After a day's DIY in the home - well, half a day, since I slept until 12ish - I tootled off to one of the gigs I've MCed the most - the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton. One of the acts from last night was also on the bill and we shared again the stories of the horror of the night before, I complained that he'd driven "the hot girl" away, as his set cleared one particular table.

A friend of mine, who also helps run the gig, questioned whether I'd be the sort of person who would actually talk to a gig after a gig. She had a point, I suggested that while I might not actually talk to the girl in question, I could at least have worked myself up into wanting to talk to her and then I could have gone home and written about it on my blog in the vain hope that she might one day Google me and read it. Oh, how we laughed. Really, we laughed until the tears of laughter dampened the floor.

I've been to Southampton way too much over the last few years.

For some reason, two things happened simultaneously. One - nobody seemed able to be really worked up. The acts/green room members were all really chilled out. It wasn't like "Oh my god - the show the show" it was "Shall we, erm... you know... er, start in a bit?" "Mnyeh". Similarly, the audience hadn't arrived in droves and weren't really champing at the bit. Yet, the bizarre flip side of this is that it was a really really nice gig. Sure, it was laid back, but the room was comfortable to perform in, silences were filled with laughter, and I felt generally happy on stage.

I wasn't at my sharpest. Some material simply didn't work, but the audience tolerated me well and I had fun with it. That's what I like to do when I'm MCing. Have some fun.

The acts did well and the closing act was worth my taking a trip to the back of the room to watch alongside the audience.

All in, a cracking end to the week.

Oh... then I took my flask of ready prepared coffee into the office and did 90 minutes' work on something I'd not managed to finish on friday. Obsessive...!