Fight Comic

It's Thursday, it's Fight Comic. I haven't been on any sort of stage since October, which feels like a decade away rather than 8 weeks, so I would have chewed an arm off to get a chance to perform. The show has improved a lot since the early days: things are arranged more tightly and the comedians are better prepared, rather just trying to shoehorn their usual material into something that appears improvised.

I wasn't well prepared: I've had a week at work that's been beset with stress and lassitude, and today I had one of those mindbendingly dull data entry tasks that is that little bit too complicated to outsource, but so simple you can't understand why it's impossible to automate. Now, deep down I secretly like punching numbers into a spreadsheet while listening to the greatest hits of Justin Bieber, but it's not a good way to make yourself quick-witted and smart.

I had a few good moments: I think I had one joke where the whole crowd roared, and I always feel I do ok on the parts where I'm adequately prepared. But again and again you see the value of preparing several variations on a theme: it's easier than trying to think of n different things to say in response to a list of top 10 _______s, and the audience always likes a callback. Scott, who swept all before him throughout the night, had a few good running jokes, but he was solid all the way.

I managed to avoid elimination before the Set List From Hell round, which is an improvement on my previous showing. I just need to carry on grinding away until I've cemented some of the things I've learned from the others, and then one day I too will grasp a slightly sweaty wax fist. For now I just have a pain in my ears from the world's LOUDEST MAN doing mc duty.

As we left, we saw a party in full swing in the bar below where Fight Comic took place. It was an army of drunks, dancing like their lives depended on it, and close to the bar was a man in full Imperial Stormtrooper costume. Anyone that can wear a close-fitting suit of plastic and a helmet in Singaporean weather is a true superstar. The rest of us are just amateurs.