A blog about grass-roots live comedy.
I started standup in 2017, and since then I’ve written this on-and-off blog about my experiences at open mics. It used to be called “Diary of a Comedy Newbie” but I’m not really a newbie any more, just a comedy industry bottom-feeder who doesn’t know how to quit.
I’ve done a few gigs since my last post, but I’ve been lazy about posting, so I’ll try to cover them all in this one. I’ve been at We Are Funny Project a couple of times. The first spot was just five minutes, and I used it to try polish some newer material I’ve been … Read more
On Sunday night I did a ten minute spot at Whole Lotta Comedy at the Castle in Surbiton, which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite gigs. On top of the fact that it’s local to me, and on a really convenient day (Sunday is the one evening when I’m almost always free), and they … Read more
Just a quick update – last night I did my first gig since before xmas, and while it’s actually been pretty nice to chill out for a while without having to feed the comedy monkey on my back, it was good to get started again. Even if it was a bit of a trainwreck. The … Read more
I did a couple of spots since my last post: Five minutes at We Are Funny Project – it was going OK, and I was scoring laughs, but I tried too much new material in one go and ended my set by completely blanking on the punchline for a new bit. 15 minutes at a … Read more
It’s been a busy couple of months for me as far as stand-up is concerned, and I feel like I’ve improved in a relatively short space of time, which is exactly the opposite of what I expected so soon after lockdown. The catalyst has been doing a bunch of Sam Rhode’s pop-up gigs around south … Read more
Since I posted about my mediocre performance at We Are Funny a few weeks ago things have been a bit of a rollercoaster. But one of those small, underwhelming rollercoasters you get in old seaside towns. The night after that WAF gig, I had a 15 minute spot at a pop-up pub gig in Wimbledon, … Read more
I’m slowly building up some momentum again now that live comedy in London has bounced back, but I’ve not done a huge amount recently. I did lots of family stuff during the school holidays, so only really had time to do one gig at a pop-up comedy night organised by Sam Rhodes in a bar … Read more
The week after my last spot at Beat the Blackout I did another one at Sam Rhodes Comedy Explosion, which was back for a one-off trial at its old venue at The Rocksteady in Dalston. Comedy Explosion is a good old fashioned bar-show, which means Sam hijacks a section of a public bar for a … Read more
Apart from my car crash effort at a South Coast Comedian of the Year heat in September, I haven’t done any standup spots since March 2020. So when I entered Beat the Blackout at Up The Creek in Greenwich this week, it’s fair to say I wasn’t feeling entirely confident, given that I was a … Read more
A quick update – Sam Rhodes has announced that he’s running his Comedy Explosion open mic gig at the Rocksteady in Dalson as a one-off trial night on June 10th. If things go well, it could return as a regular weekly gig. In this context “going well” means people showing up and spending money at … Read more