In
the past months I've become increasingly frustrated by what I have
started to understand is the biggest problem with my comedy. As much
as I pet and cajole myself after every gig, and as much as I mentally
prepare myself beforehand, I can't seem to reliably win the audience
over. Every now and then I'll have a great gig, but that's nothing to
celebrate – everyone gets lucky every now and then. For the
majority of my mediocre spots I seem to have the audience steadily
suspended somewhere between vague enjoyment and frightened annoyance
and as great as this may sound, it really is not gold comedy
territory. So I've been thinking about why this is and what I can do
about it, and I think I've hit upon a small something... hopefully?
Maybe? We'll see I guess.
Firstly,
I mentioned that I've had good gigs, but I mentioned it dismissively,
and with good reason – it seems to me that most, if not all, of the
really good gigs I've had have been mostly down to luck, and I say
that not because I'm trying to get down on myself, but because it's
true. The approach that I've been taking with comedy has been very
much along the lines of “write material; decide whether it's funny
enough to do on stage; do new material on stage; decide whether I
should keep it; compose predetermined sets from bits of new material
that worked mixed with old material”. I guess there's no problem
with that approach, in theory – ah those beautiful words – in
theory
it should be fine. In
theory
I can continue to push through a wall of silence after my opener
falls flat, or receives a lukewarm response. In
theory
I should just keep going and try the next joke. Maybe they'll like
this one better? Maybe that was just a false start? NO! That's a
stupid fucking theory; comedy isn't about theories, and comedy isn't
about robots getting on stage telling joke after joke after joke and
crossing their fingers in the hope that a few of them stick...
fuck... FUCK... COME ON...
I
had noticed that my gigs had been falling in quality – maybe a
better way of putting it would be that they have been lacking in
consistency or predictability – and I tried a few things. You'll
notice up top there at the start of this piece that I reached out for
anger and attacked you, my gentle readers, when I realised that I had
gone three sentences into my intro without cracking one joke – I
got nervous and lashed out... it was a cheap shot borne of fear, and
I need to dead those cheap shots. Put them away, and start really
reading the audience. Connecting with them. I need to tell them –
let them know? – that it's ok, that I'm in control. Maybe first it
would be nice to actually be
in
control, but hopefully one will beget the other I guess... ugh,
thinking about comedy is hard. Comedy
is hard. Look guys, all I'm trying to say, and all I will say for the
moment, is I've realised that in order to regain control over the
quality of my gigs, I'm going to have to go out on a limb and break
the fourth wall. Break it, smash it, shit on it, and eat it for
breakfast. The audience need to feel like they have some control over
what is happening so that when the comedian jumps out and surprises
them from behind his cleverly placed misdirections and traps and
cleverly constructed sentences, they aren't so surprised that they
turn on him. They need to trust me. Trust me audience... please?...
Ok., working on it.
By
the way the laundrette really is quite nice. Four dollars for a wash
cycle, one dollar for fifteen minutes of drying, and everything I
said about the room-temperature was true. My Beautiful Laundrette
Brunswick St, Fitzroy – I recommend it.
Peace, Taco.
Peace, Taco.
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