After a couple of months getting a really solid 5 minutes together, I thought I'd try to get some semi-new material on track.

It was a pretty good night to try stuff out, the crowd were lovely, and whipped into a frenzy of excitement by Renata Muss, our wonderful compere for the evening. On the other hand, I went on first.

I got a nice reception (being friendly with the audience really does help), but nowhere near as good as some other recent gigs. A few of the "good habits" I'd been working on went out the window as I struggled to remember what I was going to say next. This hammers home how important it is to know your material, and how much rehearsal I really need to be doing. And unfortunately, I didn't quite manage to find time to rehearse my new stuff as much as I would have liked.

Now is possibly the time to get tactical and set up something of a "conveyor belt" for material. Have several sets on the go at once: sets I'm performing in public (some polished, some with a view to polishing), sets I'm rehearsing in private and sets I'm still writing. Rather than letting an idea languish in the back drawer until I think I have time to use it. This way I have a clear route to getting ideas out there.

On the plus side, I got some good feedback from other acts on which of my new gags they liked and ones they didn't quite get. Even better, it gave me some inspiration for new gags and improvements on the ones already there. Win!