Ian from Human Resources is back! After being on hiatus for months while I build up a 5 minute set I'm actually happy with, I've re-tooled my character act (ostensibly to make it "funny") and spent Saturday afternoon rehearsing ready for an evening gig at the Round Table near Leicester Square.

And it was something of a bizzare gig to revive a set on. I'd been asked to arrive at about nine, which I thought was a pretty late time to start an evening's comedy. Turning up at about twenty to, I found that the night was in full swing and ended up waiting on the stairs outside with some of the other acts.

I'd not been in this situation before, usually staying in the audience before I go on, to support and enjoy the other acts. So it seemed a little strange to find myself in an odd approximation of a green room; cramped, with no seating and situated next to the Ladies' toilets. I had no idea when I was on, or even which segment of the show we were in (was a break imminent? no idea), so I hung around just in case. Then a strange kind of chinese whispers developed, where descriptions of every little thing that went wrong were passed back through the group huddled by the door, somehow making them seem much worse. The room was cold. Most of the front row didn't speak English. The compere got in an argument with one of the audience and his group of huge mates.

The break came around and a few of us went for a drink downstairs. I was debating not going on, entirely expecting to die. But I figured I would tough it out and perhaps have a good story to tell later. The second half started without us and I found myself rushing upstairs after someone came rushing down to tell me I was being announced.

I blustered into the room, still wearing my coat. Somehow, I managed to convincingly apologise for being late in character, mentioning being at another seminar, etc, which unbelievably got a bit of a laugh and set the scene quite nicely. Not wanting to tempt fate with the audience, I directed my initial insulting of an audience member at the compere - the audience seeming to appreciate the authority figure being taken down a peg. The few laughs I was getting at this point managed to give me confidence to carry on and actually do a passable set.

From what I hear, the room was much nicer in the second half overall. Granted, there were a lot of non-English speakers in the room, but I managed to direct everything over them and target the people behind them, who seemed much more up for it. The changes I'd made to my script seemed to work well, and no gags fell completely flat, although I didn't exactly tear the roof off the place.

Still, not a bad re-introduction for Ian. Guess the biggest lesson here is "just do it". No matter what I'm hearing or however hostile I may think a room could be, I'll never know until I try for myself.