The nice lady at 'So You Think You're Funny?' called me up a couple of hours ago to ask whether I'm in Edinburgh and if I was, could I, please, change my allotted semi-final heat on the 16th to tonight? 
So, give-up a week of preparation? A week of many guest spots to hone my craft? A week of 'We Love Comedy' shows and a chance to practice in front of good sized audiences? And possibly most important of all, give up one of my only days off without a comedy spot booked? 
Of course I said yes... Well, it was more like (after half an hour thinking about it): 'Ummm, ok, errrrr, hmmmmm, alright, let's whip that band-aid off...' For all the extra preparation, gigs, our own show and the day off, there is also the weeks worth of niggling fear to contend with and to be honest, I've had a good time here so far and although a bit physically drained, am pretty much as mentally prepared for comedy as I can be, coming off of two good shows yesterday. So I'm going to relax, do some improv games as preparation and try to enjoy every second of the experience later tonight. See you there?

Just a quick note to say 'WOW!', what a first show we had yesterday. Sin (on Cowgate) is a brilliant venue for comedy and we must have had well in excess of 150 people in the audience for the show. The reward for an afternoon working hard out on the High Street and Cowgate, selling the show (and the venue's cheap drinks!) to people. The show itself, was a joy to do. Every act brought it and barring the microphone playing up a fair bit, was a great experience for all involved I think. Now, what will today bring? I'd better get out there and find out...

Well, this was the view from my girlfriend's seat several hours ago, just after boarding our train to Edinburgh at Kings Cross. I'm not going to share a more recent picture than this, for fear of frightening old ladies and children – that's the current demographic looking at my screen as I type. So far the train ride has been fairly without incident. I've had to do a last minute flyer design for someone using the keypad on my laptop. With a 9/11 theme. That certainly scared the old ladies. Well, we've got another hour to go 'til we reach Edinburgh for the start of our month. What will it bring? How will it change me? What shows will I see? Will I be a better comedian for the experience? We shall see. I've certainly got enough gigs booked in as a performer to find out, including our own We Love Comedy event in association with PBH's Free Fringe and the 'So You Think You're Funny?' heat on the 16th of August. Aaaaaaaagggrrrhhhh! Sorry, just got the fear. I'm breathing into a brown paper bag now and it's easing off a little.
Anyway, keep coming back, I'll be posting more regular updates than usual here... 

I'm starting to really enjoy the challenge of being the opening act. Especially at the lower end of the ladder, you don't always know what sort of start or thread you'll be given by the emcee so there seems to often be an added responsibility to help get the night off to the right foot. Last Friday (19th May), I travelled up to RAF Henlow with some very funny people to do a show at the lovely little theatre next to the RAF base (see picture). The show was an Edinburgh preview for TNT Comedy Explosion – an exciting looking variable bill extravaganza. When we arrived Nigel, the organiser and compere for the evening told me I was to be first on. Well, I almost bricked it so I did. Only kidding, well a slight amount of apprehension is always a good thing I think – personally I feed off this energy really well in a performance; it helping to keep my mind sensitive to the comic possibilities surrounding me. Having a wander around the theatre to start with really got a good buzz going, then as the not-quite-capacity crowd filed in, I tucked myself out of the way, stretched and did a few improv exercises to get ready. Nigey baby (as he's affectionately known) warmed the crowd nicely with some small-talk and and gave a friends son an unforgettable birthday present for his fifteenth birthday – a pack of three prophylactics. (I just like the word 'prophylactic'). This gave me something nice to play with at the start of my set. Hey, that didn't sound right! What I meant was, it gave me an idea to tell the lad to stick the condoms over an exhaust pipe, then hide and wait for the car to drive off – being an RAF base, it would probably start World War 3! This went down really well. Next I had some nice banter with the sole old lady sitting on the front row, before tucking into a few minutes of material. All in all a lovely experience and I hope I helped get the night off onto the right foot!

Last night at the Round Table, despite our best efforts flyering, cajoling and what can only be described as unashamed begging quite frankly, we didn't really have enough audience to do a proper show. Hell, the weather had been warm all day, the FA cup had just been on and the pub wasn't very full. What can you do? At 9pm, we decided to pull the gig and gave our potential mini-audience their money back. Because we had a very strong line-up, we asked everyone if they wanted to stay so we could have a play around and try out material. We had three live-wires in our audience of five (not including comedians), one of which wanted to banter with the comedians throughout. In a bigger room, this would have been a nightmare, but it turned into a night with an interesting dynamic. It helped make the interaction much more of a conversation and allowed you the flexibility and freedom to riff on certain elements of your existing material, in a much more relaxed environment. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't pull a gig, just that sometimes you get the opportunity to make something good out of an almost hopeless looking comedy situation and when you do, it can make for a magic night. Or a hostage situation.

Welcome to the bloggy blog blog area of the site, in the coming weeks, months and years, you'll find sporadic posts about comedy, gigs, material, life, news, funny stuff and well, whatever else takes my fancy.