Gig 3. Christmas is coming.

Me and rich. Dec. 2004. Cumberland arms.

The third gig, and as the festive season was coming we had the luxury of a theme. It`s so much easier to start with than a completely blank canvas. I went for a mix of 2 points - christmas and cryptozoology. Im a big fan of Fortean times - the magazine of weird stuff, Loch Ness Monsters, UFO`s etc. I don`t believe any of this stuff but it`s always entertaining, and unlike some other weird stuff publications always contains some proper literature, history and folklore. Anyway - the basic idea was an interview with a monster hunter who was out to prove Santa existed using the same techniques others use looking for big foot.

It was still very Peter Cooke influenced, my character had a lot of Sir Arthur Streebe Greebling. And we made a big use of props, which in this case worked well. It was a long sketch, getting on for 10 minutes but one of the best recieved as there was a lot happeing to keep up the interest. It culminated in me revealing the apparatus which would trap an elf, who could then be interrogated. I pulled a cloth off a large, festively decorated rat-trap, baited with a mince pie. On the night the trap audibly went off under the cloth, and had to be re-set, then failed to go off on the `elf` even though I was jabbing his head into the mechanism. Rather than this being a failure, it was 2 jokes for the price of one - the audience could clearly guess what was supposed to happen so didn`t need to see it, and seemed to prefer watching us struggle.

Another nice point about this gig was that though it was only our second appearance we already had a `following` a small knot of people who were really paying attention, and even trying to get those just chatting at the bar to shut up. Another success, and a welcome confidence booster after my solo spot.

TIP: DON`T WORRY ABOUT MAKING A FEW MISTAKES, IF YOU MEET IT WITH GOOD HUMOUR THE AUDIENCE WILL PROBABLY LAUGH MORE AT THE GAFF THAN WHATEVER IT WAS YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DO.