Never Mind The Length, Feel The Quality

So last night was my round in the preliminaries of the 4th Hong Kong Comedy Festival, and I was the fourth performer. As you may be aware, 4 is probably the most auspicious number in Chinese culture, so clearly I was going to do oh-so-well.


Actually, I think fourth place is the best slot to have in the competition. The first couple of people always face an audience that hasn't warmed up properly yet, and although you might do well at the end, by that point they're worn out and you've spent the whole evening sat in a basement, stressing out, so for me fourth place is pretty much ideal.

The crowd were great by the time I got on stage, I started strongly, completely forgot my lines two minutes in (hurrah for a setlist scrawled on my palm as ever) and I had a really, really enjoyable time up on stage. Every year I seem to have my best set at the comedy competition; I'm not sure if it's because I raise my game for it, or just because it's easier to perform when the room is packed, rather than with twenty or so people sat there wondering if they came into the right place or not.

Perhaps because there was so much applause (what a thing to complain about) and because I kept looking to the right of the stage, I didn't see the first two lights at 6 and 7 minutes. So when I saw the third light, I thought "hmm, must have missed one, half a minute to close up". Instead of stopping and getting off. Which meant I was the only comedian to do over 8 minutes last night, which got me two points docked, which means I blew myself out of making it through to the next stage.

But I'm still happy - I got to have the time of my life up on stage, and if I had got through, my natural egotism would probably have made me a right arse to live with for the next week. Or I'd be sweating with stress all week at what to do in the finals.

So next year, I need to improve my peripheral vision, and maybe talk faster for a change. What a blast...

Got home, drunk on life and a lot of Hoegaarden, stayed up until 4am playing on the Xbox with my sick girlfriend, woke up four hours later feeling dreadful.