What did I learn from my crazy week in comedy
A Slight Return, with just enough triumph to be tantalising.
I think it’s easiest to portray my mental state while making a return to comedy and live performance after at least ten years, via the use of a day-by-day diary.
Monday - Oh god oh god oh god. Oh, they seem nice and welcoming. Oh god oh god, oh god, why is the theme (package holidays in a resort) not something I have any experience of because I’m far too privileged and middle class!?
Tuesday - I'm very tired. Being on and funny and meeting new people and writing until late and getting up for a bus into town seems to be exhausting. Well, at least I'm on the bus home. Oh it's broken down in Musselburgh when they changed drivers, cool.
Wednesday - I've drafted the big sketch they asked for a volunteer for, and then got notes to change it. This feels like the real work, and I seem to have some trust to do it! Oh and we're learning choreography to a Eurodance opening number. Who needs a wheelhouse, I'll do anything!
Thursday - The running order is settling down, I was in bed by 11pm and I know roughly the sketches I'll be in (pending any cuts), which is enough and not too many, and I'm hopeful I might enjoy the performance.
Friday - I wonder if the world is trying to give me the full SNL experience in a week, as we decided to cut one of the three sketches I wrote, but to be honest it was somewhat of a relief, as I'd never quite found the performance of it. I had a lovely dinner (by myself for required defrag from the rehearsal room) in Wagamama and checked in at home by phone before bath time and bedtime. It’s strange to miss something that is part of your day, almost every single day.
The Show - I didn’t yawn. That was always my standard reaction to pre-show nerves. But a sense of calm fell over me as we hid behind not quite enough flats for ten people. I didn’t forget any lines, I did all of the accents and characters better than I’d done in rehearsals because an audience was listening and giving me energy, and I nearly cried when I saw a supportive message on my watch from a great friend who knew how undeserving of this opportunity I felt.
After the Show - People kept being very genuine and nice and supportive. What is this island of sanity that has been built amongst the cut-throat and competitive world of live comedy? I got everything I hoped for out of the week, and got the boost of a lifetime from the very simple phrase “You belong here”.
And since we’re at it, I might as well evaluate my own performance.
What did I do badly?
Even as a reasonable person with average levels of anxiety, I could not prevent endlessly comparing myself to others and their abilities. I was jealous of their career success that I wasn’t built for when I was trying to do the same 15 years ago.
I often couldn't help but look beyond rather than enjoy the moment, and try to project what else might come. Is it not safer and healthier to assume that consequences might be minimal, and waste no time on daydreaming?
I also took most of the week to get over my snobbery for what I initially saw as crude punchlines and swearing, but realised towards the end of the process is just the sugar coating to get the comedy ideas over to a general audience.
What did I do well?
I said yes to so many things without question, but still with the nerves of a normal person. Choreography, sketches I wouldn't count as ‘to my taste’, “can you write a sketch on this subject?” YES! I'm up for anything! It’s easier to say yes, when you thought for a long time that it was all over.
I learned to question what I want to do in comedy, and what I'm able to do in comedy (both specifically and globally).
This Week’s Notebook
Below are the notes I made about the sketches I wrote, or attempted to write, during the course of last week’s preparation for the Story Platform show on Friday.
It was a lovely collaborative process, hampered for me by not knowing anyone and them all knowing each other. But on the first day our producer Jemma announced the theme, and then the ten of us chatted about our experiences, funny ideas or flashes of characters, and took ownership of the ideas we liked.
Unlike usual, these germs of ideas led to actual physical performances, and laughs from members of the public. Except the karaoke night1.
Ideas
Impressions - Nicolas Cage2, Prince William, Benedict Cumberbatch
Sketches
Karaoke Night (w/ impressions)
Towels on loungers mashed up with VIP Wristbands
FLOW
Find a flannel/teatowel on a lounger
Catchphrase - “It’s a PURPLE band”
Teenager’s first holiday
Getting matching tattoos, one loses their virginity, falling out as they pack up?
Murder Mystery -
At the celebrity lookalike convention??
Televigion Update
Watching
Doctor Who S2 E3: The Well (iPlayer) - No spoilers, but I now firmly believe that EVERY episode of season 2 might be a surprise sequel4, as that now applies to episodes 2 and 3, and probably also episode 1 if I go back and think about it too much. I absolutely loved working the sequel nature out, ever so slightly ahead of being told explicitly that it was. As it happened I ended up saying quite loudly “oh Russell” in an empty living room at my in-laws house after everyone had gone to bed. Rose Ayling-Ellis was amazing, and I enjoyed our intrepid duo of Fifteen and Belinda very much. Mrs Flood needs to not become another Susan Twist though. Let’s have a surprise “all the information” about her in the next episode please, Russ.
The Last of Us S2 E1: Future Days (Sky Atlantic/Now TV) - The Televigion Wife and I very much enjoyed S1, particularly in the context of having played The Last of Us on the PS3 and PS4 together in our prior child-free state. Season 2 is a different beast, as we have not played the second game, and so can go in cold and enjoy the story it has to tell. Episode 1 is a solid start, particularly Catherine O'Hara as Gail, who has such ease in portraying comedy and drama, switching at the flick of a facial muscle. It did of course have the “we’re setting everything up, so it’s never going to be amazing” problem, but that is very rarely avoided.
Intending to Consume
Louis Theroux, The Settlers: (iPlayer) - It’s always wonderful news to have new Louis Theroux to watch5, and his latest documentary is a return to the West Bank fourteen years after his first visit, to meet some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled there. It has at least one very good review and so I will be watching.
I’ve been more disconnected from social media and swifter in my deletion of film and TV recommendation emails to focus on my week, so I haven't seen as much to add to my list…. (obviously Andor S2 is still there, once I get time).
Questions/Prompts
What have you done in your life that gave you a new perspective?
Footnotes
Never written, not the much worse never laughed at.
I have in the past been told I look like Nicolas Cage - it’s just a widow’s peak and long face thing I think. In potential preparation I watched Andy Samberg’s SNL “Get in the Cage” Weekend Update segment with Nicolas Cage. The impression I attempted did not appear in the room as the sketch made more sense with Benedict Cumberbatch, but maybe one day.
This blank space is an indicator that I went no further with this idea
Russell T Davies mentioned that there was a surprise sequel in the promotion of this series. Knowing him, every episode being a sequel is not off the cards.
And, indeed, listen to as The Louis Theroux Podcast is about to return too!