Last
night at Crab Lab I hit another road-block. 'Stumbling-block'? Maybe
a better phrase? I'm not very happy with either of those...
regardless; I have a problem.
A few weeks ago I resolved to stop writing material until the Fringe, so that I could work on the ten to fifteen minutes of stuff I have that I'm fairly confident will do well in the nine shows I'll be doing for the fringe. Last night though, while playing to an admittedly cold room, most of my set fell flat, and I realized that I need to figure out a way to inject new energy into it so that when I perform the material for the tenth, twentieth, and possibly hundredth time, it doesn't go stale.
I don't even really have a single set that I pull out, although the material that I have is SLOWLY crystalizing together where I can find logical connections between separate bits. I'm doing another spot tonight though, at Agent 284, the new Commedia Dell'Parte room in Collingwood, and I'm planning on doing either exactly the same set, or if it starts going poorly like last night, then I think I have something up my sleeve... I really felt unprepared for the situation I landed in last night though. Everyone in the second bracket was getting lukewarm responses. Nothing brutal, and not really terrible silence either, just a few titters and the unbearable silence of people listening, waiting to give their approval. Eugh.
The headliner Laura Davis took an interesting tact that, as soon as she did it, I wished I'd thought of – she was nice to them: “do you guys realize you're a very quiet audience tonight? It's okay, I just wondered whether you knew.” I don't think they did... or maybe they did? I was never going to think of that though... my first and only real idea was to get angry at them, which thankfully I steered away from, although I did try a bit of condescension which got about the amount of slight acknowledgement it deserved. The whole time before I went on though I was thinking about the gig down at The Basin a few weeks ago where I managed to win over a poor crowd who were talking through acts by asking them rather aggressively, “are you guys enjoying being a shit crowd?” I knew that wasn't going to work last night, so I went on, did my stuff, tried a few things, and got off mildly disappointed.
This morning I thought of one thing that I possibly could have done – as is always the way; ready with a comeback once the moment has passed. I don't know whether this would have worked, but I thought that I could have said that clearly each of the individuals in the audience was a lovely person: they were all sitting politely, barely any whispering or chatter, waiting, laughing quietly at times. They were all great as
The headliner Laura Davis took an interesting tact that, as soon as she did it, I wished I'd thought of – she was nice to them: “do you guys realize you're a very quiet audience tonight? It's okay, I just wondered whether you knew.” I don't think they did... or maybe they did? I was never going to think of that though... my first and only real idea was to get angry at them, which thankfully I steered away from, although I did try a bit of condescension which got about the amount of slight acknowledgement it deserved. The whole time before I went on though I was thinking about the gig down at The Basin a few weeks ago where I managed to win over a poor crowd who were talking through acts by asking them rather aggressively, “are you guys enjoying being a shit crowd?” I knew that wasn't going to work last night, so I went on, did my stuff, tried a few things, and got off mildly disappointed.
This morning I thought of one thing that I possibly could have done – as is always the way; ready with a comeback once the moment has passed. I don't know whether this would have worked, but I thought that I could have said that clearly each of the individuals in the audience was a lovely person: they were all sitting politely, barely any whispering or chatter, waiting, laughing quietly at times. They were all great as individuals, but just as a whole, as a crowd, they sucked. That doesn't have to reflect on them as individuals, but when they all got together, they were killing comedians. It's like the holocaust, all of those Nazi soldiers were fine people, but when they got together...
Yeah look, I'm not saying it would've worked, and had I thought of it at the time, maybe I would have had the balls to try it, maybe not. I'll never know will I? I'm just hoping tonight's gig goes better, is all... although it would be interesting if I were put in a similar position tonight... I don't know, maybe I'd just try a bit of different material at the end to wrap it up, or maybe I'd try and open with a bit more energy? Ugh, fuck. No idea, really.
Peace, Taco.
A few weeks ago I resolved to stop writing material until the Fringe, so that I could work on the ten to fifteen minutes of stuff I have that I'm fairly confident will do well in the nine shows I'll be doing for the fringe. Last night though, while playing to an admittedly cold room, most of my set fell flat, and I realized that I need to figure out a way to inject new energy into it so that when I perform the material for the tenth, twentieth, and possibly hundredth time, it doesn't go stale.
I don't even really have a single set that I pull out, although the material that I have is SLOWLY crystalizing together where I can find logical connections between separate bits. I'm doing another spot tonight though, at Agent 284, the new Commedia Dell'Parte room in Collingwood, and I'm planning on doing either exactly the same set, or if it starts going poorly like last night, then I think I have something up my sleeve... I really felt unprepared for the situation I landed in last night though. Everyone in the second bracket was getting lukewarm responses. Nothing brutal, and not really terrible silence either, just a few titters and the unbearable silence of people listening, waiting to give their approval. Eugh.
The headliner Laura Davis took an interesting tact that, as soon as she did it, I wished I'd thought of – she was nice to them: “do you guys realize you're a very quiet audience tonight? It's okay, I just wondered whether you knew.” I don't think they did... or maybe they did? I was never going to think of that though... my first and only real idea was to get angry at them, which thankfully I steered away from, although I did try a bit of condescension which got about the amount of slight acknowledgement it deserved. The whole time before I went on though I was thinking about the gig down at The Basin a few weeks ago where I managed to win over a poor crowd who were talking through acts by asking them rather aggressively, “are you guys enjoying being a shit crowd?” I knew that wasn't going to work last night, so I went on, did my stuff, tried a few things, and got off mildly disappointed.
This morning I thought of one thing that I possibly could have done – as is always the way; ready with a comeback once the moment has passed. I don't know whether this would have worked, but I thought that I could have said that clearly each of the individuals in the audience was a lovely person: they were all sitting politely, barely any whispering or chatter, waiting, laughing quietly at times. They were all great as
The headliner Laura Davis took an interesting tact that, as soon as she did it, I wished I'd thought of – she was nice to them: “do you guys realize you're a very quiet audience tonight? It's okay, I just wondered whether you knew.” I don't think they did... or maybe they did? I was never going to think of that though... my first and only real idea was to get angry at them, which thankfully I steered away from, although I did try a bit of condescension which got about the amount of slight acknowledgement it deserved. The whole time before I went on though I was thinking about the gig down at The Basin a few weeks ago where I managed to win over a poor crowd who were talking through acts by asking them rather aggressively, “are you guys enjoying being a shit crowd?” I knew that wasn't going to work last night, so I went on, did my stuff, tried a few things, and got off mildly disappointed.
This morning I thought of one thing that I possibly could have done – as is always the way; ready with a comeback once the moment has passed. I don't know whether this would have worked, but I thought that I could have said that clearly each of the individuals in the audience was a lovely person: they were all sitting politely, barely any whispering or chatter, waiting, laughing quietly at times. They were all great as individuals, but just as a whole, as a crowd, they sucked. That doesn't have to reflect on them as individuals, but when they all got together, they were killing comedians. It's like the holocaust, all of those Nazi soldiers were fine people, but when they got together...
Yeah look, I'm not saying it would've worked, and had I thought of it at the time, maybe I would have had the balls to try it, maybe not. I'll never know will I? I'm just hoping tonight's gig goes better, is all... although it would be interesting if I were put in a similar position tonight... I don't know, maybe I'd just try a bit of different material at the end to wrap it up, or maybe I'd try and open with a bit more energy? Ugh, fuck. No idea, really.
Peace, Taco.
No comments:
Post a Comment