A week's worth!
Although only 3 and a bit days have passed since I last wrote an entry in this blog, there is a huge amount to report. Sadly, much of what there is to report is not all that interesting, so I'll try to avoid the pointless minutiae, and focus on the meat of the last few days.

Thursday night - Stockton gig
For the first time in a while, I left the stage on Thursday with a strong sense that it had gone very well. This was largely down to an audience who were well and truly "up for it", along with a last minute decision that I made to open my act differently. My protestations of "But I'm not a guitar act" were going down badly among the other comedians, who pointed out that I spend a lot of my time behind a guitar, so why deny it? So, I decided to open with the guitar. This can be a strong start and it paid off. For short sets, I think it's imperative at the moment. D'oh. I like the freedom of standing on stage with a microphone in my hand! I'll have to learn some non musical songs, then!

Friday
A day in the office was followed by a trip over to Manchester to have another crack at The Comedy Store. At the time, I thought I'd done quite well. As I was driving home afterwards, I realised a few of the mistakes I'd made, but I didn't lose my nerve and I also took an opportunity to improvise with the audience, getting one of my best laughs. I wasn't totally self-assured, but I was able to make eye contact with the acts and crew afterwards, which is always a good sign.

Saturday
Saturday is a good day for it. Whatever it is. In my case, it's a day when I get out of the house and get some miles under my feet. It was my extreme pleasure to go for a couple of hours of walking with my cheap £1 radio playing in my ears. I managed to time the walk so that my arrival back into the vicinity of my house, specifically the nearby food shop, coincided with the end of the radio programme I was looking forward to hearing - Richard Herring's That Was Then, This Is Now or TWTTIN. I think I amused some passers by during my walk by laughing and giggling uncontrollably at bits of the show. In fairness, you can tell where some of the show is going, though that's not disappointing, and some (5-10%) of the material met with a respectful silence, but perhaps I'm more aware of that sort of thing these days. It's still a classic.

Saturday afternoon included a bath and then a drive to Edinburgh. Of course! Once in Edinburgh, I was to pick up a companion for the rest of the evening. We're looking at writing a musical together, so I hastily completed my draft of the Act 2 synopsis while in the car waiting. I had enough time to do this, and I think that the synopsis is what it would have been if I'd done it earlier in the day.

Saturday evening was spent watching a gig in Glenrothes. I MCed this gig last time around and it was interesting to see how differently it ran this time. It's a good room, but I can see how it could also be a hard room to play. I enjoyed a number of the acts who played, laughing uncontrollably in places. I was in a good mood on Saturday, so laughing uncontrollably was a natural symptom of being amused.

I enjoyed Saturday and left Edinburgh, after dropping off my collaborator, in good spirits... I also have a Batman DVD box set (the movies, not the TV series) which this person was able to arrange for me at a ludicrous discount! Hoorah. More DVDs. I've no time to watch them, I'm too busy buying more.

Sunday
I woke up mid-morning, which gave me the perfect opportunity to do some washing up, have some breakfast and put some more washing into the washing machine. Is it difficult? No! It's easy like Sunday morning. Doing other bits of housework seems to be eluding me, mind. I really must get some cleaning done! However, I digress.

On Sunday after-lunchtime (I don't know exactly how I got to that time of day without achieving anything of note, though I suspect it involved slobbing around for a few hours), I headed over to Tynemouth. There was coffeee, a browse round Tynemouth's market and then a walk along the coast to Whitley Bay. Most pleasant.

While walking from the car to the market, I spotted these cars:


These cars are stationary!

Note the caption. These cars are not driving, they're parked. It's like some sort of crazy parking competition. Who can get their car furthest away from the kerb? The car at the front is the winner as far as I'm concerned!

I got home mid-evening had some food, decided I was tired and somehow managed to make the night disappear with no effort. I probably wrote some emails. Pass. No idea. Where does the time go?

The only news to come out of last night is the possibility that I might agree to enter a production of South Pacific which is on 2 weeks after Guys and Dolls. If it's possible to rehearse the pair of them simultaneously, then I'm quite happy for the majority of my February to be spent on a stage. I'm not sure how practical this plan would be, but if the South Pacific lot can take the fact that I've got commitments, and will be prioritising the other show, then I'll do it. I'd look good dressed as a sailor!