Last night I had a special call to fill in at Comedy Lounge just a few hours before the show was set to start.
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!