That difficult first preview of a new show tonight. But only three days after finishing the tour it was unlikely that it would be too impressive. I haven't really had time to write anything new and so looked through a few Warming Ups that I am thinking of including this afternoon. Yet perversely part of me seemed to want to make the whole thing as frightening as possible, so I didn't really work too hard on learning anything or even reading the stuff I'd got properly. I decided I would try and wing it and see how I got on with just telling the stories as I remembered them. Bit risky I guess, but I was too tired to really get on with hard work, especially after playing tennis this morning. I even fell asleep on the sofa at about 6.30pm, though luckily managed to wake up so I didn't miss the gig.
I was on at Shortfuse in the Angel, which is a night of poetry, comedy and often magic (though not tonight). I arrived in time to see a Canadian poet strutting his stuff and a polite audience listening attentively. It seemed like a strange gig to try out my unique brand of offensive and self-deprecating humour, but then maybe that was a good thing. If something wasn't funny then I could just pretend that it had been a poem. And with an audience prepared to listen I could probably have the time to find my way round my stories and more complicated ideas.
As it turned out things went pretty well all considered. I told the story of this week's fight, but it was a little too rambling, though the crowd stayed interested. I probably managed about thirty minutes of new stuff, before including a few old favourites. I don't think too much of what I did tonight will be in the final show, but it was good to at least have made a start. Plenty of time left to sort it out. Right?
