along. I predicted we would get 15 people in. I was wrong and we had 11.
It is frustrating when you engage with people when flyering, you talk to them about the show, they show interest and they say they will come. But then they don’t. Although there is nothing you can do for the people who don’t come to see the show, all you can deal with is who has come to see it.
It was a fairly solid show, we both got some good laughs. But once you reach a level of how well you know the material can do and it falls short of that, it is a bit annoying. We made just over £18 in our collection bucket, and afterwards and audience member bought me four pints. It was a good day for getting drinks bought for me.
It is Friday today and I am hoping for big audiences at both gigs. Although if I go on record of saying that I expect a small turn-out, I will be pleasantly surprised. So there we are, I am expecting small audiences for both shows.
- Love and Langton’s Dirty Laundry is on at 11pm every day until August 25 at the Kilderkin, 67 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8BS, as part of PBH’s Free Fringe. The 6.20pm Amuse Bulletin takes place at GHQ, 4 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, from August 20-25.