Thursday night comedy

Just to prove that rehearsing doesn't always matter, I spent the day swearing at my computer and not thinking of my material, and then only having an hour in Pacific Coffee to go over it. Or delete emails on my blackberry instead. Oops.


It started pouring with rain at 8, after a whole summer without decent precipitation, which may have suppressed audience numbers a bit. We only had twelve or thirteen people in, and they took a while to warm up. I think when it's a small crowd, they're usually more reluctant to engage with the comedian on stage. Perhaps it's because it feels more like being picked on than when your an anonymous part of a larger group.

Or maybe that doesn't make a difference at all: last year we had a riotous night with four audience members, so it's not all about numbers.

I was thinking about some new material about how I enjoy holidaying in America for the exoticism: those idiosyncratic Starbucks coffee shops, the unique McDonalds restaurant in California, and so on. But that sounds new for me but not particularly new, so I need to work that into something more interesting.

Anyway, I had a surprisingly good set: I came out flailing, telling the Scottish guy that he was English (north English) and the Americans in the front row were also English (far west English), and then barrelled through my English-is-better-than-everyone-else bit, some fish sex (although I realised part way through that I was about to accidentally insult the English ladies), English vs Chinese ownership of Hong Kong (a slow burner that worked better than I expected), some kung fu, a resurrection of my Craigslist material, the good old Wan Chai stuff, and finishing off with a bit I had sneakily extracted from Stewart Lee's book.

It's a homage, honestly, it's not plagiarism.

Does that count as a confession? Given what I've purportedly confessed to on stage tonight, maybe that's not so much.