The journey for last night’s gig was almost a complete reversal of what I used to do when at university.
I took the train down to Southampton for a gig, instead of getting the train from neighbouring Portsmouth when I was a student up to London to do five minutes in front of a handful of people. These journeys at Uni were infrequent and thus rather pointless in developing my act, but it did at least make me feel cool when I told people I did stand-up.
This time, things were different. I was booked to do 15 minutes, but the number of people was still in the handful region.
There were five people to be exact, with two more casual observers hiding at the bar. I was on first and I thought it was going to be awkward, but it actually turned out to be far more enjoyable than it should have been. Although the audience were small, they were friendly and engaging.
The bulk of my set was material I’d not performed since Edinburgh and had dismissed as not being right for a comedy set away from the Fringe context. But it actually went down much better than I expected. It still needs a bit more work, but it has made me reconsider its shelf-life and potential.
In non-comedy news, I have decided where I want to go for my newfound holiday next year. I will be going to a small town in Switzerland and to a dam, which I shall then jump off with a bungee cord attached to me. It is the same dam used for the jump at the start of GoldenEye. I chose this destination as I was thinking about things that I would like to do, and I thought I would like to cross another thing off my to-do list by doing the world’s highest proper bungee jump. It has also been more than five years since I jumped 134 metres out of a cable car. Sitting on a beach just doesn’t do it for me.