My 2012 Comedy Record Of Achievement
Well, it's a little late for my review of the year. Everyone else has already done their year in review posts last week, when the New Year just dawned.
But I've always been behind the times, especially since I'm still talking about 2012 when it's now 9 days into 2013.
So let's get down to the form letter by another name:
January 2012
After starting my job in the Midlands in November 2011, I looked into finding somehere in the Midlands where I could keep up my practising and pass the time in an evening. I found 2 places that did drop in improv workshops, which is what I was looking for. The first place was Wow Impro, doing improv workshops on a Monday night at 7pm out of Bedworth Arts Centre. The second was Box Of Frogs, running on a Tuesday at 7.30pm from St Columba Church Hall in Moseley. It was good to get extra practice during the week in addition to the ComedySportz intermediate workshops that also started that month. I met some great people. It was a lot of fun.
February 2012
February was an interesting month. I got offered a couple of gigs. The first was a Stand up gig from Sean Mason and for the second, I was invited to perform with the Wow Impro crew to do a gig in March. Being an improviser, I said yes to both of these offers. In addition to doing improv workshops with Wow Impro, Box Of Frogs and ComedySportz and preparing some material for the stand up gig at the end of the month, I also was writing sketches and one liners for the sixth series of BBC Radio's Newsjack (the topical sketch show with the open door writing policy). I didn't get any sketches or one liners on the show in February, but the show ran for six weeks into March.
I did the stand up gig at the end of the month, and I died on my arse. Sorry Sean. But I did get a hug from the night's headline act Bethany Black, so that was good. My name was on a poster, too! That was the last time I'll perform stand up comedy. I just don't enjoy the process enough for the stress and the hassle that it caused me.
March 2012
March was very cool. For the first few days of the month, I went to London for the first time since 2004. I attended my first Hoopla all day improv workshop. It was on genres and was a lot of fun. The improv workshops continued and on March 12th I did my first improv gig to a paying audience with Wow Impro. It was a 20 minute spot, and I really enjoyed it. Later that month, I also did another ComedySportz showcase improv gig. All throughout the month I continued to write and submit to Newsjack, and it paid off when I got a one liner into the last episode of the series. £18. Ka-ching.
April 2012
April saw me doing my second improv gig and my first improv non-showcase gig in Manchester. A long form night at Fuel Cafe. It was a lot of fun. The group I performed with had a 30 minute slot during the 2 hour show. April also saw me take part in what turned out to be the last ever ScriptFrenzy. It was also the first time that I quit during the mont and didn't get to 100 pages after 4 previous years of taking part. I was just too busy with other stuff. The improv continued with Wow Impro and Box Of Frogs. I even started writing sketches and submitting them to a local live Sketch night, Sketch In The City.
May 2012
May saw the return of the ComedySportz intermediate workshop course, and I continued to workshop with Wow Impro and Box of Frogs. I did my third improv gig and my first with Box Of Frogs. It was a reasonable show, well the ausience member that turned up seemed to enjoy it. There was more submitting of sketches to Sketch and the City, and more that didn't get accepted or performed.
June 2012
A month with three improv gigs, including my first 2 hour gig (where I was in the entire show). 2 gigs with the lovely Wow Impro crew and the other with the Box Of Frogs group (with a bigger audience this time). There was even a plan to put together another improv show on in Manchester, but the group fizzled out before it took place.
On top of those gigs, there was also the improv showcase for the ComedySportz intermediate course.
There was more submitting of sketches to Sketch and the City, and more that didn't get accepted or performed. I wrote and submitted a 2 page script for a filmmaking competition run by London Screenwriters' Festival.
And on the last day of the month, my newly formed sketch group (made up of people I met on the ComedySportz courses) got together to make 2 improvised films.
July 2012
It was a very busy month, comedy wise. The second consecutive month where I performed in 3 improv gigs. The first was a travelling gig for Box Of Frogs in Liverpool when I performed at my biggest gig to date, Improvageddon.
A mere few days after that, I found myself in London to do Hoopla's Improv for Sketch Comedy 1 day course with Ashley Miller and Judgement Dave. The very next day, I was on stage again in another improv gig, where I got to host the evening for the first time. Fun. The day after, I even got to turn 30. Fun! ish! I went back to London for another Hoopla one dayer a couple of weeks later.
Towards the end of the month I completed the third gig of the month in Birmingham. A few days later, I started my 3rd Sketch Comedy Writing Course with ComedySportz. Towards the end of the month I also found out that I had made the Longlist for the 2 page script competition I submitted to the previous month.
August 2012
August saw me contentrate on Sketch Comedy writing, as I wrote material for my sketch class. I did some weekend improv drop ins with ComedySportz. I also did a test radio show recording session with Wow Impro early on in the month. Writing wise, I submitted some one liners for possible inclusion in a podcast and even though I was cut during the edit, I still got an on air credit! (As "Matt Fisher", too.) Woo! It was a month of no improv gigs, and I really missed them.
September 2012
September saw me continue with the ComedySportz drop in sessions for the first two Saturdays of the month. It was the last set of ComedySportz workshops I took that year as, although there was an opportunity to sign up for the October batch of workshops, I knew that I would miss the first two weeks. In addition to this, CSz were running a limited number of places this time, so I thought that the spot on the course should go to someone who could make every class. Of course, I later found that the Wow Impro / Beware The Gnomes gig that I would have been doing on the first week of classes, was going ahead in an altered format due to reduced show length and Beware The Gnomes was no longer going to be taking part. Of course by this time, the spots for the CSz class were all full up. In addition, another potential Wow Impro gig that was to take place in late September was cancelled. It wasn't turning out to be a great month for keeping hold of improv gigs (and they are hard to come by at the best of times). Beware The Gnomes began group improv practice / sketch creation through improv in the hopes of putting on a show in the new year anyway. Towards the middle of the month, CSz revealed that there were some drop outs for the intermediate course. So I signed up. (I just enjoy it and the people.)
September also saw the return of Wow Impro drop in workshops after the August summer hiatus. Fun after work times resumed.
Writing wise, I did more sketch writing. There was the oppotunity to submit to a non topical BBC radio 4 sketch show with an open door policy, which I took the opportunity to submit a couple of 2 page scripts hoping to get another BBC writing credit. A week later, I found out that the producer has already notified the people whose sketches he was interested in. And I never got an email from him. I also heard about another writing opportunity called 4am cab, which I then sent my non topical sketches off to that in the hopes of making episode 5 of that podcast. I made my first appearance in the comedy section of the UK version of the Huffington Post. A few days later, I also appeared in Huffington Post again thanks to me submitting some of my jokes to be included in a book to raise money for the charity Sane. the In an effort to have easier access to my jokes, I began blogging them every Friday. I also began submitting material for the seventh series of Newsjack in the hopes of getting another £18. And score £18 I did, by getting material in episode one. I also submitted a few topical one liners to the Kirrin Island podcast.
Towards the end of the month, Beware The Gnomes entered the Colchester Film Festival 48 hour challenge with a non comedy short entitled "Lifeless."
At the end of the month, I also started a 10 week Introduction to Acting class in the hopes that it would make my improv more rounded character-wise.
October 2012
The beginning of the month saw me turn down a short improv gig with Wow Impro that took place on Wednesday 3rd October due to the second week of my acting class. But on the day of the gig I was offered a group spot for Beware The Gnomes at ComedySportz's Third Annual Improv Tournament that was to take place at the end of the month. Beware The Gnomes practiced short form games in the weeks leading up to the gig. I also went to a Hoopla Improv Workshop on "Character" in London on October 13th. In the middle of the month, I was offered the chance to perform in some improv gigs in November with Wow Impro.
Writing wise, I kept submitting sketches and one liners to Newsjack, though I didn't get anything on for the rest of the series. I also learnt that I didn't get anything accepted in the Kirrin Island podcast, nor did I get anything in to the 4am Cab podcast. Though I did get some great feedback from the folks behind 4am Cab. Hopefully I'll be able to take this feedback onboard for when I submit to them in the future.
The month ended with Beware The Gnomes doing their first live gig. We went out in the first round of the tournament, but there was a lot of fun to be had and a lot of mixing with other improvisers from around the country.
November 2012
November saw me cut back on the writing (other than Twitter jokes), but ramp up on the improv. Doing three improv gigs in the first half of the month in quick order with Wow Impro. (Gig 11, Gig 12, and Gig 13). It also saw me having a lot of saturday fun with Beware The Gnomes (trying to come up with weird Sci Fi Channel level B Movie pitches, which we are all going to write) and improv goodness. It also saw me finish out the latest batch of ComedySportz workshop. My attendance has been down this term (5 weeks out of 8 attended. Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 if you care) but in my defence I have been doing other comedy related things when I missed the weeks in October and November. I did the showcase (again) on November 24th, and managed to be less than stellar, with my coordination issues causing me problems in Top That and my general lack of aptitude for World's Worst. I didn't bother with a write up for Showcase 6 as it wasn't recorded. But I did the games: Top That, Forward/Reverse, Meanwhile... Elsewhere, Columns, and World's Worst. There are even photos of me tagged on Facebook for you to look at if we're connected on there.
December 2012
December only saw me in the UK for the first week of the month, but I did manage to fit in my last UK gig of the year (Gig 14). I also managed to send out a Christmas email to my work colleagues. The rest of the month was spent in Australia, where I had a good relaxing time, but didn't get much of anything done. It was great.
Stand Up Course Progress Part 4: Now With Added Character!
Even though it isn't going that well lately, I've decided to still write about my experience on my stand up course, mainly because it is something that has happened to me that I don't need to make up. When I say that it isn't going well, I should clarify that it isn't the course itself, or the teacher, it's just me not being funny. Well, I think I'm funny. Just no one else does.
So without further ado, though I am making much ado about nothing.
My Fourth Time
Saturday 5th March 2011.
So the day was the 29th Anniversary of the death of John Belushi, and it also marked exactly a week since my little breakdown on the same stage. So the clues were there, as David Frost would say.
It did not go well.
That isn't completely true. The first 45 seconds seemed to go ok (and get laughs) but after that, it went down hill faster than the Jamaican Bobsled team.
Because after that first 45 seconds I went back to the ol' patented "Lunchbox of Laughs" and the 14 jokes that I hadn't managed to tell the week before. Actually, that isn't true. I started the set off with one of the 14, so there were 13 left to try.
Try they did, and so did I. If you never try, then you'll never know.
Now I know not to try those again.
My best self depricating line of the week was:
"God, I wish I was a character act, but this is all real."
It got me my biggest laugh of the day. Mainly because John Cooper and the week's special guest (Lee Fenwick of character act Mick Seargent fame) had spent the early part of the workshop talking about character in stand up.
I don't really have a character. It isn't really a heightened version of myself, either.
As it was a tight five minutes (in that John gave me a signal at 5 minutes and I just stopped) I didn't get much more out after that.
On the back of that, the task for this Saturday is to put together our "Best Of" 5 minutes for the final workshop. I've already written new material for it.
So check back here next week to read how it went.
See all you optimists then.
Matt.
Stand Up Course Progress Part 3: Won’t Somebody Think Of The Goldfish!
Last week I said that I would talk about my stand up again unless I had something better to talk about.
Despite trying to rack my brain as to something, anything, else that I'd rather talk about than my stand up, I can't come up with a topic. And because I want to spend the rest of the week trying to learn my material again, I didn't wantto leave it until the last minute, so here goes.
My Third Time
Saturday 26th February 2011.
A day that will live in infamy until I assasinate all those that were present and destroy all the recorded copies of said "performance."
As John Cooper had asked me the week before to boil my stuff down to one liners and mix it up a bit, I did just that, and cut up my stuff into bullet points. I put them in a lunch box and drew them out at random like a comedy raffle. And as everyone knows in comedy, you don't fuck with the raffle.
It did not go well.
I don't mind saying one liners, but I need to write a lot more that actually worked.
I have 44 jokes.
I was on stage for the longest 13 minutes of my life.
The first minute or so was me improvising about what I was actually going to do on stage that day. It got a couple of laughs which is why I count it towards my time.
After that initial improvised volley, I was doing so well during my time that John stopped me. Twice.
The first time was at 3 minutes and 6 seconds into my material. John stopped me as he said that I should relax and vocalise what was going on in my head. That gave me a respite of about 10 seconds.
So I carried on and vocalised my thoughts as I bombed over the next minute and a half.
John stopped me for the second time at 4 minutes and 33 seconds in. At this point he stopped me to let me know that what I was doing (adlibs based on bombing, and not bombing itself) was what he wanted to see, and buoyed after 30 seconds of encouragement, I carried on.
But it didn't last long and soon I was dying again, and then at 7 and half minutes in, I just lost it. I was so frustrated as I pulled out a bullet point on a piece of paper and said:
"Goldfish, for fuck's sake."
Poor goldfish.
Sadly that off the cuff remark gave me the biggest laugh of the day. The Goldfish joke got a few laughs, but I'm not entirely convinced that it wasn't just because they still found me nearly having a breakdown funny. I carried on, but my finely written lines could not match the hilarity of me being pissed off at the crowd and my material.
In that 12 minutes or so, I managed to get through 30 jokes (2 new ones which got genuine laughs). One of my 30 jokes I abandoned in the middle of it, because everyone had heard in the two previous weeks and it got no laughs then, so I didn't see the point in wasting a minute of everyone's time to tell it. Maybe it could be reworked, but I'm not so sure anymore.
In addition to those 30 jokes that I told, I also improvise around them, but only because some of them bombed. That improvising got a few laughs, but there were 7 jokes that got absolutely nothing at all. They're going to be cut for next time, which is a shame because there are a couple in there that I really like, but it appears that the audience over ruled me. They may stay, I don't know.
So that leaves 14 untried jokes that I will attempt next week.
I get that the whole thing is people laughing at me because my material is shit and that my reaction to it is funny, but the whole experience was so emotionally destroying, I don't think I'm a strong enough person to be able to do that night after night, which is what I'd have to do if I want to become a stand up.
I don't really want to give up on this, I'm just not sure what to try next.
So now that the eagerness about this whole thing has been eaten out of me, I guess I'll keep trudging on this death march to the penultimate week.
See all you optimists then.
Matt.
Stand Up Course Progress Part 2: The Mic Stand Strikes Back!
Okay, so the mic stand didn't really strike me back. But stand up is all about tension and release. And if that didn't make you laugh, then maybe I'm doing this wrong.
I thought that I would use this blog post to update you on the stand up progress that I am making on my course with ComedySportz.
In my last blog post on the subject, I mentioned how I had written more anecdotal style but that I hadn't performed it yet. Well in this exciting episode I'll tell you how it went.
Twice!
But after these messages:
For sale: Time Machine - one owner - £350 o.n.o - Must be able to travel to 1955 to collect.
Wanted: A sandwich - brand new ideal, but one previous owner accepted. - £1.50
Still For sale: Time Machine - one owner - £345 o.n.o - Must be able to travel to 1957 to collect.
We're back. Let's get on with the post!
My First Time
The first time that I performed my anecdotal material was on Saturday 12th March 2011. I count this as my first attempt at putting together a stand up set because it is the first time I had properly learnt my material and didn't need to use my notes. The earlier weeks I did stand in from of a mic stand, but I was reading from a book of stuff and wasn't trying to be funny. Actually, I was. But no one laughed, so I am going to claim that I wasn't trying to be funny.
It seemed to go okay when I performed. They laughed in a few places. I think. I don't really remember much of what happened up there, but I only messed up in a few places. I messed up the delivery of my last joke because it is complicated for me to do while trying to put the stand back in its first position, but since I paused a bit too long, the others in the class clapped as they thought that I was finished. Since I can't execute it properly I decided to drop the joke. But on the day I said "No I'm not finished" and I tried to carry on. It didn't get a laugh. So I then told another joke, which I like, but based on the reception it got, no one else likes it.
But overall in the middle of the set I don't exactly remember which other bits got laughs and which didn't, so I decided to buy a dictaphone off the Internet for the next session, in the hopes that it would arrive before the next class. I resolved to record the next set and the feedback that I was given, so that I could pick up all the detail and critique when I listened back to it. That way my editing would be a bit better for next time.
I was still flustered at the end when I was given feedback by the course tutor (John Cooper, who performs as himself and as a character act called Danny Pensive) and by the special guest that week (Bethany Black). So here are the bullet points that I managed to note down:
1. Seemed a little over rehearsed - I talked too fast.
2. Before the punchline I should take a pause. Apparently if I talked slower and allowed pauses for laughs, I'd have a lot more than 5 minutes worth of stuff.
3. Nervous - breathe slowly.
4. stand ups need to break the fourth wall - I think that I was jut too nervous, but writing this now, I remember I tried at one point, but it didn't get a laugh.
5. Mic stand. It might be better if I leave the mic in the stand. They said I seemed a bit more relaxed when not touching it.
And that was it. That was all the notes that I took. They did say a lot more, but those were the general topics. And I don't really recall what else was said in detail. Hence another reason why I needed the dictaphone. If I was ever to learn from this, I need to listen back to a recording, because I realised that after 4 weeks I'm that wound up about the performance that after it is over I just can't focus very well. If I'm ever to get better I think need this piece of equipment.
So the dictaphone arrived Wednesday night, and on the Saturday I took it to the Manchester Comedy Store for class and...
My Second Time
The second time that I performed my anecdotal material was on Saturday 19th March 2011. I had written about 4 minutes worth of new stuff in the week, but I didn't believe that it was as strong as my first stuff and because I had the dictaphone I decided to repeat last week's effort.
I hoped that I would now pick up all the laughs that I missed out on the week before.
I even managed to do it without my notes again. Memory success!
Sadly, there weren't any real laughs this week. Mainly because everyone had heard all the material already.
But this time I was acutely aware that there were no real laughs except when I pointed to someone in the audience and they laughed. I think it was out of pity.
I tried to move during my delivery, and as I took the weight off my right leg I could feel my leg shaking. So I put the weight back on it and stayed rooted to the spot.
So after it was over, I sat back down. I didn't take many notes of what John was saying (no special guest this week) because I hoped that the dictaphone would pick it all up and I could sort through it all when I got home.
Luckily the dictaphone did pick it all up.
Every last painful bit of my set and all of John and the class's great feedback.
So here are John's main points:
1. John said that I was at my best in the first couple of weeks when I was adlibbing off my material. I didn't know my material then. I was reading it poorly. And I was bombing. That's the only reason why I was adlibbing. I didn't intentionally set out to write shit gags.
2. The term "Non Sequitur" may be unknown to some people and requires a leap of the audience. This isn't good, especially if the floor has not been reinforced, as the floor might give way. I'll probably stick to using the term "surreal" instead.
3. The stuff in my routine seems locked in too tightly, and I don't leave any space for anything else to happen. Like laughs.
4. Need to relax. Stop trying to steam roll from beginning to end.
5. Need to try and improvise a little bit around the material.
For the next class on Saturday, John has set me a task of cutting up my set to just the jokes (no links or other bits, like orange juice pulp. We don't like that) and to try and mix it up a bit so that I will have to think a little more while I'm on stage, loosen up a bit and not just zone out and read off my material.
Fear.
That's all it is. Its scary up there. I was hoping that as I did this every week I would get more used to it. But so far I haven't. And I'm only doing this in front of 7 people who I have known for 5 weeks.
Will next week be any better?
Tune in next Wednesday to find out, same pathetic time, same pathetic RSS channel.
Unless, of course, I find something else to write about.
And before no one asks - No. I'm not putting the mp3 file up so you can listen.
Busy, Busy, Busy
So since the last blog post I have been busy.
I've written and have been rehearsing my stand up for class at the weekend. The style is more anecdote based than what I wrote about last week, so hopefully I can be more confident with it. I thought that I would be performing the material last Saturday, but the workshop turned in to more of a writing one. At least it gave me more time, as I didn't have it properly memorised then. Now I think that I'm a bit better at it. I've got a few more days I think I'll be ok. That way, during class I can just concentrate on the performance aspect. A big thanks to my good friend Jen who has given me some great feedback on my material, so hopefully I'll be able to incorporate this in time for the weekend.
This past Saturday, I met up with several friends about the sitcom we are writing together. We discussed the script and then afterwards we went our separate ways. I've been trying to put together a new draft over the past few days. I think that I can try to finish a new draft before this coming Saturday too when we are meeting up again. I've got a couple of more pages to go, but I think that I can get it done.
Newsjack submissions kicked off this week too, with the sketch submission deadline this past Monday at noon. I was a little rusty not having written sketches in a while. I had 3 ideas, but I was only able to properly write one. The other two kinda of died in the middle and I was a little disappointed in that, but maybe I'll figure out a way to get them working in the future and can submit them somewhere else. Yesterday was the deadline for the one liners for Newsjack. I managed one, and that wasn't great, but I submitted it anyway.
So that's my week in a nutshell, and now that Newsjack has started again I get to do it over all again next week. And on top of that, I'll probably have to add writing stand up to the mix, too.
So here's to the new week.
Have a good one,
Matt.
Stand Up Course Progress Part 1, Or How I Learned To Seduce A Microphone Stand
Calm down there pilgrim, you haven't missed my stage debut yet, I've only just done the second week of the ComedySportz Stand Up Course run by the excellent John Cooper.
I just thought that I would use this opportunity to let you now how my first forays into stand up are going.
The answer, dear blog reader, is not well.
And that is entirely down to me.
Confidence.
I don't seem to have any.
We'll start at week 1 because I never really understood all the zero based indexing crap. All I had to do was take the microphone out of its stand and talk a little bit about myself for a minute or two. I approached the mic stand and fumbled it. Completely. It looked like I was trying to mug the stand for it's pension money or even possibly dance for it.
Behold me! I am the great seductor!
So after I finally got the mic out of the stand my head was completely messed up and I think I blathered on about what I had for breakfast. To be honest, I'm not totally sure, but I do remember feeling like the class may see what I had for breakfast. And the rest of the day was a bit of a blur to be honest with you. The only thing I do remember is that everyone else was much more natural with the mic and the story telling.
At the end of week one, the homework was to write 4 pages of ideas that I wanted to talk about next week.
Great, I thought. I had already written some one liners over the past several months. They amounted to be about a page of a Word Document. I put some other ideas down too over the week and by the start of the next class (this past Saturday), I had about three pages. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough, but it was all I could think of.
And then it was time to stand behind the mic. I overcame my problem of the previous week by simply leaving the mic in the stand, as I had other problems to worry about.
And that was an understatement.
As I stood at the mic and read out my material (yes I stood there with the papers in my hand) I fucked up the delivery through nerves again. And the material being shit. I think I probably got about three laughs in total from far more than three jokes. One of those laughs came from an adlib that I did when a joke bombed.
And after that experience I went to sit down, but to be honest I was that shocked that I don't even know which jokes worked and which didn't. And I completely forgot to write down the feedback that John and the rest of the class gave me. And now I can't remember what it was.
*thumbs up*
So based upon the response my material got, I don't think that I'm the one liner type. I genuinely tried my best to write funny ones, and not the "so bad they are funny" ones. Except for one or two of the jokes, most of them didn't work and I think you can find the ones that do work (in my opinion) on My Twitter. I could try and be a one liner stand up, but the ones that I read out on Saturday took me months to write and most of them didn't work, so I don't think that I could write 5 minutes worth in the 6 weeks that I have left.
So the option that I have left is to write brand new material in a more anecdotal style. Thing is, not much has happened to me, and some of the stuff that has happened I don't really want to talk about it. Or more to the point I would if I were a better writer so that I could put a funny spin on it.
So the challenge that I have set myself is to write a few minutes worth of material from scratch before Saturday. I have ideas of topics, but can I get it down on paper and then out of my mouth in the same order. Can it be done, or will I just end up standing there and looking stupid? (There's actually a good chance of that happening even if I get the material written.)
If this doesn't work out either, I suppose I could always just drop my pants and shout my name for five minutes.
Now where did I put those penis enhancing pills...
Matt Fishwick: I Love An Internet Superstar?
In my Two Year Anniversary Craptacular blog post at the end of March I updated you on the goals that I set for myself for the year. In case you can't be bothered to click the link, I recap the ones that I'm going to talk about today:
Goal Seven
Meet more people. This will be really difficult for me. Anyone who knows me in real life knows how really shy I am around people I don’t know or don’t know that well.Goal Eight
Be a better person. I don’t exactly know what this entails, but I know I’m not good enough the way I am.Goal Nine
Be more confident. (I’ll have to wipe the dust off of that CD)
So there were the three goals to try and make me a better person. And I think that I am a little bit thanks to the course that I went on. Up until now I never mentioned what exactly the course was, but it ended last week so I shall tell you that it was the very awesome Comedy Sportz Beginning Improv workshop.
Some of the people that know me, know I like comedy. Some of those people even know that I try and write comedy. And one of those people actually thinks that I'm funny.
Despite all the years of being interested in comedy and in the back of my mind wanting to perhaps persue it as a career of some sort, I never actually did something about it.
Until this year.
I'm 28 this year (pretty soon, *ahem* 13 days actually *ahem* for those of you wishing to buy me a card and present), and I wanted to have a go before it was too late and didn't want to look back on my life and think "if only I'd have tried" and so between scouring the Internet for porn and tea cosy knitting patterns (A man is allowed diverse hobbies, and if he can, then so can I) I found the ComedySportz UK website.
Pretty soon, the first day of the course rolled around and I was really nervous. Had I made a mistake? Would I find out that I wasn't funny after all these years of thinking I was? Are these rhetorical questions and little redundant and boring?
I rolled up to the Manchester Comedy Store (Okay, that isn't exactly true. I don't know how to rollerskate, I walked) and I learned the answers to the three questions that I (tastefully) posed in the previous paragraph.
No, Yes and Definately Yes.
While I was shy at the first class, but over the next few weeks I eventually loosened up a bit and by the end I didn't think that I did too badly. At least not bad for someone with no performing experience beyond Year 9 drama.
I met the fantastic people that organised, ran and taught the workshops: Bron Edge, Sean Mason, Chris Tavner, Jade Fearnley, and Rob Hudson. Big shout out (dig me being all street 'n' shit) to all of you. You guys rock. (Though the rolling has yet to be confirmed.)
I made friends with people and I think that I'm a little more outgoing than I was before I started. Though I can't confirm this, as I went all Howard Hughes and I haven't left my room for six days. I've also been peeing in jars, but that's just for fun.
The last session of the 8 week course was last Saturday, and at the end of our session I presented people with gifts. I won't ruin the surprise for people that accidentally bid for them on e-bay later.
I wasn't entirely convinced that I did brilliantly at it, but it's a start and I've signed up for another course later in the year, to try and improv(e). Get it?
Amazingly, they didn't think that I sucked that badly, and even wanted to get my opinion for the new promo video that they were putting together. And so after a dozen script rewrites and me having to do multiple takes, it was finally in "the can" as they say in "the biz". However, later I was told that having me crying and sitting on the toilet wasn't the best endorsement, so we ventured to the front of the Comedy Store for a little bit of that "off the cuff" magic that I will, one day in the distant future, become mildly tolerated for.
You can find the video on Youtube and on Facebook (search for ComedySportz UK).
Yes I am aware that I could have embedded the video in this post, but for technical reasons I chose not to learn how to do it.
Don't forget to watch the video for the best showstopper in the business, Ashley Miller.
PS. In the spirit of Comedy Sportz, this blog post was entirely improvised.
