Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted April 28, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted April 28, 2018 (edited) We've got our flyers, posters, mic, micstand, banners (with graphics provided by the excellent @Monkee), lighting sorted, social media promotion done, real life promotion in progress. Our first show is this Thursday for which we have all our comedians booked. I am going to be MCing every week and frankly I'm shitting it. When I was doing the open mic circuit a while back, I got to the point where I had a decent 5 minute set that would work with pretty much any audience. But then after a confidence shattering couple of gigs in a row, I stopped doing comedy entirely until I decided to run this night in Stoke Newington. I've never MCd before and won't have a chance even to do a five spot somewhere before the first show on Thursday in order to at least get somewhat comfortable on stage again. I have booked myself on a number of shows going forward but nothing before my first show that I'm promoting. I did an MC workshop with a guy named Alfie Noakes (quite well known on the open mic scene, runs the We Are Funny Project and has MCd probably around 900 nights) which helped somewhat but I'm still shitting it. The room seats 40 (70 with standing) and I am optimistically expecting about 30-40 the first night. I'm sure I will get better every week and MCing every week means I'm doing probably about 20 minutes on stage every week, and at my level stage time is all important, so there are benefits to this. But man, I might have to take half a Valium to calm me before I start! Not sure the exact point of this post other than to say that a) I'm shitting it and b) come to my show! We also couldn't have picked a worse time to start a comedy night. A World Cup coming up. Edinburgh in August. Not to mention that in summer people generally don't want to be in a darkened room on a sunny evening. We're basically starting up towards the end of the comedy "season". I think after July (assuming the night goes well enough that it keeps going), we will either shut down until September or go bi weekly or maybe monthly due to the Edinburgh festival.  Edited April 28, 2018 by SpursRiot2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Maestro Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Best of luck to you Spurs2012. If you do the rounds around the UK let us know if you're in Leicester and I'm sure me and the good Lady Maestro would be game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted April 28, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted April 28, 2018 19 minutes ago, The Maestro said: Best of luck to you Spurs2012. If you do the rounds around the UK let us know if you're in Leicester and I'm sure me and the good Lady Maestro would be game. You're running a night or do you mean you're doing spots and would do some if we ran a show up there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted May 2, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 2, 2018 Last episode of Acaster's series definitely has the most overtly Stewart Lee inspired routine yet. Proper plagiarists' corner stuff. It's also more or less the same set he did for Live From the BBC in places, which is a bit of a shame, as it meant it was largely material I'd already heard. Still a great set, though, and "ready to eat apricots" remains one of my favourite recent gags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted May 2, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 2, 2018 @SpursRiot2012 I used to MC pretty regularly. One of the things I liked most is that everyone else was concentrating on their own material, so 'topical' was a nice way to do new material each time. If they're of any use at all, here are two of the most useful things I found to remember: 1 - Don't get in your own way. You're just there to get the crowd warmed up and used to laughing out loud. You don't need to do stuff before intervals/at the end, other than a quick quip or two. You're the fluffer, not the bukkake target. 2 - You're the only one that's guaranteed to leave to applause. Even if a joke fails, you can go straight to '...well, anyway, give a big round of applause to...' and you get to leave to clapping. You get to bail in a way nobody else does. It rocks. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Maestro Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 On 28/04/2018 at 7:06 PM, SpursRiot2012 said: You're running a night or do you mean you're doing spots and would do some if we ran a show up there? I'd just come up to watch. I'm sure in my younger days I'd probably be game doing a spot but I think mumbling awful one-liners to myself in the corner is about as far as I'd go at my age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 2, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 2, 2018 (edited) 12 hours ago, Chris B said: @SpursRiot2012 I used to MC pretty regularly. One of the things I liked most is that everyone else was concentrating on their own material, so 'topical' was a nice way to do new material each time. If they're of any use at all, here are two of the most useful things I found to remember: 1 - Don't get in your own way. You're just there to get the crowd warmed up and used to laughing out loud. You don't need to do stuff before intervals/at the end, other than a quick quip or two. You're the fluffer, not the bukkake target. 2 - You're the only one that's guaranteed to leave to applause. Even if a joke fails, you can go straight to '...well, anyway, give a big round of applause to...' and you get to leave to clapping. You get to bail in a way nobody else does. It rocks. Â Good advice, Chris. Thanks. Especially number two. Definitely, a good thing for me to keep in mind! I've got a bit about Donald Trump's Russian ties that I want to try out, too, so that's pretty topical - though perhaps a bit too US-centric. I've also just realised that, adding together all the acts I've booked for tomorrow, assuming they all run exactly to their time, plus assuming the show starts dead on 7 and the interval ends dead on 8, the show actually only runs about an hour and a half. That's not including any time I do at the beginning, on the interval/post-interval and at the end (and, as you suggest, I'm not planning to do much on the interval/post-interval and the end will be me mainly plugging a charity) so now slightly worried about underrunning. Probably worrying about nothing though. Edited May 2, 2018 by SpursRiot2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoUseforaUsername Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 Watching Louis CK Live at the Beacon. Ever notice how filthy his t-shirts are? The stains? With what we know now, they have to be cum stains, right? Just like the constant masturbation jokes, he was hiding out in the open. TotAlly getting off on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 3, 2018 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 3, 2018 Good luck for tonight @SpursRiot2012. Gutted I can't make it but keep us posted and I'll try to get to another one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 16 hours ago, Onyx2 said: Good luck for tonight @SpursRiot2012. Gutted I can't make it but keep us posted and I'll try to get to another one. Thanks dude. I think it went quite well. The venue really stressed me out as upon arrival I found they hadn't done a bunch of stuff they said they would do in advance of us getting there. So I spent all the way to show time - which ended up being about 15 mins late - running around like a headless chicken. I was disheartened at first as it seemed like only the comedians and a few of my mates turned up but each time I got up to introduce a new act, the room had more people in it. By the end, it was standing room only - only we only had around 35 actual seats so... The closer annoyed me a bit. I had booked her to do 20 to close the show as I know she's a good comic and I wanted to end strong. But she had other ideas. She essentially just workshopped her 1 hour Edinburgh show, trying bits where she had yet to find the punchline and stuff like that. She also went over her time by 10 fucking minutes! Despite me obviously indicating that she needed to wrap up. Oh and right when she reached the stage after I brought her up, she leans over and asks me quite loudly if she can plug her own Tuesday night comedy show at the end of her set. I said yes. I could hardly say no at that point, not that I would said no anyway, but I just found it a bit of a shitty thing to do in that way. The whole thing was exhausting. And I've got to do it all again next week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 Good to hear it went well, Riot. Would've come down for this one, but am currently boracic. Will try to get to next week's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrasslin Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Given who you had headlining it's hardly surprising she did something self indulgent . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted May 4, 2018 Moderators Share Posted May 4, 2018 Sounds like it went well, all told. Nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 1 hour ago, Wrasslin said: Given who you had headlining it's hardly surprising she did something self indulgent . . . What makes you say that? I've seen her act a few times - that is, doing an actual set, not workshopping material - and she was always pretty decent. Actually had more than one person get up with their notebook. I don't mind people trying bits of new material, but I did make a point of saying early on that this was not a new material night nor a "proper" open mic, since it's always pre-booked comics who I've vetted (for the most part, there was an act last night who did 10 minutes smashing up citrus fruits who I hadn't seen before, so...) as so many of those nights degenerate into about 10 comedians with notebooks watching each other do five minutes they're trying to hone to do somewhere else they consider "proper." Well, I'm trying to turn this thing into a "proper" night, myself, so having the closer come up and do half an hour of unfinished material left a bad taste in my mouth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dead Mike Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 Glad it went well fella. Very bad form from the closer, especially if it was pre-agreed that it was a strict 20 & she was getting paid. That said, at my last show the compere (who runs a very successful & established night in Manchester) said that they still have to politely remind their headliners that the gig isn't an excuse to try out new stuff & they want the club set they'd do at any of the big weekend gigs. Onwards & upwards though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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