well done dingdell!

[gatso]

the audiences are kind - not much heckling and because they are there specifically for the comedy they tend to want to hear what you are saying rather than chatting to their mates Miriam didn't come with me this time

FYP

[AndrewT]

Having doubts about whether you are any good is natural - one thing which struck me when I saw some of the other acts on your night was the lack of self-awareness in them. Some were genuinely unmitigatingly irredeemingly shit - at no point could anyone with an ounce of self-awareness have listened to themselves and though 'I'm any good' - and yet they seemed to think they were great (the Bosnian girl in particular).

[mondatoo]

You should definitely do Edinburgh, no matter what happens that'll be an amazing experience, glglgl with getting gigs.

[Dingdell]

Having doubts about whether you are any good is natural - one thing which struck me when I saw some of the other acts on your night was the lack of self-awareness in them. Some were genuinely unmitigatingly irredeemingly shit - at no point could anyone with an ounce of self-awareness have listened to themselves and though 'I'm any good' - and yet they seemed to think they were great (the Bosnian girl in particular).

I think I am naturally a worrier so I will always think and re-think material. What I find difficult is that there is no set formula for a winning set and even if a set might on one night knock an audience out of the park the next night you could die on your feet. When I asked you 4 which bit of my set you liked the most you all said something different.

The size of the audience will change the feel of how sucessful a gig is although it may be the same on both nights.  If 20% of an audience laugh at a joke and the audience is 200 that's 40 people laughing which can sound good when you are on stage. Same result but smaller audience of say 20 people is only 4 people laughing. No difference in the response so it was still sucessful but sounded less so.

What I find interesting is watching the audiences of programmes like Live at the Apollo. A massive audience but when the camera pans across some may be laughing and others not cracking a smile and that's with the well known, CD selling comics.

I think my first impression of comedy was that you had to get everyone laughing at the same time and all the time to know you had got it right but that's not how it's measured at all. I'm not sure how it's measured as being sucessful unless it's as simple as people enjoying themselves and having had a good time at something you have performed.

I never understood how or why Hancock ended up commiting suicide and never thought he was good enough, I thought he was hilarious and as a kid I knew all of his radio programmes off by heart - I was word perfect on everything. But comedy does seem to be a a lot of light and shade. Light when you're on stage and entertaining people and shade when you are sitting at home fretting over a line or gesture and whether, when it gets said out loud to others, if it will raise a laugh.

In poker you know when you've done well as you scoop up the chips, in comedy is it as simple as just making people laugh? What else was I expecting? I may have been over thinking this. 

Just a few weeks in and I've become the Tolstoy of comedy. Expected of course, I don't enjoy things being easy, I am engineered to make a struggle out of everything. So I am adjusting my thinking - just going to concentrate on some of the people laughing some of the time but hopefully someone laughing at each funny point.

Got a killer of a line I want to try out next time. It builds on some of what I've already done and I really hope will take my set to another level.

Curently sat in the cafe at the Virgin gym in Northampton - all us fatties eating chocolate biscuits and watching others exercise - and lots of married men on the computers acessing dating sites. I've taken 4 pages of notes already ;-)

Thanks for all the positive comments - I am an over thinker! xx

[DaveShoelace]

The size of the audience will change the feel of how sucessful a gig is although it may be the same on both nights.  If 20% of an audience laugh at a joke and the audience is 200 that's 40 people laughing which can sound good when you are on stage. Same result but smaller audience of say 20 people is only 4 people laughing. No difference in the response so it was still sucessful but sounded less so.

What I find interesting is watching the audiences of programmes like Live at the Apollo. A massive audience but when the camera pans across some may be laughing and others not cracking a smile and that's with the well known, CD selling comics.

Audience size is a huge factor, I have seen several comedians at Arenas and it simply does not work. Thats why Edinburgh is great, because most of the venues are small and intimiate. I think comedy is a lot about tension (and the breaking of it) and the smaller the venues are always better for this.

[Dingdell]

Ok - I have the bit between the teeth and am applying for gigs. I have created a face book page - Tracey Dell comedy/comedian. If you are on facebook and you want to please LIKE the page. It will look good if I have a fair few people liking the page, as my emails to promoters etc will link to the page.

On there I have put in new gigs and auditions plus there will be news on any trips etc i go on and photos. ;-)

Thanks so much for being so supportive and helpful - i really appreciate it and it spurs me on. Tnx xx

[mulhuzz]

Ok - I have the bit between the teeth and am applying for gigs. I have created a face book page - Tracey Dell comedy/comedian. If you are on facebook and you want to please LIKE the page. It will look good if I have a fair few people liking the page, as my emails to promoters etc will link to the page.

On there I have put in new gigs and auditions plus there will be news on any trips etc i go on and photos. ;-)

Thanks so much for being so supportive and helpful - i really appreciate it and it spurs me on. Tnx xx

top tip: when it comes to promotion, people don't like searching and hunting, they like clicking.

So....

Click!

[china mug]

you have my permission to borrow any of my material....

[tikay]

Ok - I have the bit between the teeth and am applying for gigs. I have created a face book page - Tracey Dell comedy/comedian. If you are on facebook and you want to please LIKE the page. It will look good if I have a fair few people liking the page, as my emails to promoters etc will link to the page.

On there I have put in new gigs and auditions plus there will be news on any trips etc i go on and photos. ;-)

Thanks so much for being so supportive and helpful - i really appreciate it and it spurs me on. Tnx xx

In which case, "go on the Spurs".

Well done Miss D, & good luck.

[Dingdell]

Things are changing at home, I'm selling property, moving my business and today the surveyor comes at 1pm to do the surveys at home ready for the sale.  I have a tendancy to hide away and ignore everything at times like this, I used to gamble as a distraction and even now the temptation is huge.

There is is much to organise to move the business with as little disruption as possible and Im not sure that the timescales will work. I am dancing to everyone elses tunes at the moment, having to meet their deadlines and it's a painful process for me - I am massively out of my comfort zone.

This weekend is my friends' hen weekend - I'm sure it will be great but I'm a funny old stick and enforced fun without any time for my own space is pergatory for me. It couldn't have come at a worse time as I get the keys on Friday for the new business premises and it would have been great to get in there and start the organising of it all over the weekend.

To top it all we are all going pony trekking on Saturday - fml - I had to declare my weight a few weeks ago so they cold get the right horses for everyone - I had every intention (yeah right) of losing a few pounds between then and now but ......well anyway I am prone to exaggeration so going on my previously declared weight I am fully expecting them to bring out a shetland pony........

So on Friday morning we all meet in Luton and pile into a people carrier, drive to Canterbury, eat and drink lots, get on a horse, come back Sunday financially worse off - having spent time with people I will only ever see once again at my friends wedding. But, on Saturday, I will have smelt their sweaty armpits as their drunk bodies fall on each other during the endless games of twister and toilet paper bride, I will have laughed at unfunny jokes, slagged off the people who were clever enough to be busy that weekend, discussed poo at least twice when people find out what I do for a job.

At some point, as I will be the token single woman there, my friends will discuss my apparent lack of sucess in the dating stakes and disect every single relationship I have been in and state more than once how bad my choices have been but then follow that up with 'they were all bastards and they didn't deserve you, you are so much better than that'. They will then very supportively declare that I am better off single as being married isn't all it's cracked up to be and I should thank myself lucky I don't have to put up with mens snoring, farting and other habits. I will be thinking you can't put a price on snuggling up into the nook of a mans shoulder and falling asleep together.

I will coo over the finite details of the wedding and discuss endlessly what colour the favours should be wrapped in, I will pour over wedding hair magazines and at some point I will probably share a weep with a friend having had too much champagne.

When I eventually stumble into bed, sharing a room with a stranger, I will almost certainly lie there wishing it was me getting married and I will very likely have to wipe away silent tears. I wouldn't miss it for the world but the big question is - couldn't we have done all of this in Luton?

[littlemissC]

I hardly ever wander on to the lounge so glad I did this morning and saw this.
Tracey you are an absolute LEGEND and I wish you all the luck in the world with this .
Definatly up for a trip next time you have a gig, I've always found you so funny but more than that you have a quality about you that makes people just want to smile.its really good to hear that you are following your dream. Xxxxx

[Dingdell]

Just heard about the next heat of the Laughing Horse New Act of the year. It will be on Friday the 2nd of March at 8.30 pm, doors open at 7.30. £6 to get in. It's at The Goat Tavern, Stafford Street new Green Park. This heat is judged on audience voting, only 4 people that know you are allowed judging forms to keep it as fair as they can. Hopefully it will be a fun night out, there will be 10 - 12 five min acts. If you do come please laugh Thank you    

Here are more details on the venue; http://www.laughinghorsecomedy.co.uk/comedy/greenpark.asp

[mondatoo]

Just heard about the next heat of the Laughing Horse New Act of the year. It will be on Friday the 2nd of March at 8.30 pm, doors open at 7.30. £6 to get in. It's at The Goat Tavern, Stafford Street new Green Park. This heat is judged on audience voting, only 4 people that know you are allowed judging forms to keep it as fair as they can. Hopefully it will be a fun night out, there will be 10 - 12 five min acts. If you do come please laugh Thank you    

Here are more details on the venue; http://www.laughinghorsecomedy.co.uk/comedy/greenpark.asp

How can they possibly police this ?

[Dingdell]

Just heard about the next heat of the Laughing Horse New Act of the year. It will be on Friday the 2nd of March at 8.30 pm, doors open at 7.30. £6 to get in. It's at The Goat Tavern, Stafford Street new Green Park. This heat is judged on audience voting, only 4 people that know you are allowed judging forms to keep it as fair as they can. Hopefully it will be a fun night out, there will be 10 - 12 five min acts. If you do come please laugh Thank you  
Here are more details on the venue; http://www.laughinghorsecomedy.co.uk/comedy/greenpark.asp
 

How can they possibly police this ?

At this stage it is a small room - for the first 2 rounds no more than 30 - 40 seats - it's not the albert hall - so if there are 10 acts on the night it's pretty unlikely you will have a large majority for just 1 act. They assume that people will be honest, I wouldn't want to get through on dodgy voting & the others I spoke to feel the same. In a room that size it's pretty obvious if you know people so they would suss it out unless you ignore them the whole night. This is the last stage where the audience get a vote - after that it's judged by comedy professionals/bookers etc.

I'm pretty sure the 4 that had forms Gatso, Holdy, Claw and Andrew T would have voted fairly. In fact the comment was made that as they had seen some of my set on youtube before they didn't find it as funny because they knew what was coming. So having people there can be a double edged sword. We all knew the rules before we entered, if someone manages to go through with dodgy voting (unlikely imo) there are still 2 runner up places to be had.

The audience seemed to take the voting quite seriously - 1 girl was insensed that she didn't get through and berated her mates for not giving her higher marks but they told her outright that she wasn't good enough when compared to the others. It's great to get through, this next round is obv more difficult as the standard is now higher so it's more pressure. The round after is what I would love to get to - in front of the professionals and bookers - and get some feedback from them would be brilliant.  Bit like a Paul Jackson masterclass (joke there for Gatso).

[gatso]

I'm pretty sure the 4 that had forms Gatso, Holdy, Claw and Andrew T would have voted fairly.

we only had 1 form between us, maybe we should've had 4