A short blog today. The reason for this is that I think I hit the wall yesterday. It wasn’t a particularly bad wall, and was certainly not covered in anti-climb paint or even rude graffiti, but it was a wall nonetheless. I didn’t realise I’d hit the wall until I was about 15 minutes into my show, when I suddenly realised how bored I was with saying some of the words. Unfortunately I said some of the words like I was bored with them and got a bit tongue tied, and did a bit of a half arsed performance. This is bad. People have paid tickets to see me and no matter how little rest I’ve had, and how braindead I may be, I really should try my best not to babble on incoherently for 55 minutes. People I know that were in the crowd seemed to enjoy it, but I knew I sucked a tad. I remember someone telling me years ago that the more experienced you get in comedy, the more you can make a bad gig an ok, and an ok gig a great gig. I think I’ve just about managed to do that yesterday. Here’s the problem: I feel a little like my brain has melted. Yes, I’m only doing an hour show a day plus between 2-4 extra shows/sets/MCing which may only add up to a little bit of work time compared to the average working day, but, my brain tends to overheat a bit unless I have one day off to put it to rest and not think of any jokes or anything. Monday’s my day off and I’m just aiming for then to collapse and maybe go watch the penguin parade at the zoo.
After my show I admitted defeat to my dead brain and spent the evening going for a curry with Layla before we both went to watch Pete Johansson’s brilliant show at the Underbelly. Layla hadn’t seen him before and she laughed loads all the way through. Highly recommended. We grabbed a few drinks in the Loft Bar with Pete and his wife Courtney as they told us about Canadian things and exploding cars. Janeane Garafulo was in the bar too and Pete went over to talk to her as he knew her from the LA circuit. She is so tiny in real life. I mean, stupidly tiny. Like the sort of tiny that would get easily lost and have to be collected by someone and kept at a desk while people made announcements. I was tempted to go over and start talking about 24 but then I realised that a) I didn’t really like Season 7 and b) I’m a big chicken. Still the whole evening ended with a crepe and some sleep and I’ve woken up today feeling a little better about the world which is good. I’m going to head to my show early and run through some lines, feign enjoyment and hopefully kick the gig in the face. As much as kicking anything in the face might sound bad, its actually a good thing trust me. Unless it is you that gets kicked in the face, then its bad. There’s a very fine line in face kicking nowadays.
Few more nice reviews up. It does appear like it’ll be the year of the three stars for me. I wish I could have got a few more 4 star reviews but all the 3 stars do read really nicely. Yesterday’s show was definitely a 3 if not less but some of the shows after the first few days were definitely better. Sadly all the reviews happened between day 1 and day 4. I’m trying not to over analyse it all but its pretty much impossible, especially when the wall keeps saying that I should. Damn you wall! Just hope that the constant 3’s don’t affect this year doing anything for me, whether it be a few more stand-up gigs or some telly work, I’d hate to think I’d left Edinburgh with nothing gained but exhaustion. Although I suppose some people don’t even get that so I guess it’d be a bonus. With any luck I’ll get exhaustion and some sort of liver disorder. Fingers crossed people, fingers crossed!
Today = my show, a set at Lemoncustard Comedy, food, Kitson’s play, sleep. Hooray!
