I survived gig number two last night, JAM Comedy at Robinsons Wine bar in Newport Pagnell.<\/p>\n
Unlike my first gig, I went to work as normal in the day which helped quell nerves but by late afternoon my mind was wandering and I was back to picturing 20000 hilarity-struck fans at the 02 Centre, London.<\/p>\n
Given my directional uncertainty with regards to the venue, I left with plenty of time to spare. As I left, my almost-five-year \u2013old was inconsolable because Daddy wasn\u2019t around for bed time. I do read a bloody good story.<\/p>\n
Arriving soon after 7pm, I was one of the first there. I met Mike Lord, who kindly allowed me a place on his stage. It\u2019s easy to overlook the task of putting on a comedy night, particularly a recurring night, and it\u2019s something I am in admiration of. One day, it would be great to put on a gig, if only to have a guaranteed slot on a local night!<\/p>\n
Three comics from my first gig were on, Frantique Byrne, Winter Foenander, and Ryan Jones. It\u2019s a small world, this circuit. I chewed the fat with Ryan and a new comedian I met, the fantastically funny Jake Pickford. Looking at my watch, which had stopped, was pointless but my phone confirmed start time was nigh.<\/p>\n
The audience had a large make up of comedians which was daunting as I\u2019d been warned about them (us?) being a tough audience. Stripped of the luxury of a dressing room, I sat in the audience waiting to be called onto the stage. Third act up, my time duly arrived and before I knew it, the mic was in my hand.<\/p>\n
I felt nervous but in a different way than the first gig, that was just the thought of standing up in front of people. Standing up in front of comedy connoisseurs is a whole different ball game and it took me a few seconds to get my head around.<\/p>\n
Started off ok, commenting on my introduction, and then nailing the first line. Then I got a little tongue tied for the second gag. Watching it back, it was 3 or 4 seconds and you hardly noticed it but while up there, it felt like a custodial sentence.<\/p>\n
I picked up after that and found myself growing in confidence, just as happened at the first gig. I ran through the rest of the set and got decent laughter, missed one of the new sections, but managed to disguise it well enough. Shame though, that was a good gag!<\/p>\n
Another discovery is that the walk back to your seat in the audience feels slightly awkward. This is the typical arrangement at these comedy nights so I need to get used to it fast, but last night I just seemed to employ tunnel vision back to my seat. Mike, who was mc, then came on and told that audience that it was my 2nd<\/sup> gig and there was a nice appreciation of that.<\/p>\n Having completed my time on stage, it was much easier to relax and enjoy the other acts. The Rev Henry King was a great surprise to close the show. Great character comedy. All in all, a great little gig.<\/p>\n I drove home, possibly slightly faster than my mother would approve of, made a cup of tea and watched my set back. Live the dream, baby.<\/p>\n Thanks to Ryan for recording it for me. Watching it back, it was much better than I\u2019d felt while I was up there. It got me thinking that a video recording is an essential part of the learning process. They say stand-up comedy gives you immediate feedback, but I write a joke, repeat it until I\u2019m bored of it, say it on stage and get an audience reaction, and yet it\u2019s not until I get back home that I know how it really went.<\/p>\n My twenty month old son Conor woke up, probably to have a giggle himself, and my wife found herself with him in one ear and an over excited comedic wannabe regaling tales of the evening in the other. Happy birthday babe.<\/p>\n Out again on Thursday and hope to see some familiar faces among comedians and audience. You never know what you are going to get when you turn up at these nights, and I suppose that\u2019s part of the appeal, but also the tension.<\/p>\n Hope to see some of you there, and hopefully it\u2019s another night where I can avoid the inevitable bombing.<\/p>\n Until then, keep smiling.<\/p>\n James<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I survived gig number two last night, JAM Comedy at Robinsons Wine bar in Newport Pagnell. Unlike my first gig, I went to work as normal in the day which helped quell nerves but by late afternoon my mind was wandering and I was back to picturing 20000 hilarity-struck fans at the 02 Centre, London. …<\/span> Continue Reading<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}