I was involved with another
Laughter in Odd Places gig. This time at
The Museum of London. I've done two of these before, one at
The Docklands Museum and the other in the lounge of comedy critic
Bruce Dessau. It's a fun initiative to do comedy gigs in places that you wouldn't usually expect comedy to be occurring and as I've said before the changed location does have an effect on the material. What seems appropriate in a comedy club seems wrong in a man's lounge or by an exhibit about a Cathedral. I enjoy the sense of dislocation that goes with this.
Tonight's gig was perhaps the most ambitious of all as it involved four simultaneous gigs in different parts of the museum, giving a mini-festival kind of vibe, as well as the concern that everyone might choose to go and see the other acts rather than me. Luckily the medieval section of the museum where I was on was jam packed and I had a lot of fun trying out my wildly inappropriate material about children being locked in cellars and me wanking off paedophiles.
At one point sound spilled over from Simon Munnery's gig in an adjacent room and I was having to contend with the noise of the harmonica that forms part of his act. I pointed out that there is no real response to someone who heckles you with a mouth organ. If you really want to undermine a comedian then playing this infernal instrument is probably a good way to destroy him. Unless he himself has a mouth organ on him and can join in in harmony or create a Deliverance style play-off. Sadly I still haven't got round to buying a trumpet for my new show, so I couldn't respond in musical form.
The gig seemed to go well enough, although without a microphone and with poor sight lines I was mainly concerned with being heard and seen rather than the nuances of my routines, but it was appropriate doing some of the things in a museum. I did discuss how I thought as a kid that I would be a figure of some historical importance and that there might be a museum set up to me - which is why I kept fastidious notes and records of my achievements. Although this hasn't yet happened I was able to suggest that eventually the Museum of London might become a Museum of me. I should have broken open some of the cabinets and replaced all the rubbish bits of pot and coins with my diary and my O level certificates. But that would only have worked for the short term. I am hopeful that I still have time to achieve something worthy of museum foundation. We'll see.
For the moment it seems enough that I became just a temporary exhibit in this museum and was accidentally heckled by another exhibit in another room through the medium of the harmonica. Such are the special and unrecreatable moments of the stupid job I have chosen.
photo by Vik Peek
Chortle review
