For a third time in a week I donned my shirt and tie for a bit of character stand up, and had a really fun night, despite my set completely dying.

Strangely, though, watching a recording back, I was reasonably happy with my performance. I didn't stumble over words like I had on Monday, and think I injected a little bit more energy in than previously. I'd snuck a little time to rehearse before I left, which helped immensely.

Despite not really getting many laughs, I seemed to have the audience's attention, and there wasn't any hostility or anything. General feeling was "we like you mate, we're just not finding you particularly funny". So on the plus side, I didn't feel nearly as bad about the spot as I might have.

I'm not going to beat myself up over it, but think I can take the experience as encouragement to improve. I've got another gig as Ian next Tuesday, so I'm going to spend a good chunk of Sunday working through the set, getting rid of the excess words and perhaps ditching a few of the weaker jokes - the set is ever so slightly over 5 minutes now, so I can afford to cut bits.

I think I'm relying on the clipboard too much as well. I've got the entire set written on it, and although I know most of it without referring to the notes, I still need to follow it to turn pages. I do need the clipboard for a couple of things (holding the "race card", and a quick-fire list), but if I'm looking to it on and off for the whole thing it might appear unprepared. So I'm going to get rid of everything I don't need and make sure I know the set inside and out.

I'll get it right one of these days...