5626/18646
I thought Dartmouth might be the first sub-100 audience, but there were about 150 in in the end. So now all eyes turn to
Scarborough. Which is not only some way from 100 sales, but also is a 500 seater venue. But if Darmouth can excede expectations like this, then anywhere can. Maybe not Barnard Castle.
This gig had been cancelled because of the Yeast from the Feast (or something- remember when all the yeast grew on that feast and no one could get anywhere- it was only a month ago) and maybe that was a good thing, as the audience was almost double what I’d expected last time.
Once again the creative juices were not flowing today, but I had a nice time shopping in Exeter and then walking around Dartmouth, probably the prettiest place I have visited on this tour. I ate chips in the park and bought my poo-obsessed daughter some Moo Poo, (chocolate coated raisins in fact) and then risked being arrested for having a Cornish Pasty for my dinner, even though I was in Devon.
The gig was quite interesting, or at least pretty different. For the third time in four days I was playing an Arts Centre where I sensed a good proportion of the audience came to see whatever was on, and were perhaps a little genteel for my rudeness. There was also someone intermittently chatting along as I did my stuff - always at a point where I was in full flow which makes it harder to deal with. But as usual, aware that such behaviour is irritating for the audience members who’d prefer to listen to the person they’ve paid to see, I did my best to shut her down. Foolishly the second time she really started talking I was in the middle of an already furious rant and as I explained to her, the character of Richard Herring would respond to her interruptions in a way I couldn’t control (and also this was a dumb place to attempt to interrupt as I was already shouting so had no idea what she was saying). The character of Richard Herring was almost unforgivably rude to her. She left during the interval.
I joked about the audience’s age a fair bit - saying before the interval that if they wanted to storm out and send me an email in 12 hours (like the guy I talk about in the show) then now was the chance, though they might have to get their grandchildren to show them how to work the computer. Once again the local cracks I made were unplanned and came up organically and surprised me as much as everyone. I love it when comedy is flowing out of me without me even having time to think about where it’s coming from. I have the control over this show now to be able to really free myself when the opportunity comes up.
And in the second half, perhaps because she was gone, or perhaps because everyone now knew what they were getting, the tension was gone and the rude stuff flew and the non-rude stuff went down very well too.
It’s a long drive home, so we did the first bit post show, stopping off at a Premier Inn by the motorway near Bridgwater. At least we were on the way home.
