CNPS numbers spotted 1 (969).
Tonight the show felt like it might actually work. There is still some way to go and I did about an hour and a half and didn't even cover all the tasks, but it went down well with what was a fairly partisan audience of fans. You know, people like you. Nerds off of the internet. I don't know if this skewed it a bit and maybe it will be tougher to bring the subtleties of CNPS to a more mainstream audience, but the laughter spurred me on and I enjoyed the show and so did it a whole lot better than I have before. Shamefully I was still reading most of it, but some of it is familiar enough for me to do without looking now and I am going to try and get off script as much as possible over the next few gigs.
There's still a lot of work to do and all the technical stuff to add - including quite a bit of multi-media stuff - so it's not going to be an easy couple of weeks. But I am starting to believe that this might actually work out and that this will be a fun thing to do. Then the process of forgetting all the pain I've been through will begin, so that when it comes to Edinburgh time next year I will only remember the pleasure of performing and not the Hell of writing and will jump in with both feet again, like the twat that I am.
As I despaired at how I had much too much material elements of the audience were encouraging me to do it all. If I had we'd have been there til midnight.
The nice thing about this show is that it can be quite loose and I can maybe concentrate on different things on different nights, as well as go off on unscripted tangents.
You may notice an air of optimism that has been missing from my attitude of late.
The reception was amazing though and I'd like to say it was the most fanny audience I've had for ages, but that sounds rude. I am not saying my audience are all fannies. And if they are, it is only in the American sense of the word. I had to sign a lady's upper bosom and a man's chest and someone slipped a pair of women's pants into my pocket. Of course, given that these are people who like me, all this nonsense was performed with an air of post-modern irony. But it's been a while since there was quite so much of this kind of silliness to contend with. It was all a little overwhelming, but flattering. Nice to know there's still a little base of idiots out there who still like me.
It seems that I am consolidating my position as king of the nerds. Which is OK. I quite like nerds. As long as they do what they do in the privacy of their own home. Which of course they all do. That's one of their defining qualities.
So thank you for coming along to see my half-formed show, you internerds. You've made an old grumpy man slightly less grumpy.
