It is June already and in two months time, I will be performing at Edinburgh Fringe. It’s come around really quickly and I just hope I’ll be ready. Or as ready as possible for the brutal beast that is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The gigs are starting to pick up too. Last month, for the first time in several years, I did four gigs in a week. This being London, only one of those gigs had any real audience. But it’s sometimes good just to get on stage and try bits out with only comics for feedback. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. And I have found a way to get some sort of enjoyment out of these instances, which is the only way to get through it.
Four gigs in a week was also as many as I did in February and March. Unfortunately, the rest of May wasn’t quite so busy, with only two other gigs taking my May tally to the grand total of six. Still, that is the best month so far this year. And the ones with actual audience actually went rather well for the most part. Although my tight throat has made an unwelcome return, which has knocked me off my rhythm slightly and thankfully disappeared after a minute or so.
I have written on here many times about how you always need to be in a state of constantly booking gigs to maintain the momentum and avoid the frustrating stop-start state. However, I am rarely the best at following my own advice and June is looking fairly quiet.
Then for July, I have four previews booked for July. And I’m hoping that doing them all within the space of a month will allow me to refine the show and get it into a fit state for Fringe consumption. I don’t entirely know yet exactly what I’m going to say about music or how the quiz will end. But I have time to figure something out and in previous Fringes, I’ve not really known until fairly late on what the show is going to look like. In fact, I am often chopping and changing bits and pieces during the Fringe.
One exciting development this week is that I’ve been asked to bring my odd little show to Glasgow Stand in August. I’ve performed there a couple of times before and it is one of the very best comedy venues in the entire world. It’s where he has had a couple of his DVDs recorded, with the first one he did probably my favourite ever “stand-up special”, as it seems to be known these days. I am looking forward to it already.