Last night was my final live performance of the year and one that summarised the ups and downs of promoting nights. Following a decent little Anything Goes a couple of weeks ago, Clash of the Tight Tens brought together six acts (down two due to car trouble) from near and far to wait expectantly in a room for the substantial number of ticket holders who'd booked a freebie in advance.
Come 8.30 we were still waiting so it was into workshop mode as everyone took it in turns to demo their new material. Reserved for the fledgling comedian, a surprising (to the uninitiated) number of new act / new material nights go this way so to acts with the collective experience of this room it was a familiar but unexpected chance to settle in and take part in a real-life version of Gogglebox. There were one-liners about relationships, references to WWII, personal storytelling with the potential for a punchline and a song about budget supermarkets (mine.)
Anything Goes returns on the first Thursday of February whilst applications for The Glossop Festival (on the weekend of July 10th-12th) open on January 1st. Acts looking to bring 50 minutes to Glossop should send a press release, photo and video link to apply.
As for our own show, three tracks from First World Problems have now been re-worded and their musical arrangements revamped and improved whilst two brand new tracks are also complete. Two further new tracks are awaiting lyrics and once that's done it'll be on to scripting the links. It's shaping up to be a quite a show and very different to what we've been doing with FWP over the past few years. Exciting times.
Last night Anything Goes Open Mic did itself proud with a lineup that spanned one-liner stand-up to surrealist monologues via musical mirth making. The audience, and yes there was an audience, enjoyed themselves throughout and we even recruited some new local performers.
Isaac's upstairs room is a small space which, when coupled with the angle-poise desk lamp lighting and floral wall paper, shelves of old photos and sofas for those watching, gives the impression of being someone's lounge. With a disco light. It's a friendly warm space and one which means you can easily slip from acts on their third or forth appearance to gig hopping pro's like tonight's de facto headliner, Dave Bawden - arriving fresh from a spot in Liverpool just in time to close the night.
The final Clash of the Tight Tens of 2019 is on Sunday December 15th at The Oakwood. Set to be a good one, many seats already reserved. You too can book a few for free here.
Away from running gigs, Anna and I are in the depths of preparing our new musical comedy show for 2020. Taking elements from First World Problems, it's otherwise looking to be an entirely new endeavour with character comedy at its core and a playlist of brand new tracks - give or take a couple of revamped and remixed tracks from previous shows. FWP isn't being retired entirely but for our own creative sanity it'll be taking a back seat for the forseeable future. The acoustic parodies continue as far as my solo club set is concerned - the new show possibly too quirky to translate well into a ten or even twenty minute set.
