My First Time.......

Nothing beats the excitement, apprehension and nerves of doing stand-up comedy for the first time, making that step on stage and standing there with the microphone, realising everything you have worked for has built up to this moment, rehearsing all those lines, making sure you deliver everything as clearly as possible, but I decided to quit karaoke nights because they weren’t going anywhere and thought I’d give stand up a go instead. 

The first challenge is how you reach that point where you get on stage, who do you talk to? What do you ask them? Promoters posting for gigs for “brand new acts” and then completely disappearing when you enquire about them, it’s the film equivalent of Jack & Rose on the door in the Titanic, there’s room for more but, you know, you know what happened there. 

So instead of turning into some warped comedy version of Stan by Eminem, writing out to 40 promoters a week to no avail and driving my car off the Runcorn Bridge, I decided to speak to people who I know who have done it, and was fortunate enough to be given a chance to do it. 

The build up to the night was nerve wracking, in the toilets beforehand like the beginning of 8 Mile even though there are only 30 people in the crowd and half of them aren’t really listening anyway. The fear of being frozen in the same spot, this was the moment you have told all your friends about, you’re going to finally get up there and try it, they’re all telling you you can do it but you still doubt yourself, for me it took the support from a very special person close to me; Heather, she gave me the confidence and drive to finally get up there, despite how terrifying the task seemed, I finally felt like I could get up there and do it. 

But as with most things in life, how you picture it and how it builds up in your head is far more terrifying than how it actually pans out, standing up there with the microphone, the room is deftly silent, you can feel the anticipation in the room, and the adrenaline kicks in, once you get that first laugh you get the bug, and it’s the best feeling in the world, and once you have finished and done it, it’s an incredible feeling. 

Then it’s back to emailing other promoters to get back up there and try it all again because you never want to climb back down, slowly descending into a Stan-like mess in your basement. PS someone give me a gig.

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