Competitions

Friday night saw me gigging at the Tournament in Earls Court in a Laughing Horse New Act of the Year 2009 quarter final. Introducing a competitive element to stand up normally results in the experience being less enjoyable. Horrible as it is, you can't help wanting all the other acts to be less funny than you. Mentally it brings out the worst in me in a sense. Unfortunately, when you're getting started they are one of the primary methods of getting stage time and they appeal as a means of selling yourself. 'Comedian X is a Laughing Horse New Act of the Year 2009 Finalist' sounds considerably better than 'Comedian X has been stubbornly dragging themselves around the open mic circuit for months on end'.

Getting through to the next round can often just be a matter of luck, particularly in competitions decided on audience vote such as LH. After all, humour is utterly subjective. I had the fortune to get through to the semi finals, even though I was far from my best. The set flagged towards the end, although I incorporated the audience a little bit and I feel my confidence on stage is developing. So more positives to take really. No-one really stood out during the evening so it must have been difficult for the crowd to judge. I'm not convinced I deserved it, but there have been a couple of competitions in the past where I've felt hard done by not to advance. Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don't. I might give up doing these sorts of gigs. It's nice to have a limited amount of glory but it's not a substitute for getting out there, doing as many nights as possible and putting the work in.

I'm still going to put 'Laughing Horse New Act of the Year 2009 Semi-Finalist' on my myspace though.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'll See You In My Dreams

 Today is the first day of the 2024/25 English football season. It will be the first season that begins without my Dad, who died four months ago on 9 th April at the age of 76. My Dad and I have shared football together for as long as I can remember. I fell in love with football largely because of Eric Cantona, who I remember thinking was the coolest man alive. I dimly remember him returning to action after being suspended for his infamous kung fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, scoring an equaliser against Liverpool and swinging around the stanchion behind the goal at Old Trafford. All of this subsequently led to me wanting to follow Manchester United. I am surprised in retrospect that this man from Houghton-le-Spring who spent most Saturdays in his youth at Roker Park to watch Sunderland AFC didn’t object more vehemently to this. Perhaps he saw it as a decent excuse to watch higher quality players than he was used to. Dad always wanted to watch good teams playing good football. ...
Read more

February In Film

  The Fabelmans The film follows Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), a young aspiring filmmaker dedicated to his craft who must negotiate the challenges posed by familial strife. Any resemblance to a real director is I presume entirely coincidental. One of my issues with the family early on is that they’re almost insufferably twee and not a great deal of interest seems to happen. The film’s central familial conflict feels somewhat implausible and is centred around Sammy’s mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams). I have enjoyed Williams’ work in the past but found her overwrought, hysterical performance here rather offputting.   Thank goodness then that Uncle Boris (Hirsch) arrives to drop a grenade into proceedings, explaining his own history with film and the arts and underlining Sammy’s forthcoming dilemma. He decides to get to work on his highest scale production to date, a war epic. These are the most joyous shots in the movie, teeming with invention especially in the deploym...
Read more

June In Film

  The Little Mermaid I have not seen the original Little Mermaid for something like 25 years. This probably aided my general enjoyment of yet another Disney remake, as I imagine that more diehard fans of the original would find more to fault here than I did. Having said that, some of the alterations worked for me such as the decision to give Prince Eric more backstory and a new song. Halle Bailey is perfectly cast as Ariel (regardless of what the internet’s worst arseholes will have you believe) and the quality of her singing is a match for the original. The highlight of the entire film is probably the moment when the crescendo of “Part Of Your World” hits, the waves crash against the shore and you’re fleetingly reminded of when Disney could still stir the soul. There’s an enjoyable performance too from Melissa McCartney as Ursula who brings a certain amount of fun to one of the House of Mouse’s greatest pantomime villains. Unfortunately, what these films lose in the transiti...
Read more