Lately I have been performing some of my stand up 'in character'. It's been a lot of fun but I'm not sure if I'm going to continue it or not. I'm not expecting you to answer this question by the way, this isn't a cry for affirmation... well not for any more than the normal amount of affirmation I need to get through my week. The act of writing a blog is a massive cry for affirmation, as is performing stand up. I'm aware of my neediness, no need to point it out.
I've really been enjoying my performance lately and that might partly be down to mixing performing the character with performing as me. To explain, for those of you who haven't seen it or heard me talk about it, the character is a drunk, recently divorced stand up comedian who is reassessing his life and is bitter and angry about where he finds himself. Personally I love a good breakdown and this is a fun persona to play with.
The idea of the character came from watching the multiple comedians I've known over the years who have gone through a divorce. They all seem to spend a couple of months (sometimes longer) drinking heavily and being really bitter and angry. They then naturally take it on stage with them. It obviously affects their performance but because they're normally seasoned professionals they tend to 'get away with it' just enough for the gig to turn out okay. Then they normally get through to the other side, get their life back on track and get back to being hilarious comedians. I can think of one or 2 exceptions who have just stayed bitter and angry for years... they aren't the fun people you want to hang out with.
I however love the energy they took on stage with them. I love the bitterness and stream-of-consciousness that comes out of their mouths, the unedited emotion. So the character is my attempt to harness that emotion but to have some killer jokes to go with it. Thing is, I am really happy with how it's coming along.
There have been a few gigs where the audience hasn't worked out that it's a character. There have been 2 particular gigs where my acting has been so unfortunately convincing that even other comics, that I know quite well, have come up to me afterwards and asked, "are you really drunk or was it an act?" Hear that casting agents - I'm awesome at acting!
There were always going to be teething problems. I have spent the last 9 years learning how to be 'me' on stage, so I can't expect to have a completely different persona perfected after only a couple of handfuls of gigs. But it is definitely getting there. I need to let the audience in on the fact it's a character and I'm learning how far I can push the boundaries. Granted, I'm learning where the boundaries are in a retrospective fashion after I've clearly crossed them but hindsight is a fantastic teacher.
There was the time that I was on stage, in character, and chatting to a girl in the audience when I asked her, "how many cocks would you say is an absolute maximum?" There was context, but I'm not going to tell you what it is... I also closed a gig by saying that "I didn't want to get a divorce. Sure I hated ever second I was with her, but I really liked the idea of watching her slowly die." You can see why the audience reactions may have been mixed when it wasn't obvious that this was a character.
But if I'm getting so much out of performing as a character why am I considering stopping it? Two reasons really. Firstly, I'm not sure where it'll go. I don't think I want to take it to a full hour show and tour it so is it worth it? And secondly, it's taking so much time and I'm not convinced that that time wouldn't be better spent on improving and expanding my stand up. Which I would like to get back to touring. I've missed the occasional international gig and the sad lonely weekends spent crying in hotels. For some reason I'd love to get back into doing them again.
There are only so many hours that you can focus on writing and then only so many gigs where you can try it out. I've had about 10 minutes of new material (for me) written out for weeks now that I haven't done. Every time I go to an open mic room I end up doing the character, so I haven't tried this new stuff out. It's been fun writing the character but I earn my money performing as me and I want to continue to expand that.
I have a new found energy for stand up. I think that has come from doing something different, so the character has been good and I can always come back to it. For next year's Adelaide Fringe Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival I am going to be doing a joint show with my wife. It's kind of a play crossed with stand up. We've performed it before in the UK but we're in the process of editing it. That takes time to do too. Then there will be rehearsals and all the other fun that comes with a new show. So I've got stuff to do, more than enough to keep me busy.
I would rather work hard on the show and on my stand up whilst ignoring the character than to do all of them and not have enough time to do any of them well. Plus I have this blog to write.
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