Ups and downs -gigs 57-59.

A weird week with many gigs which, at this stage, leaves me tired and emotional.

Gig 57. Monday 29th. -Edinburgh Stand.
As expected a lovely gig, well recieved and laughs in all the right places. Even going on first didn't bother me.

Gig 58. Tuesday 30th. -LLC.
A bit drunk. But we were rushed so I didn't do too much anyway. I basically had a few suggestions for the competition - new reality TV shows, supposedly my explanation of 'Pimp my Pimp' was well recieved, as a few people have come up and said 'ahm the biggest pimp in darlin'ton'which brought back some vague memories.

Gig 59. Thursday 1st. - Castle Leazes Student Union.
Last night, not so good, which is why I've been in a huge funk all day. Not a total failure, there were still sporadic laughs and all the bits I thought would really work were greeted with good (though short)laughs, but it never really took off. I got the impression the crowd simply didn't accept me in the way they took to the other acts. I felt like I was really working to prove I was alright, where as people like Carl Hutchinson were just accepted. They see him and think 'I like this guy, he's going to be good' and chuckle at throwaway remarks. I get the impression some crowds see me, think 'Who's this weirdo?' and I have to work to get a reponse. (Carl also has good material too, I'm just saying his raport with the crowd is much better than mine generally is.)

I may have lost them at a point when I stupidly stopped in my joke about seeing 'the cure' to ask the young crowd if they were aware of 'the cure' and suggested they substitute Marylin Manson instead. This ruined the rythm, was patronising, and made me look even more out of date. -thinking 'the cure' are a modern goth band is bad enough, but suggesting Manson is the up to the minute alternative is worse. Also it totally destroyed the illusion that I was having a spontaneous chat.

I am seriously thinking of a massive style change. Just being me on stage isn't working, at least not often enough. It's galling that I won 'beat the frog' with the same persona and material - but I can't always get that reponse. Though I think being out of the North East helps as I can play the cheeky geordie card a bit. In the North East people sense I am in fact a slightly posh, educated, serious pseudo-Geordie and they don't buy it.

If I want a persona that works more consistantly I've got a few options.

1. I could just do character work, and pretend to be other people such as cowboys, yokels, angels, pirates etc. I would include here finding a partner and concentrating on sketch work.

2. I could pick a new persona and do my set in that voice. There's a comic who's English but performs in a welsh accent. I found this distinctly dodgy when I first heard it, but this kind of thing could work for me.

3. A similar approach, but to characterise myself. I'm actually quiet and seem to give off an unnapproachable vibe which means people don't tend to spark up casual chats. I enjoy converstaion but I'm not good at instigating it. All this is hard to fight against, so maybe I should consciously go with it. In personallity I'm much closer to Donnachda, but whereas he goes onstage as an exaggerated version of himself, I go on stage as something totally different.

This is probably the best approach- but I need to do some research, my self perception- both on and off stage- could be totally different to the impression others get. Anyway, I've got one more gig which will be basically the same as yesterday,

Gig 60. Sunday 4th. - The Fish Tank - Durham.

Maybe this will be great and I'll just put the last one down to an off night and keep going. But if it's another mild one then the work of building a new style will have to start at the next LLC.