Tomorrow, I have the first performance of How To Win A Pub Quiz in almost three years. I am heading down to Tunbridge Wells, where I did quite a few gigs in the early days.
Ticket sales are not looking so good at the moment. But when I came up with the concept for HTWAPQ, my main goal was to get a double-figure audience and I can report that I have at least managed that for tomorrow, albeit only just. And in those first two years on the Free Fringe, I had no idea how many people would turn up and would deal with whoever I had in the room on the day.
Edinburgh Fringe suddenly appearing on the horizon has given a jolt of nervous energy. Ticket sales are already looking really healthy. I have been working through new material for the show since March and testing a few bits out. The first half of my set is looking good, but there is now a sense that the second half of my set really needs work.
The version that I’m taking to Tunbridge Wells is going to be a little rough around the edges. But having a smaller audience tomorrow may end up being really useful in the long run, and indeed longer run of the show. It should give me the chance to figure things out a bit more.
In all previous versions of the show, I ended the set with a time-travelling sketch involving the audience acting out lines from a script I’d written. Normally either travel back or forward in time to try and fix something in my own life. The original version was a genuine chunk of comedy gold and all fitted the narrative with the rest of the show. The two other versions I used worked relatively well but never came close to matching the original. One of the main reasons is that I performed the original sketch so many times that I developed numerous extra jokes over about three years or so.
This year, I am not sure what I’ll do instead. I’ve tried to leave it out of previous shows and it felt empty without the change of gear pre-quiz. There won’t be a sketch performed in the show during Tunbridge Wells.
The other thing is, I know how the show works and what will work within the show. This can mean that I can add things pretty late in the day, even sometimes when I’m about to begin my Fringe run.
Another significant change is that it will be my first performance of the show without using the famous whiteboards. This was always the plan this year. After Covid, I thought it’d be more hygienic to just use paper, rather than have the same whiteboards passing through hundreds of hands over August. However, I am going to see how the show feels without the whiteboards. They were a big part of the magic in previous years. So, I may yet reinstate them and just have more available that I can rotate and disinfect after each show.
After tomorrow, I will have four more previews, including two on one day at Watford Fringe. By the end of July, I am pretty confident that I will have everything in much better shape. One month tomorrow, I will have arrived in Edinburgh Fringe.
Finally, this is also likely to be my last entry on here written while I’m in my 30s, which seems a ridiculous thing and I don’t know how it is physically possible. But less ridiculous than the next decade I am about to somehow enter. When I entered my 30s, I was living in a shared house, putting together my first-hour show for Edinburgh. Now, at the end of my 30s, I own a flat in London and am putting together a new version of the original show, which ended up doing rather well.
I am also hoping that this will be the last entry on here with this rotten carcass of a Tory Government. Things can only get… not any worse.