An interesting gig in Northampton tonight. It was a big room with quite a mixed crowd and I was a bit apprehensive. There was a slightly vocal contingent right at the back, chipping in with rubbish heckles when the compere was on. He coped with it all very well, but I feared my mixture of tedium, whimsy and offensiveness might fall flat.
As it happened it was a pretty good gig. After fearing in Bristol that I had suddenly turned unfunny overnight, it seems that that was just a temporary blip as I had a lovely night in Oxford last night too.
I had done a good 40 minutes, but decided to press on as things seemed to be going well and as there were some policemen in the audience I decided to do my routine about the police shooting the guy on the tube seven times in the head. I had mainly been doing my more accessible and rude material and maybe it was a mistake to do something a bit more satirical, but there were many people enjoying the less cock-related gags and I wanted to give them something as I'd done all my rude material.
I was surprised at how well the bit went down, but at the end of it a man shouted out "All right pal, that's enough now. You were all right, but you've gone on too long now."
I questioned whether it was up to him to make that decision and polled the audience to see who agreed with him. He had some pockets of support, but the majority were behind me, but he was clearly angered by the routine and carried on. His friend chipped in arguing that the police had to do their job and should be allowed to shoot people in order to protect us from terrorism. I argued that maybe we shouldn't be all that happy if they shoot people who aren't terrorists.
"A man died," said the first guy, "You can't make jokes about that!"
"I can make jokes about anything I want. It's not up to you. And it's interesting that one of you is cross with me because you think the police should be shooting people and one of you is upset because someone has died."
I was dealing with things pretty well - much better than on Saturday and without losing my temper.
The rest of the audience were mainly annoyed with the blokes even though I had put them down quite effectively. "I'm a Christian," shouted one girl, "And I wasn't offended by the stuff he did about fucking Jesus's hand. Just shut up!"
The audience cheered her. "Yes," I agreed, "I've said loads of stuff that's offensive and yet I didn't notice you shouting out when I was talking about stabbing women in the stomach. And nor were any of the women, because they udnerstood it was a joke!"
I was annoyed by the man who had made the comment about it being good that the police had shot an innocent man. "I think it's good the police are there to protect us from terrorists," I said, "And I think they do a good job, but sometimes you look at certain people and you do think that maybe Al Quaida have a point. And I don't blame the police for shooting the occasional innocent person, because as we are seeing the public are stupid. I'd definitely want to shoot one or two of them. It's lucky comedians aren't allowed to be armed. I'd definitely shoot the occasional idiot."
I looked at the policeman I had been talking to. He was laughing at this. I was glad about this. I had done the routine to see how it would go down with the police.
The conversation went on for a while, but I had the best of it. I do find it interesting though that people will happily laugh at stuff that is potentially offensive when it doesn't directly affect them, but then get cross when the barbs come a bit closer to home. Luckily most people understand that comedians say unacceptable stuff and can laugh when that unacceptable stuff infringes on their own lives.
Afterwards there was a little excitement as we were asked to wait in the dressing room as the woman running the club was worried that the angry men were going to attack me. There was talk of me having to slip out of a back door, but in the end the problems dissipated. It's a dangerous job, and it's funny that people might want to hit me for all the rubbish I talk about. But it was a fun one and I don't think it's a bad thing to make a few people annoyed or angry as long as most people are happy. In fact it's probably a good thing.
I got to my car OK and for the moment my face remains uncaved in. But surely it's only a matter of time til I get the beating I deserve.
