Wednesday 17 February 2016

Cafe Mode


Around lunchtime today Daniel Offen put a post up on Facebook asking for acts for that evening's show at Cafe Mode. He promised ten real people and a short show to try out new material. True to form, Cafe Mode went somewhat beyond what was advertised.

Now Cafe Mode is not the most spectacular of venues. It is a very small basement holding 30 people where the stage light is a regular light pointing at floor space just about large enough to take a couple of sidesteps in either direction. The PA only connects to one of the speakers and the exceptionally warm heating in the cafe above disappears when you're about halfway down the stairs.

That said, it's still one of my favourite places to play.

This is in no small part down to the audience. There is one. A good one. One that fills the room without a seat to spare. One that doesn't usually go to comedy shows and thinks Michael Mcintyre will be doing a surprise guest appearance. And they're tourists, and they shout things out, and they're anything from 18 to 60. They are, in short, a less abusive version of Jongleurs-type comedy clubs. They are the reality of comedy away from the cosy but often insular "alternative" circuit. They are the people who think Mrs Brown's Boys is good and political correctness has, indeed, gone mad. If you can win them over then you can deal with normals - and if you can do that then the world is your oyster.

So I did two tracks. Tales of the Unexpected is about as close as I'm ever likely to get to something that could take me to the second round of Britain's Got Talent so that went well. Crisis of Conscience got the fist pumping going too. I shall definitely return.

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