Return To The Stage?

21-05-2011

In Dublin there are a small few venues that are viewed as The Big Ones. Gigs at these places for comedians are Holy Grail quests when starting out. They are the places you aim to get to in a few years, preferably before you pack the comedy thing in, to play along side the greats that you long admired.

Being a born and bred Dub it is something of a disgrace that in all my years of living so close to the city I had never been inside any of these big venues, at all. I am not suggesting here that my comedic prose is worthy of some stage time, but I should have at least been at a gig of some sort by now.

Last night the lady friend changed all of that.

I'd been giving some thought lately to my comedy adventures and being the intuitive gal that she is she figured that I might be missing the stage a little deep down. Before we got together I was at gigs every week, either performing or watching, but with how busy the last year has been all of that slipped by the wayside. That coupled with changing jobs and having even more "stuff" that we had to do, well I was fast running out of time to attend gigs let alone perform at them. So she reckoned that what was really happening was my little comedy flame, buried deep in my Jester soul, was still burning and just needed a little fuel.

As such she went and got tickets to the 'Lol for Temple Street' gig that was on in Vicar Street. It is the first weekend in a long time that we have had to ourselves, so being able to attend the gig was a bonus in itself. But this was my first time even going to Vicar Street, one of the big name venues, so it was great to get to go here for the first time with herself.

Needless to the say the gig was brilliant. There was one act who I wasn't all that fond of, I won't go naming names, because I just never liked their style of humor. There was one act who I had gigged with years ago in the Neptune and he was by far one of the better acts on that night. All in all it was a great gig to go to and watch, all in the name of charity as well.

But afterwards I got to thinking, thoughts that the lady friend decided to back up with her sage like wisdom, that maybe I should give the comedy another go.

I really enjoyed the gigs I had done over the years, but I never went at it tooth and nail like some of the other acts I have gigged with. Case in point being one Gerry McBride, whose blog is linked to the right there. That man is gigging like it is going out of fashion, really going at it. More power to him. I was somewhat lazy in my approach, gigging in venues I had gigged in before on a regular basis and not really making as many contacts as I could.

There is no real excuse, if I wanted it I should have worked harder at it.

Then with changing job and a whole lot of crap going on in my outside-work life (not to mention the late nights in work as a result of shifting deadlines) getting gigs fell by the wayside. I haven't written new material in ages, hell I don't even remember my old sets, and most of the clubs I could usually get a gig from by just sending a text have long since closed their doors. As the weeks turned into months of no gigs I just gave up and retired from the scene, without any great fanfare to announce it.

But seeing those acts last night, watching how much fun and energy they had on the stage, turned that little flame in me into a mid-sized fire once more. Which, as it turns out, was part of the lady friend's fiendish plan. She figured if I saw what I was missing I might give it a try once again.

So some serious consideration is going to be given to once more taking to the stage, braving the crowd and trying to entertain the masses. I am basically starting from step one once more. No contacts, no 'ins' to get an easy gig. I will have to grind it out again, just like I did three years ago when I first started.

Essentially it might be a chance to try and entirely different brand of comedy, who knows. Will I do this? Hard to say. If I do, will I go at it harder than before? Again, who knows. The problem I found with doing the gigs during the week was going into work the next day. How some of the guys do gigs around the country and do gigs the next day is a mystery to me. But surely I could start hitting every Dublin venue possible and still do a nine-to-half-five the next day right?

Some serious comedy thinking is going to be done over the next couple of weeks. I will see if I can get a new set together, start from the ground up, and then hit the web hard looking for venues willing to give a newbie a chance.

Good lord that was a long rant...now go outside and play.

Blue_jester

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