I don’t imagine I’ll ever be able to do that daily blog Richard Herring magnificently manages to do every single day. I often can’t bear to relive my life through writing it down, it is quite enough going through it in the first place. Also, one is tempted either to be coyly modest or deludingly self aggrandising when it comes to performing/podcasting or general being.

There is a typical lack of gigs the first two weeks of January. Which makes this time of year hard for any comedian who still has to earn a buck performing over the festive periods. The christmas gigs haunt you, and make you nervous that perhaps all audiences will be like the drunken office dos and all comedy fans have died or shuttered themselves in and only listen to podcasts now.

For those who aren’t performers, there is a truth to Christmas crowds and office parties. No audience is worse than one who is there against their will, has no interest in comedy, likely never seen a comedy show and is too pissed to care about humiliating themselves. Christmas gigs are about crowd control, which means you can get a lot of laughs implying that different groups of people have had/would like to/are about to have sex with each other. But try a solid bit of material or just doing your set and you can feel the energy drop faster than pine needles on wrapping paper. If it aint about them, they don’t tend to give a dying duck at a fonut.

Needless to say my final five gigs of 2011 were like this. Either fun but all about crowd work, or they were a struggle. My ego was well and truly squashed before yuletide, especially from newbie crowds who had never seen live comedy or a woman comedian who wasn’t on a panel show. Then, unlike last year where I slipped and slid to gigs in the winter snow, regaining my confidence with the extra stage time, this year I didn’t have any gigs between xmas and new year.

So what did I do in my week off? I know I sound glum, well there is a reason. As you know, I am a skeptic but this really freaked me out. Have a look.

(SQUEEEEE! Pass it on)

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