First night of my London run and I was slightly disappointed with the turn out. The Spring run of menage a un at the Arts Theatre had sold surprisingly well and I had had about 160 in on the first night and I was hoping I might get at least 100 tonight, but it was more like 60. Which I would have been happy with if the last run hadn't done so well, but it was slightly deflating and made the job a little bit harder for me. Apparently sales are picking up for later in the run and the weekends are looking OK, so hopefully it's down to the football matches and nice weather.
It's amazing how just having a three week break can make you feel rusty. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to remember the show, but luckily had gone through it all in quite some detail this afternoon, so I was pretty much on top of it. But for the first ten minutes the part of me that isn't concentrating on doing the performing (and there's always a little voice in my head, sitting back and commenting on how things are going or thinking about other stuff) was saying "You're going to mess it up. You won't remember it. It's going to be a disaster."
Even though my comedy joints were a little bit stiff I worked hard to keep the show pacey, and the 60 people in the 330 seater theatre giggled along throughout, clearly enjoying it, but not making masses of noise.
I had a couple of positive heckles that I didn't cope brilliantly with, both of them slightly throwing me, which was annoying because if I'd been match fit I would have done better, but it didn't matter too much and I was happy just to get through the whole thing without forgetting anything too important. So it was a good start and hopefully it will get better and more popular. Do come along and tell your friends about it. I think it's a better show than menage a un, or maybe it's just that I am getting better at doing it. I had fun with it in any case, even though it took a while to get used to be up above people on a gigantic stage, rather than having them right up close to me like they were at the Underbelly.
Due to the high stage it is impossible for me to skateboard through the crowd at the end, so I just had to head for the wings. Obviously for the joke to work I have to be shit at skateboarding and look tentative and terrified. Luckily I am shit at skateboarding and am terrified, so it all works very well. Especially tonight when for the first time ever I managed to fall off the thing. It happened as I tried to negotiate the skateboard into the wings and I thought maybe I had got away with it and my hilarious error had not been spotted, but Emma Kennedy who was in the crowd said that everyone had seen and that she'd shouted "Idiot" at me as I fell. I should probably keep it in, although I have to say it did hurt quite badly. I fell heavily on my knee and cut it a bit. And you know I'm old now and falling can be dangerous. I could break a hip.
Still it's great to be back at the Arts and good to have a show under my belt. Even if there is a scab on my knee. One must suffer for one's art. Even if that art is mainly talking about blow jobs.
