Yesterday was the hottest day of the year, it was also when I had my fourth Edinburgh preview.
It was in the second half of the night I run in Walthamstow and I could feel that the audience were hot and tired within about ten minutes.
Gigging in shorts is something that doesn’t feel entirely right and I had planned to change into my jeans before my set. But due to the sweltering conditions, I opted to leave my legs exposed. I explained to the audience that if it was going badly, I would blame it on the shorts and change into my jeans. When a couple of punchlines fell flat, I changed my attire while still on stage.
They were a nice crowd, but a fair number of things in my set didn’t get a laugh where I hoped. This is particularly useful for an Edinburgh preview, because it then makes you look more closely at your material and how you can improve it. So I am grateful for the clammy conditions.
I have another preview in a couple of hours in Stockwell, then another one tomorrow in Winchester. By then end of Sunday, I should have a better idea of how much more work I need to do to improve my show.
It was also Ruby’s this week, which saw the return of Luke Thompson from his two-year Parisian exile. We managed to get the room the fullest so far in our new venue, largely because of Luke’s friends. I had intended to do a set, but Luke forgot to introduce me and called an interval instead. It worked out for the best, because we were running late anyway so this allowed us to get back on time and finish early. It was a great night with Sara Pascoe headlining and thankfully Luke didn’t do a repeat of his infamous Robert De Niro improv meltdown from Brighton in 2012.
4 Comments
how could your attire affect your performance, did you go well after you changed into your jeans??
It’s a psychological thing. And no, it didn’t go particularly better when I was wearing jeans.
Good to hear from, Rom. Where have you been?
I think that’s true; I mean wearing something that you feel entirely comfortable in, gives you the required confidence, if not boosts, at least doesn’t reduce it; but I was thinking that probably for you who are trying to make people laugh, wearing something that makes you feel you look a bit funny , might help boost your sense of humour as well ;don’t you think so?
I’ve been visiting your website lately, though not regularly, but I just got enough time to read it and catch up with your events and I’m glad you keep doing it.
Yeah, wearing ridiculous outfits can be helpful for comedy. It all depends on the type of act you are really.