Yesterday’s final show was disappointing and not a fair reflection of how well the show has gone previously.
A comedian without energy isn’t much of a comedian at all and my energy seemed to have deserted me entirely. It was perhaps the most sluggish I have ever been on stage, with fatigue finally taking its grip on me. It was only second to Wednesday last week for my worst show of the Fringe.
Not only that, but my room was half-full. Having had full rooms for the previous Saturday shows, I took it for granted that I would get the same for the finale, so relaxed a bit with the flyering. When the show was due to begin, there were 12 people there. This threw me a bit, but I chose to make do with it and begin. Then almost ten minutes after I began, another eight or nine people came in, almost doubling my audience but stopping me from getting into a rhythm or generating momentum. Oddly, three separate people came through the curtain as the show has been going for about half an hour, not really knowing what they had walked in on and then leaving soon after.
If I had more energy, I like to think I would have been able to adapt. But my brain was all over the place and may have also chosen to leave me to it.
A lot of the material fell flat and I forgot to say bits, but the film scene did well and the quiz ensured that the large dip in the middle of the show was partially eased. I made £30 in the bucket, which I felt was generous for how badly it had gone in my mind. However, after the show, a Danish lady sitting near the front came up to me and told me how much she enjoyed it. So it might not have been quite as bad as it felt.
It has been hard performing this past week while battling an illness and I think I exhausted my energy reserves. But I am glad that I was able to hold it together for my other shows, particularly on Friday when I had my sister and friends in the audience.
Regardless of how the final show went, I have completed my first Fringe doing a solo hour show for the full-run and have had some really great gigs. I’ll write a more detailed account of my 2014 Fringe when I am back in London, if I manage to find the energy.