Friday, August 13, 2010

Self promotion extravaganza

Hideous attempt at self-promotion

I feel a little bit embarrassed about my self-promotional effort: I spent half an hour at lunchtime trying to make the most amateurish advert that I could for tonight, and then some of my friends from the UK who haven't seen me for years started commenting on it, congratulating me for hitting the big time at last.

Though perhaps they were being ironic: I did leave various clues for them, like every sentence being in a different horrible font (gawd bless you, Bill Gates, for inventing Comic Sans), but I worry if that was enough. Either everyone was in on the joke, or else they think I'm very egotistical and a bit incompetent at visual design.

Or maybe they did like it. In which case maybe I'm more competent at visual design than I thought.

Anyway, it was a pleasant way to spend my lunch hour, although not very productive. I know you shouldn't laugh at your own jokes, but I kept looking at my inept poster and getting the giggles when I should have been concentrating on the statistical analysis of bedsheet replacement in the Asian hospitality industry.

I rehearsed by going home and playing Blur on the Xbox for an hour, and when the attraction of driving a computer-generated car around finally palled, I stopped and listened to Half Man Half Biscuit.

Then it was time to head to the club, for the special 500th show. It was a packed room - one of the biggest I've played, and despite my lacklustre approach to rehearsal I had a great set - even if I muddled up my internet dating joke and started in the middle, nobody noticed and I sailed through. I didn't risk a second outing for the rabbit, but finished with my Wan Chai philosophy crowd-pleaser. I am worried that my strongest material seems to be talking about philosophy in a funny voice. Still, things turned out ok for Wittgenstein, didn't they?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did particularly enjoy the sweaty photo. For that alone I would consider coming along for the evening, perhaps just not in the front row...

Mr Cushtie said...

Why thank you - not that my entire act consists of perspiring on command for the audience, though...

Anonymous said...

Oh! So what is you do exactly, then?

Mr Cushtie said...

Well, the first five minutes consist of standing there in silence, sweating. If the audience does like that, then I'll go on to reading out Fowler's Modern English Usage to them, for at least an hour, before finishing off with some jokes that require an indepth knowledge of the 1900s-era German merchant navy, woodwork techniques and the chemical composition of fertiliser to understand.
Not to laugh at, mind. That would be more ambitious.

Anonymous said...

Wow! At last, someone who understands the humoristic value of the 1900s-era German merchant navy. I no longer feel so alone...

Mr Cushtie said...

A kindred spirit!

I am thinking of taking that out and replacing with something about Phoenicians and agrarian economies in South Peru - it's ok as it stands, but I worry that the merchant navy material may be a bit too commercialised and I should seek something with less mainstream appeal.

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