Friday 13 August 2010

My first free fringe gig

The meadow bar

Ok so my open mic thing has been going ok but its more than time to step it up a notch

I was emailing all the places I could think of to get a spot after the fringe was all over and I got a reply from laughing horse comedy . a fairly big name in the five pound fringe world saying that they would be happy to give me a slot actually in one of their free fringe gigs which was nice. I had to ditch my mark Watson tickets for the night as the times clashed but I managed to get other for later that month and a fringe gig was at least something I could put down on my comedy cv .also as it was the first night I was going to be at the fringe anyway . so off I set for Edinburgh again to see a show and then be the show.

The first fringe show this year was Patrick Monahan a comedian me and the other half had seen in the Glasgow stand.... now.. when we go to the stand we usually sit in the front row .. this is because Helen very rarely gets picked on and its usually me. This night was no exception.

Patrick decided that we had come to the wrong gig , that we must have thought there was some heavy metal night on and in the spirit of that occasion took it upon himself to crowd surf over my and three other people’s heads (breaking my chair in the process) in order to make us feel at home. It was a great night , he ,as always over ran and to my knowledge never told an actual joke through the whole night . he was just disturbingly funny. Once his show was over we had a quick chat and then tried to leave before the venue realised we had killed one of their chairs (seriously one leg buckled under our combines weight) .

The night of the fringe we once again sat in the front row. Now it’s not that I’m a gluten for punishment or that I’m some sort of show off but the front row is always the most fun.

So pat walks out onto the stage and WHAM I’m being picked on, he drags me up onto the stage and decides he wants to run a race against me and another man from the audience he picked on a kiwi (not the bird) hockey player and sent us up to the balcony surrounding the stage to begin the race .. now my brain does think in a weird way and since I started the comedy thing it’s been getting worse but here I was with another bloke looking down on pat like I was one of statler and waldorf from the Muppets.... you don’t know who they are do you.... ok here’s a picture

I suggested we heckle like they did in the show but ...blane...breen..spleen or whatever kiwi mans names was(it was certainly something like that) , was having none of it.. oh well it would have been a good joke.

waldorf and statler

Still we did run the race from the balcony to the stage and it went ok ( I WON, I WON, NAARRHHHHHHH!!!), I was of course as gracious as ever (ME! IT WAS ME WHO WON!...MMEEEEEE! THE FAT BIKER AGAINST THE FIT HOCKEY PLAYER.... PANSIE!!) . so back to my seat I went.. and pat continued his show everything from killer geese to Iranian dancing and hard man walks.

Pats shows are great and if you haven’t seen him you should. (that is all).

patrick and me! i was in the middle of talking so i look like seriel killer!

After the show I stuck around to say hi to pat and chatted about the Glasgow chair breaking I told him I had to go as I was going to be doing a set of my own. He said he was going to come along but when I told him the time he was in another show (likely story!). so I went off to the meadow bar to do my set in there upstairs sauna . last time I was in a room that small with lots of half naked sweaty people.. you don’t need to know this! I think I was third on , I sat and waited and while I was waiting I had a realisation that I had spent more time on stage with pat than I was going to get on my own set. Maybe next year ill be getting longer .who knows . anyway I got up to do my set and I enjoyed it but there was that niggle again in the back of my head saying “change this...it’s not working...” I got a few good solid laughs and a few good solid groans but my act still feels rushed and like I’m some sort of drama student trying to blurt out the next line . after the gig ended a guy rushed up to ask me to pay a donation for the gig , I raised an eyebrow and was about to reply when I was saved by the compere who said” he was one of the acts”.

Glad I’m so memorable.

ahhhhh the glamour!

1 comment:

  1. You always look like a cereal killer to me Adam - no cornflake is safe...

    I'm enjoying your blog especially as it is totally focused on the specific subject of starting out in stand up - that really works and interests me greatly. You write in your actual 'voice' too which I like muchly. Does that even make sense?

    Great blog title too. I know you had to go back give the background but I think you should add dates to the events you've described and then date all future blogs.

    Yes! Now you've started this, you HAVE to keep going. :-D

    x

    ReplyDelete