Come Up and See Me.


It’s so hard to get any interest in my previews at the moment.

It doesn’t help that they’re all organised by me, so the onus is always on me to drum up an audience. If I had the luxury of previewing on other people’s nights this wouldn’t be solely my job. This is what we offer acts who come to Hitchin Mostly Comedy and we always deliver, but sadly no-one returns the favour; I know this is largely because most other acts probably see me more as a promoter, but it’s hard to not take it personally, much as it’s hard to not let the uphill slog to coax people to come and see you get you down.

There will be plenty of other acts who are in the same boat to be fair, as the scene is saturated with previews at this time of year. The fact Mostly Comedy does consistently so well is an anomaly. It’s hard to get much comfort from this however, when you need these gigs to go ahead so you can pull your show together in the first place.

That said, it’ll be easier to get an audience in Edinburgh. Encouragingly, each time I log in to look at my sales reports for August the numbers go slightly up. I’m a long way from a sell-out run, but the fact people are booking before it’s even been promoted is a positive sign.

It helped that I received two encouraging tweets out of the blue; one yesterday…

 

…and one tonight…

…that made me feel a little better. It’s nice that someone’s actively excited about seeing the show, and that someone else felt the need to pass on a few positive and kind words apropos of nothing. There are a few nice people out there if you look hard enough; I’d just like a handful of them to turn up tomorrow, so I look marginally less of a dick. I’m not ruling me looking like one out altogether though, as that would be madness.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce
Read more

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane
Read more