This week's gig was at the Coo Comedy Club in Tufnell Park, and I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable nights I've been to.

The evening was geared towards sketches, music and character comedy, which made for a really varied show. And while the audience might have taken a little while to warm up (so some of the earlier acts didn't quite get the laughs I thought they deserved), once everyone got into it, the atmosphere was fantastic. Not least due to the boundless enthusiasm of the compere, Anthea Neagle. Plus the quality of acts was very high, and I was lucky enough to be going on shortly after Little Dark, a sketch group who absolutely stormed it and brought the energy right up.

Keeping with the character portion of the theme, I had a crisply ironed shirt and my clipboard to appear as Ian from Human Resources. After my less than stellar performance last week, I'd spent Sunday working on the routine, cutting out waffle and trying to add more "punch" to the gags. I'd also got rid of the full script from the clipboard, so I spent much of the interval nervously running through the routine to make sure I'd remember it. I'd also foolishly had a few brainwaves on the way in, determined as I was to make remembering it all as hard as possible for myself.

Luckily, the work and worries paid off big time. Almost everything I'd hoped would get a laugh got one, and a few of the better bits almost got a round of applause (I say almost, it might have been someone laughing just hard enough to accidentally bang their hands together, once). I ended up stepping on a few laughs with afterthoughts, which is pretty bad craft, but someone that I can fix with experience (and not much else). I also went a little too quiet at a few points, and couldn't quite make out what I was saying on the video I took. Having volume levels is good, but I should aim to up everything rather than extending the "dynamic range" (get me using big words!) at the lower end.

All that said, I came out absolutely buzzing, and I'm now eager to try and improve the character even more. Its running at about 6 minutes now, so I need to get brutal about cutting out the duff jokes. I think I know which they are, and annoyingly enough, they're my personal favourites. Still, broad audience appeal and all that.

Roll on my next gig! And be sure to check out Coo Comedy every other Tuesday at the Hideaway, if its anything like this week you're in for a great night!