Thursday night

Thursday night is comedy night, if only for a select few people; despite the two-for-one offer for women on Thursdays, a huge crowd wasn't enticed into the basement.

Still, there was enough to work with: a voluble Californian, a Canadian who was reticent about his job, and a man who runs private jets. Plus I had some easy material supplied by Aaron Counter's news about Victoria trying to ban swearing. (The Australian state, not the 106-year dead Queen of England.) I got that in, a quick reference to deadly German cucumbers and finished with my Wan Chai material, which everyone laughed at. It's been a while since I've had success with it, because it is a bit complicated, but happy with that tonight. Small audiences are tough: when there are less people in the room you don't often get sustained laughter, and there's a different dynamic when you try to talk to them, compared to when you have a large crowd.

I'm not sure if I'd feel more or less nervous being spoken to in front of an army of strangers, or just one or two people, and besides, they paid to be entertained. You have to give them something beyond "oh, you're from Country X - let me mention Stereotype Y".

So I did some sheepshaggery and convict material with the lone Australian, but if there's ever some Swiss people in, I'll be on fire. ¹

Then home, to move some furniture: we're the lucky recipients of some shoe cupboards, which means I'll be abandoning my trusty shoe wheel, a circular footwear container that's done me proud for the last three years. Perhaps there's a charity that can make good use of it.

¹Today also was the day that Qantas had to divert a plane because rats were found on board. To be honest, if they're worried about transporting loathsome, disease ridden vermin, why do they let Australians buy tickets?^2
2Sorry. That was the least worst joke I had at the time.