I started putting together a set list for tomorrow night, but with all of these factors, it has failed to materialise into something funny. There are some good ideas, but it’s probably still a week or two away from becoming something I’d be comfortable saying on stage to make people laugh.

So I’ve cancelled my spot for tomorrow night. I really hate to do that, because it IS so unprofessional, and spots are so hard to come by. And I could have re-run old stuff. But I hate that, and I don’t want to do it. I want to do new stuff, I want to make my stuff better, and that’s what I’m going to do. Just this time I’ve run out of time.

Notes

In the very beginning, the MC forgot my name, and it was really embarrassing (for him, but it’s no big deal really), and so when I went on stage I moped on and started saying, “Don’t feel bad for me, when I was younger…” and then the video begins.

See my post below for the rest of the back-story about how I got the show.

I’ve just watched my performance though and I have to say it’s pretty good. The material was tighter than the night before with a few tag lines I came up with just before (and during!) the show, so I’m happy with that.

On the down side there were some prickly moments. I fumbled the beginning and end with the mic, dropped one bit without realising it, and messed up the toothpaste joke so it missed part of the setup and so nobody could understand it – and they didn’t laugh. I was wondering why! My mistake.

But yeah, good fun for me. Now onto preparing for the next show …

Gallery

Later.

I quickly watched my video from Wednesday night and realised that it wasn’t as bad as I thought. There was plenty of laughter, and the main problems were me messing up my own lines and sometimes stepping on the laughter too early.

So I decided to try the same thing again, after all what’s the worst that could happen in front of a professional audience?

I did remove a few sections that weren’t that great, and revised a few words here and there, plus filled a minute of the space with material that I knew worked from my first deadpan set. And the results were pretty spectacular, probably my best night at Comedy Lounge so far.

It was a big surprise for me. Firstly, I should have more faith in my material even when it doesn’t hit the first time. Secondly, I started doing deadpan but switched to my normal voice mid-way and it still worked; so I think it’s more to do with the type of material than the way in which I say it.

Also I ended the set poorly, it wasn’t clear I was actually finished. That was my bad. Also the very last joke completely bombed, which was weird because it completely hit the first time.

I have a recording of it all and will put it up tonight. I think it’s worth watching this one first, then watching the difference in the video from Wednesday night. It’s night and day.

Now I have to start preparing for a new show on Tuesday. I already have 30 seconds of it ready. The rest I’ll pick up from my rapidly diminishing backlog of pre-written material, and I’ll be hoping real hard for some inspiration in writing new stuff over the weekend!

Notes

I did another deadpan set tonight, though occasionally found myself slipping into my normal voice a few times, which ruined the effect a little. A lot of my bits didn’t necessarily have punchlines but I was thinking they would pull through based on the weirdness/self-deprecation factor.

They didn’t pull through.

At one point in the show, I heard at least one person say, “That’s wrong”. Also when I walked off stage, someone said (incredulously), “Was he video taping himself?” Well of course I was, I’m a professional.

The crowd was great though. I’m just going to relegate all of this material (except one or two pieces which were great) into the “stuff only I found funny” pile. Or I could use punchlines. Either way.

I feel sad because I actually worked pretty hard on these. But that’s a comedians life. You do 12 bits, you’re lucky if a few of them hit, rinse, wash, and repeat until you have increasing amounts of solid material to rely on.

Gallery

Coming soon, along with the last two sets of photos I embarrassingly said were coming really soon but didn’t.