After a few weeks of warm-up gigs and polishing my set, last Saturday was my heat of the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year contest, at the Tournament in Earl's Court.

Competition aside, it was a great gig. The room upstairs was packed, probably the biggest crowd I'd performed to.

They might not have been the warmest audience ever (I noticed one or two stern faces in the room), but the numbers more than made up for it and the reaction I got was brilliant. The energy I was getting back seemed to give me a boost and help me put even more into the rest of my set. I even felt confident enough to throw in an extra gag I'd been unsure about. Probably as good an argument as any for putting your best material early on.

Unfortunately, I got some mild heckling towards the middle. Nothing malicious, but it was enough to eat up a few seconds so I ran over, which I really hate doing (really isn't fair on other acts, for a start). Two things I could probably learn from this. Firstly, I shouldn't be afraid of dropping gags off the end if I'm running out of time (still need to learn to be less precious about material). Second, I need to be more concise when ad-libbing, which will probably come with time, but I have to keep it in mind.

In the end, I didn't get through, but then again I wasn't really expecting to. The five folks that got through all did fabulously, particularly Mark Stevenson, who won the night overall and is still better every time I see him.