Another crazy week at work, so I'm a tad late in getting this report out. So late, in fact, that it'll be two reports! First up, What Am I Funny Huh? at the Queen's Head, Piccadilly.

Saturday was a tough one, the night being somewhat dominated by a gaggle of young women out on a birthday party - who had a tendency to all start talking at once if you addressed them directly - and the world's most miserable man, commenting on every act to the people next to him, and not really getting involved when an act tried to lure him into a conversation. Still, we soldiered on, and I have to hand it to the acts that managed to get a good reaction and stay in control (one in particular - who's name sadly escapes me - that I'd been chatting to in the break and had commented how worried he was about the situation).

I chose to play it safe, and rattle through my material without giving anyone a chance to chip in, which worked reasonably well from an attention point of view. Unfortunately the sour-faced chap in the third row started a semi-muted conversation early on, and the best comment I could come up with was "are you finished?" which did shut him up, but I got the feeling it turned off the audience somewhat. Before this, I was getting a few muted laughs, afterwards, it was almost as if people were embarassed to. I was put a bit on edge by the whole thing, and think I lost a lot of energy. Its not the first time I've had a hard gig, and won't be the last. I really need to learn not to let these sort of things bother me so much, as it can clearly make a bad gig worse.

On the plus side, I got a lot of nice comments after the gig (even if those comments didn't come along with laughs) so at least I know I'm on the right track, kinda.

Monday, I was back at Jester Jester's, where the crowd was decidedly more friendly, consisting mainly of acts and a few of their friends. I was still a little nervy after Saturday, but once I got that first laugh in the bag, I felt back on form. I'd thrown in my old opener from my "polished" set to have a more solid start, and it payed dividends (although made my set longer than I'd hoped).

As my set went on, I was loosening up more and more, focusing on individuals in the audience for longer, and even getting a decent comeback from an unexpected (although not at all hostile) comment from someone in the front row. There were even points I had to wait for laughter to subside, something I'm more than happy to wait for. And for the first time in a while, I really felt like I was feeding off the audience's energy to put a bit more into my performance. Again, I really need to find a way to add that energy without getting it direct from the audience first, as it made for a much stronger set.

I've been tweaking around with some of the jokes in this set (which I've been calling the "phrasebook" routine), and its begging to feel like its complete. Now I can focus on other aspects, such as emphasis and pacing, rather than trying to identify which gags work and which need replacing.