<\/p>\n
Wow, that was an experience. Prior to me doing it, has anyone in the history of comedy come on stage to both Oasis AND Mavado? I think not! Brap, brap. Ahem.<\/p>\n
Prior to last night, my biggest gig had been a sold out 70 crowd. Sunday night was more than double that with 150 people packing out Prince Harrys Comedy Night in Hammersmith. What’s more, it was an urban night meaning it was a different type of audience to deliver jokes too, in many ways it felt like another first gig.<\/p>\n
Sharing the bill were some superb acts. I arrived and couldn’t find parking so tried to go around a block which never quite rounded and ended up back out of Hammersmith. Eventually made it back and found a spot but it had made it a near 2 hour drive.<\/p>\n
I saw the promoter, Warren, as I arrived at the venue and noticed a lengthy queue outside making their way into the venue. Shit, nerves started to jangle in the pit of my stomach. I went to school with Warren, so my presence on the evening was kind of by way of favour, he’s been a top man for putting himself out to give me a bash at this night and I put in the work beforehand to give myself a decent chance.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know what to expect in terms of venue. I had no idea what end of Hammersmith the gig was in but it turned out to be just off Hammersmith Bridge at a multipurpose venue, Lala\u2019s. A restaurant and a private members lounge, which sounds far more promiscuous than is the reality.<\/p>\n
A smooth bar with a vibrant atmosphere furnishing the interior, seats lined in rows across the centre in front of the stage, and then the rows arching round the stage to spread the audience 180 degrees around you. Pukka.<\/p>\n
It was the September show that Warren first offered, but we agreed it was too soon. October looked a certainty, but I dropped out thinking I could do with one more gig to get myself to a level where I’d feel confident for this night. Then November was the date, and I couldn’t back out again. If I did, why would Warren bother asking again? No, time to bite the lip, and go in swinging.<\/p>\n
The day of the gig was, well, different. I started off meeting Sooty, Sweep, and Sue with my kids at the theatre, before coming home and preparing for the gig. Warren called and I ran him over the set in the briefest of terms. He came up with an idea that I wasn’t sure about, playing a Mavado song to get the crowd moving. Now while I have an extensively eclectic musical ear, and while Mavado is no stranger to my Spotify playlist, that doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to develop the rhythm that has eluded to me up to now… while on stage in a sold out show.<\/p>\n
Anyways… I meet Warren at the venue (after a bit of a parking ball ache) and he shows me around a bit, introduces me to people, all really sound. I’m thinking, this’ll be alright, this. The music is playing as I\u2019m preparing, headphones can stay in the bag here – t\u2019riffic. Deejay Campbell of football fame turned up looking dapper and Warren introduced me as one of the comedians. Gwaaan.<\/p>\n
Warren’s now dashing around the place, talking to literally everyone as he runs around doing the organisational stuff promoters do. I noticed Prince Harry aka the White Yardie in with the DJ so I popped over to speak to him. He was sound, recognised me from the pic (gwaan again), and then I just started running over my set again. Eventually show time arrived, and Harry was preaching to his receptive flock.<\/p>\n
A young comedian called Spudz opened for what was only his second show and the audience were clearly disappointed when he’d done his time. Genuinely funny guy, talented, and definitely one to watch out for as he inevitably makes his way up the circuit.<\/p>\n
Harry back up, does a few gags, and then calls me on to the guitar strumming sound of Wonderwall. A few ideas back and forth earlier with Warren, the idea was to play Oasis to greet me in, before I get stroppy with the DJ (Mr l) and stomp off until they put my song on, and then Mavado comes on. Worked a treat, the music got people hyped before I’d started my prepared set, and it launched into the show.<\/p>\n
First gag dropped lovely (boom), second slightly shaky but got a laugh (boom-ish), and then 3 or 4 mins of strong and very decent laughter (very boom). Only one gag in that section flew over more heads than a 747 (not boom at all). The first half of the set, worked like a treat and all the new material about Brent\/Harlesden was hitting funny bones left, right, and centre. One lady loudly described a gag as \u2018disgusting\u2019, which was the first time I\u2019d be complimented like that during a show.<\/p>\n
The second half was more challenging and more of a struggle. I started to lose them a couple of times, but managed to get them back laughing before too long. It was the closing of the set that was probably the low point, I prompted the audience for something and didn\u2019t get a reaction, and rather than using the lack of reaction to adlib like I should have done, I thought \u2013 fuck it, I\u2019m outta here!\u00a0\u00a0 I threw the last gag out and then thanked the audience and bolted.<\/p>\n
As I walked off, I could only recall the last 60 seconds, which hadn\u2019t been my finest moment on stage. It\u2019s funny how you can forget the good parts of a set and just remember the reaction to the last gag. I suppose that\u2019s why a boxer will step up the workrate for the last 30 seconds of a round, to catch the judges attention. You remember the gags that didn\u2019t work too, wherever they feature.<\/p>\n
So Harry is back on, and before long he introduces Junior Booker to the crowd. Junior delivered a great set with a lot of ad-libbing which was good for me to watch as he highlighted in my mind the kind of thing I should have said.<\/p>\n
When Junior saw me earlier and introduced himself. I was like, I know who you are\u2026 and I did. I knew who all the other acts were, I\u2019d laughed at them all before I\u2019d ever been on a stage. And here I was in that group on gig number 7. Mental, just mental. Anyway, Junior delivered a top draw set which ebbed and flowed with the mood of the audience, another thing on my list to work on.<\/p>\n
The headline act and one of my favourite comedians, Slim, arrived superstar-late and had to shoot off for another show afterwards but he more than made his dent when he was there. It\u2019s amazing how quickly he can get the crowd on side and keep them there. A lot of energy and some great gags later, and then Slim was done and Harry was back up to close the show. Slim is doing a one man show in the Hackney Empire so keep an eye out for that, bound to be a chuckle-rich show.<\/p>\n
I was surprised to hear Prince Harry has only been doing stand up for a year, you wouldn\u2019t know it given the range of material he seems to be able to draw from. I lost count with the number of photos he was called into from audience members. 66000 instagram followers can\u2019t all be wrong, and they\u2019re not. Take a look for yourself: http:\/\/instagram.com\/wyardie#<\/a><\/p>\n It had got to the time to go home, and at this stage I\u2019m thinking it had not been the best show I\u2019ve ever done but that I would have taken it as it was had it been offered to me beforehand, given my urban show virginity. The expectations you have for yourself just start to grow when you get there, and you start getting greedy! For example, Slim has been doing it for 20 years, and on Sunday alone performed a third of the number total shows I\u2019ve ever done \u2013 and that was in one frigging night. Perspective\u2026<\/p>\n Junior mentioned he runs a couple of other shows and I\u2019m hopeful there will be a bring-in for me on one of them, just need to adapt the set again following the feedback from Sunday and make sure it is consistently strong throughout.<\/p>\n So I said my goodbyes and started writing and rewriting jokes in my head before I\u2019d left the venue. I raced home, well not raced, my recent speeding ticket saw to that. I crawled home and watched the video back with baited breath.<\/p>\n Ultimately I am pleased with the result. I can make a room of 150 people laugh! I know why the bits that didn\u2019t work didn\u2019t work, but I am buzzing with how much of the new material did, particularly the new bits on my home town of Brent, and my kids.<\/p>\n Spoke to Warren the next day and there was agreement on how the set went, the strong start, the weaker finish, and we spoke about ideas for new jokes. We discussed writing some material together and that would be different as I\u2019ve been a lone soldier in terms of writing up to now. That said, he flipping nailed the opener of this show, despite all my reservations haha.<\/p>\n Music plays a big part in these nights too, the DJ is up on the side of the stage in a booth and is a big part of the show. Not any DJ could do that kind of night, cudos to Mr l, who was not only a sound bloke but did a fantastic job with the choons and with his interaction with the comedians. Not going to lie, it\u2019s also nice to have someone that close to you laughing at your jokes (most of them anyway J).<\/p>\n So what was all the stressing about? A slick venue with an audience, like all good comedy audiences, who have paid their money and are ready to laugh, or at least diss in good humour. Warren, Prince Harry, and co, you\u2019ve got a great balance of sophistication, music, comedy, and audience. I really enjoyed being part of it, cheers to the Comedy Hangover collective.<\/p>\n Now for me, jokes to write and gigs to arrange! Catch up with you all later.<\/p>\n James<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wow, that was an experience. Prior to me doing it, has anyone in the history of comedy come on stage to both Oasis AND Mavado? I think not! Brap, brap. Ahem. Prior to last night, my biggest gig had been a sold out 70 crowd. Sunday night was more than double that with 150 …<\/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-72","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\/72","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=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameshoward.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}