On Thursday, for what is likely to be the penultimate preview for Love and Langton’s Dirty Laundry, we had our largest audience yet.
We had around 20 in what can be quite a tough venue to perform in. It is quite a long room and narrow room, with the audience spread out. At the furthest point from the stage, by the entrance is the bar. There were people sitting there who were more interested in talking loudly than listening to the comedy.
The fact that the room presents challenges is why I chose it for an Edinburgh preview. At the Fringe, there are going to be days that are a real struggle, so it’s best to be prepared and perform previews in challenging environments to get toughened up.
Opening the show was Gwilum doing 20 minutes and did very well. I am doing another show with him for the final week of the Fringe and he wanted to rehearse our sketch again, which we debuted on Tuesday to tiredness and apathy. The sketch actually went down pretty well in its latest airing and got some big laughs. I am warming to the idea now.
A few colleagues and friends were in the audience, so I wanted to impress to avoid them not wanting to make eye contact with me in the future. I did rattle through my set somewhat and wasn’t enunciating particularly well; I must remember to slow down. But my set was fairly well received on the whole, although sections that normally get big laughs only received titters, which was disappointing.
But what did please me was the last part of my set I have been honing on stage for the past month, and writing for the previous six months, went down better than it ever has before, with some genuinely big laughs. It is all coming together now.
Langton was on second and probably had his best gig in the venue, but his previous two performances hadn’t been warmly received. His set is getting there and is improving with every preview, but I know he can do much better and I will continue to pester him to do so.