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After a productive day yesterday I was totally wiped out today. More progress was made on the leaflet for Happy Now (you can see the first draft in the downloads section - great work as always from Steves Brown and Newman) A few more gigs still to add, but it’s not going to be a huge tour this year. Some of the tickets are on sale already, but check with the venues. The Frog and Bucket one is on sale now and that always sells out fast, so book now for that one, Manchester.
I am a bit concerned that not having the terrifying deadline of Edinburgh means I am not moving quickly enough on the new show. I’d usually have a good idea of what was going to be in it by now, but at least I am not premiering it until September, so I have an extra month. There’s only the small matter of learning my other 11. I had my first best of gig at the Udderbelly tonight. A couple of wags on Twitter suggested that that would be a very short show. But that just showed them to be the idiots that they are. Even if all my material is terrible, it is still possible to do an hour of the best of the rubbish. You don’t even understand the word best, you prickberries. Is that the best you can do? See it can be a very negative word.
So I spent about an hour relearning the “Give me head till I’m dead” routine. It’s really good fun doing these half-forgotten bits again, but it’s easier to learn the big routines (especially ones that I used to do in my stand-up sets) and harder to memorise the linking material and order. And of course the temptation is to do old material in the gigs I am doing, rather than trying to get to grips with the new show. There is time enough, but I don’t think I will get to do my usual 40-50 previews to really knock it into shape, plus of course, the 25 Edinburgh shows where it develops further. But the fear is starting to grip me and that’s usually a good sign and I have a feeling that this will be an interesting show.
I continue to listen to the old shows, a bit shocked by some of the content and also by the nature of my old delivery. The Hercules show is performed with very odd emphasis and in a most unnatural way as if I am trying to hit the jokes with much too much emphasis and imbue each word with unneeded sarcasm. I wasn’t a stand up then and I think I felt the need to “perform” the material. This particular show is sprawling and unfamiliar and in places sounds like I am not quite sure what I am supposed to be saying. It’s going to be Hell on earth to relearn this.
The Best of Show part 1 went well. There were a couple of hundred people in the venue (it’s the same tent that I had performed Talking Cock in during Olympic year and I am used to playing it half full) and they mainly seemed to like it, though two people walked out during the routine about the email telling me why I shouldn’t mock God. Even though that routine is about mocking people who tell you not to mock God. Some people don’t like that. Much as listening back to old shows is making me spot the weakness in some of the material and the performance, doing a show with all the best bits gives me a much nicer feeling. I wondered if I should try and tour a best of show, maybe even one with an element of the audience being able to chose the routines they wanted to see. And even if you misunderstand what “best of” means the best two hours of the eighteen hours of material I have written is actually pretty strong. And as my performance skills have improved I am now able to give those old routines more subtlety and variety when I do them again. If I can remember what I am supposed to be saying.
