Who says I never win anything?
Oh it's me isn't it?
This morning I learned I had won the Pod Delusion
Comedian of they year 2010 (about two minutes in to the podcast). Yes! A nerd on the internet thinks I am good. What a surprise! It's hardly a Celebrity Mastermind trophy is it?
I am flattered evenso. You've got to take what you can get in this life. It isn't one of the awards that will help me achieve my
COBNOB and it doesn't come with a gaudy perspex trophy. But the geeks and rationalists who listen to the pod delusion are my kind of people and it is an honour to be their jester of the year. And they said they might give me a laminated certificate. So you know, 2010 hasn't been a total waste of time.
Audience numbers picked up very slightly for tonight's show, but I still get the biggest laugh of the show for my closing remark, "So what have we learned tonight? I guess that I have learned that although it seemed like a good idea on paper it was a dumb idea to do a show about Jesus in Christmas week. No one wants to think about him at a time like this." It's not a disaster - numbers were just about in three figures tonight - but I have to hope that things will pick up by the end of the run (at the moment, next week is looking worse than this). So if you're thinking of coming to the London shows, don't leave it to the last minute. Would love to see you in the next week or so. The continuation of my free podcasts does somewhat depend on the success of the tour show. A lot of this does come down to choosing the wrong time to start I think. I am upbeat about it all still and I am perfecting the show - although tonight I managed to fuck up the beginning of the begat memory bit, which is quite an achievement. Also weirdly the sides of my tongue at the back of my mouth were really hurting for the first fifteen minutes of the show. I don't think I have experienced that before and I haven't been doing anything strenuous or interesting with my tongue. I think it's just a bizarre sore throat that has slightly missed its target, but it only began to hurt once I was on stage (it hadn't made itself apparent at any point in the day).
Doing a show every night does give you a chance to improve a show and improvise and come up with new bits. I am very much enjoying myself with this and the audience were right up for it from the start tonight (after a slow start last night). It's strange though when a tried and tested bit of material suddenly starts to fail and you can't work out why. I have been doing my Pope letter at the beginning of the second half, which is an old bit, which has worked well before and throughout the Godless shows a couple of weeks ago. But for the last five days the line it in which usually gets the biggest laugh has got nothing. Clearly I am somehow cocking it up, the timing has gone wrong or I am pushing it too much. I can't tell what I am doing wrong though, but, of course, the fact that I am over thinking it is affecting the delivery. I find little moments like this quite fascinating, even after all these years. What is the secret spark that has disappeared? And will I get it back? I think it's one of those lines that needs to be thrown away to work, but possibly subconsciously so. I've been trying to throw it away, but maybe because it's conscious that makes it too mannered in its casualness. But funnily enough it's problems like this that will keep a show interesting into its two hundredth or so performance.
I know the show so well that I can now dick around within it and try and find new areas of comedy. But it also means that I can make the kind of errors that cropped up in the memory bit tonight. Tonight was the loosest show for a while (in a good way) and I had a lot of fun messing about (giving my Mastermind score as proof of my wisdom). This is more of a theatrical piece than a stand up show, so it's useful to break out of it a bit and relax. I will keep experimenting and perfecting. And hopefully the word will get around and houses will improve.
There is still some climbing to do. Let's see what 2011 brings.
