Take 4!

Yesterday was my fourth stand-up appearance and one thing I can say for certain is that is definitely doesn’t get any easier! It was my third perfomance with Humili-Asian out of the four that we’ve done in total.

I probably didn’t make it any easier for myself by leaving my preparations till the last minute. Even though I’d created my joke concepts and ideas I hadn’t written or polished off my act until an hour before I was due to be in the theatre.

On the Saturday, the day before the event, I got my head down and started the process of polishing off my act. I went to a cafe and got to work. Thankfully I did a smart thing and I created a routine that was 8 minutes long which was ideal! Any longer and I wouldn’t have been able to memorise it in time; any shorter and I wouldn’t have given the audience their monies worth.

Sunday had arrived and I still had not quite finished off the final version so first thing in the morning I switched on my laptop and got straight to work. With four hours remaining before I had to be at the theatre I did my first practise. I always time my routines to that I have a good idea of how long I’ll be on stage. My routine, without pauses for laughter, was just about hittting the 8 minute mark so I guessed I would be on stage for about 9 minutes in total.

Something I learned from this experience that I haven’t verbalised until now is that the more you practise as if you’re on stage what will happen is as you’re practising you’ll get new ideas, different punchlines or even the premise of the joke my change or a different combination in your routine. The more you practise the more that your act will become refined.

I had an hour left at the theatre and I managed two successful practises without looking at my notes so I collected everything I needed and got to the theatre. Once again I was asked (forced) 😆 to go first!

I can say with confidence that my routine was successful and I got some great laughs. I did miss one of my main jokes but I did my routine and finished on a strong note which I struggled to do on the last couple of occasions.

Oh and something which I haven’t even mentioned yet also is that my goal for this event was to create a routine that was free from swearing and contained no blue humour. I can’t even begin to describe how much of challange that is! Why did I create a clean set? Well because for me the ultimate goal is to get good at public speaking and be an international speaker and I wanted to create humour that I could integrate into my speeches and be acceptable wherever I go; especially for younger audiences!

I love being on stage and doing stand-up. It’s just a wonderful experience being on stage and holding the attention of the audience and being able to make then laugh. Now that I’ve learned to deal with my own fears of being on stage and the other additional challenges of speaking and writing I am offering my services of coaching to anyone that would like to be coached in that area. 😉