Chortle Student Comedy Awards.

Hooray! I have been selected for the Chortle Student Comedy Awards.

Well, I say selected, there wasn't actually a selection process of any kind, I think anyone who sent their details gets in. They did ask for a comedy reference - and I gave them the name of our beloved compere, John Scott, but just his name, not his e-mail or telephone number, so unless they've done some real detective work, they still know nothing about me.

Owing to overcrowding at my selected venue, Manchester, there's a chance I might have to go to Bristol or Southhampton. Which are strangely undersubscribed. There always seems to be a cock-up with the venues for the heats for these things. Surely they only need to have so many heats in the south because of London, so why not just have them all the southern ones in London? Then when Manchester is oversubscribed, because it's the closest venue if you live anywhere between Carlisle and Nottingham, I get redirected to a place that I can get to on one train. Arse.

Again, the North East is just not appearing on the comedy map. At the BBC new comedy awards the sheffield heat was the best option, and at least 5 out of the 12 acts were actually from Newcastle (or at least on the Metro) - Why don't they choose the venues after they know where the contestants are from?

Anyway, I'll be at one of the following:


Tuesday February 21: Jesters, Bristol

Sunday February 26: University of Southampton

Monday February 27: Manchester. XS Malarkey

I don't know how long we have to do yet, but the next 5 mondays will see me at the Egypt cottage honing my act. I think for a couple of weeks I'll keep the formula of admiting I'm trying out new stuff and asking for marks out of 10. Then I'll practice the competition act 3 times and tweak it a bit. So let's hope for plenty of new faces at the Egypt, or they're going to get pretty sick of me.

MY NEXT GIG - EGYPT COTTAGE, NEWCASTLE, NEAR QUAYSIDE, NEXT TO OLD TYNE TEES BUILDING.- MONDAY 23RD JAN -TONIGHT.

OTHER GIGS, NOT FEATURING ME, - THE ROYALTY PUB SUNDERLAND, EVERY WEDNESDAY.