Pig PensThere is something inherently ridiculous about a microphone
SHOW 6: 7TH AUGUST
Nothing interesting to report today. No calamities just steady progress.
Before ShowWas in a very bad mood up to and including 2pm. Ate a massive and heavy lunch 2-2.30, two mugs of coffee. Walked to venue in slightly better but still essentially bad mood and now feeling sluggish. Held out little hope of being able to get my head in gear.
During Show
Audience would appear to be mainly local (Edinburgh) and largely sober and bit on the reserved side.
I opened with a new bit of material about how my audience are scroungers. Not funny in itself but really got me into character and thus funny in itself. Also it help me talk to them rather than “at them” – which apparently you are supposed to do now.
That broke the ice and it is also true which is good. Then straight into ‘More friendly than I look’ and everything cooking nicely. The punchlines all landing thus far. The stronger punchlines getting strong laughs. By the end of ‘Sympathy’ I was getting carried away and enjoying it too much and missed out the whole of ‘Empathy’. I was immediately aware that I had skipped a piece this time instead of just remembering after the gig. So maybe this is progress? Was already stratagising if and when I could slot ‘Empathy’ back in. I was able to loop around at the end of ‘life is a waste’ and go back into Empathy. This probably effected the build and ordinarily I wouldn’t have bothered going back but today they are really onside and I can afford to take the risk. Life is a waste is the best it has gone today. I could really feel the beats of it and would like to get every bit of material up to this level of knowledge. Millennials is arse about face today but it seems to make perfect sense by managing the tone correctly. I think I get the tone the best ever today- but this could be an illusion from enjoying the show too much. The whole thing starts to loose momentum around. ‘Better than you’. Noticeable lag at Animals. I can feel my energy going here (45 minutes) and mistakes starting to creep in. I expect also timing starting to go slightly – this a hunch not based on empirical data. Wasn’t able to rally Vegetarian today and need to make more of end. Need to rewrite end of ‘Beautiful Girl’ to make it messier.
Was working on mic technique and posture today. I kept lapsing but then also kept correcting myself. There is something inherently ridiculous about having a microphone too close to my mouth that I can’t take myself seriously. It seems so seriously dated, like I am commentating on the FA cup final in 1955, but then those Madonna things are also farcical – like you have a scar on one cheek form a non fatal knife wound. Didn’t really think about smoothness of delivery or re-setting my voice to low but then hopefully I was doing this naturally as it felt more effortless today and voice very rested after performance. I think that is perhaps why it lagged at 45 mins that I wasn’t conscious of making much effort until then.
After Show
Best show yet but think the audience were on my side so it doesn’t count.
Moment of the day. A woman tells me that her son is a fan of me -although not there today. She tells me that he watches me on YouTube and then recounts my material to his friends but gets it wrong. Yip that sometimes how I do it too.