The Edinburgh Approach

Depending on your point of view it's either been a one gig or three gig week. 

From the one gig point of view I polished Clicking Like at Hilarity in Shoes on Wednesday with the ever-funny Rick Kieserwetter doing a slightly extended set. Numbers were low and the microphone didn't really seem to be on but it was a nice evening to have a beer and chat with everyone afterwards. I've been asked to host next Wednesday's show as the usual guys aren't about which should give me a chance to practise my MC chat, something I rarely do and should probably be doing a lot more if I'm ever going to be more than a shouty guy with an iPhone full of backing tracks. 

With Edinburgh in mind I'm going to make some kind of video for Tales of the Unexpected this coming week. Despite it's focus on the truly hack area of supermarket self check-outs it's easily my most popular song - most likely due to it's universal appeal and rather decent backing track (if I do say so myself). 

I'm also rewriting my narratives so my tracks will link in the context of Edinburgh rather than London. On the whole the tracks themselves need no tweaking at all - though where I have made changes I'm once again reminded of the difference in approach between being a songwriter and a comedian. Songwriters, on the whole, write songs and if people like them that's a bonus. Comedians, on the other hand, are a lot more needy and tweak their material to appeal to the needs of their audience. In my case this has only stretched as far as replacing "pedi-cabs" with "rip-off cabs" on West End to take account of Edinburgh's pedal punishing hills and therefore lack of London's worst transportation. So not exactly the end of any artistic integrity I may claim to have perhaps.

Back to the three vs one gig debate. So this week was my final one at my current school as I'm moving over to an academy in Walthamstow in September in the name of career advancement and less journey time. Combined with the usual end of term shenanigans this has meant a lot of going out and a lot of love thrown my way by the wonderful staff at Queensbridge. None more so than on two consecutive nights them cheering me on to perform One Shot as they had all seen it at the Pub on the Park Edinburgh preview. The first night was a beer powered barbecue where someone wheeled out the school PA for some impromptu karaoke - which then inevitably led to my own performance - then on the second night in an actual karaoke room where everyone spontaneously jumped into the chorus whilst I was making a hash of making a farewell speech. 

So no, not gigs, but confidence boosting fun none-the-less. Needless to say that though we will be making efforts to stay in touch I'll miss the daily (dare I say it) "banter" of the staff room and beyond. 

So next week:
Monday - MCing Famous First Words at The Gunners, Finsbury Park.
Wednesday - MCing Hilarity in Shoes at The Lion, Stoke Newington.
Thursday - Memoirs of a Geezer, Shadwell.
Tuesday Aug 2nd - Edinburgh!