Struck down with an annoying cold, I was dreading compering 5 Minutes of Fame this week, but surprisingly it was probably one of my better nights.

After last Friday's harsh lesson in audience rapport, I was determined to get a little compering practice in, but a slight sore throat at the weekend had turned into a full blown cold by Wednesday and left me determined to spend as little time on stage as possible. My plan was to come on with a couple of short sure-fire gags, then just keep the acts coming.

The first part of the plan worked fine, I even had chance to pop in a few lines about my illness that I'd come up with earlier in conversation with the barman, and launched into a quick applause exercise to get the energy up, designating a louder member of the audience as my "cheerleader" (which proved a nice trick to get them on side). Once I'd brought the first act on, I kept mostly out of the way.

Then something interesting happened. I relaxed. Having had a nice experience at the top of the night, with my cold not getting in the way, I forgot about "performing" and just started enjoying the acts. Towards the end of the evening, I even managed to slip in a few off-the-cuff gags about the previous acts' topics, which went down surprisingly well.

Guess the biggest thing to take away from this is to calm down when I'm compering, and try to enjoy the night. If something witty comes to me, great, but there's no need to really put a lot of thought and effort into anything mid-show. I get the feeling that my being relaxed could also rub off on the audience.

Also had some really nice comments from fellow acts and performers. As well as an observation I'd not heard before: I have a habit of pacing the stage a lot (this bit I knew) which can distract from what I'm saying (this bit I didn't). Given how well things went last week leaving the mic in the stand, I'm inclined to agree. Provided that this wasn't the only reason it went well.