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crispfencerDusting off this journal to tell you about all the live things I've seen recently! (Well, since my last entry...) I'll recount them in backwards-chronological, starting with Friday's Tim Key gig.
I arrived to the venue (Norwich Playhouse) with a little pre-prepared bag of merchandise to hand backstage before the gig. Within it were the Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better series CDs, the two Cowards series CDs, all three of his books (even the impossible-to-find '25 Poems...etc') and two handwritten letters. The first letter was a bit of a "Hey, big fan! Could you sign this stuff please?" kind of thing, while the second was a page of questions I'd sourced from my mates online. Since it turned out that I actually had the opportunity to grill him after the show, the question sheet and letter had rather lost their purpose. So, here are the questions that I was supposed to ask him:
[Will insert questions here once I've found the goddamn sheet. Cheers to all those who sent in their suggestions!]
Anyway, back to the gig! When I asked the lady if I could hand the bag in backstage, she said that would only really be possible after the performance had ended. Confused, I went to go and wait with the rest of the audience to be let in. When we were, I was, uh, quiet surprised. There he was, walking around on-stage, watching the audience take their seats and sipping his beer. We took our seats, which were arms-length from the mic stand. What followed was an incredibly painful 15 minutes of trying not to catch his gaze, and frantically whispering amongst ourselves when we though he was out of earshot. My companion (M, from now on) thought that it might be some sort of audience-intimidation thing. I said that it could be a subversion of traditional stand-up, where the audience would wait in anticipation for the main act, by diffusing any sort of expectations or notions of celebrity (a bit like what Mark Watson used to do when he played big gigs). Anyway, we both agreed that it might be some sort of technique to reduce stage fright and shift that nervousness onto the audience. Whatever it was, it made us super uncomfortable. (But in a good way, of course!)
He began the show by throwing the bag of cans onto the stage, following after it. One of the cans rolled straight towards M, and he picked it up. When Tim motioned for him to give it back, he did, and it exploded all inside his jacket! I know he does that every night but still, oh my god it was funny! A little later on, M was made to give Tim his beer again. First he put it by Tim's feet, but he continued to do the kissy-mouth thing (like this:￣ ³￣) so he had to physically kneel on stage with Tim, arms around each other, and pour the Kronenburg into his mouth (until he made the choking motion.) M got a round of applause and he gave me a look which said "You promised me there'd be no audience participation..."
In fact, there was plenty! Asking people what they though about various parts of the story (if cheating in spin class is ok, what's your favourite cheese, what's the worst thing that's happened to you on a first date) and they were very up for providing their opinions.) It was great, and I realised that Tim is incredible at crowd control, especially dealing with the rowdy Londoners on the second row... While I didn't get picked on (the guy next to me did, and M was repeatedly asked to pour the beer down his gullet), I still got lots of eye contact which was, uh, very nice.
Don't want to spoil anything from the actual show, since it turns out he's extended his tour to include Edinburgh and London, but I'll rattle through some highlights:
(I actually brought the tickets to this gig immediately after listening to that last episode and being so distraught that there'd be no more Tim on the radio, haha.)
Anyway, great gig! Had to get up at 4 the next day since I was meeting some new colleagues in London. They were great for a laugh, and it was a pretty casual environment, so I apologised for my awful Kronenburg-spittled hair:
Me: I was at the front of a gig last night, so sorry if my hair smells a bit.
Co-worker: So who did you see?
M: ....have you heard of Tim Key?
C: Oh my god did you see Megadate?! I saw it last year in Soho
M: Yes!!
Other co-worker: Me too! The poohsticks bit was my favourite
And then the conversation just devolved into comedy chat, which I was more than happy about haha! They'd both seen his other shows as well, so I grilled them a little on those too. We got talking about James Acaster and so much other acts! All in all, a good day
I arrived to the venue (Norwich Playhouse) with a little pre-prepared bag of merchandise to hand backstage before the gig. Within it were the Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better series CDs, the two Cowards series CDs, all three of his books (even the impossible-to-find '25 Poems...etc') and two handwritten letters. The first letter was a bit of a "Hey, big fan! Could you sign this stuff please?" kind of thing, while the second was a page of questions I'd sourced from my mates online. Since it turned out that I actually had the opportunity to grill him after the show, the question sheet and letter had rather lost their purpose. So, here are the questions that I was supposed to ask him:
[Will insert questions here once I've found the goddamn sheet. Cheers to all those who sent in their suggestions!]
Anyway, back to the gig! When I asked the lady if I could hand the bag in backstage, she said that would only really be possible after the performance had ended. Confused, I went to go and wait with the rest of the audience to be let in. When we were, I was, uh, quiet surprised. There he was, walking around on-stage, watching the audience take their seats and sipping his beer. We took our seats, which were arms-length from the mic stand. What followed was an incredibly painful 15 minutes of trying not to catch his gaze, and frantically whispering amongst ourselves when we though he was out of earshot. My companion (M, from now on) thought that it might be some sort of audience-intimidation thing. I said that it could be a subversion of traditional stand-up, where the audience would wait in anticipation for the main act, by diffusing any sort of expectations or notions of celebrity (a bit like what Mark Watson used to do when he played big gigs). Anyway, we both agreed that it might be some sort of technique to reduce stage fright and shift that nervousness onto the audience. Whatever it was, it made us super uncomfortable. (But in a good way, of course!)
He began the show by throwing the bag of cans onto the stage, following after it. One of the cans rolled straight towards M, and he picked it up. When Tim motioned for him to give it back, he did, and it exploded all inside his jacket! I know he does that every night but still, oh my god it was funny! A little later on, M was made to give Tim his beer again. First he put it by Tim's feet, but he continued to do the kissy-mouth thing (like this:￣ ³￣) so he had to physically kneel on stage with Tim, arms around each other, and pour the Kronenburg into his mouth (until he made the choking motion.) M got a round of applause and he gave me a look which said "You promised me there'd be no audience participation..."
In fact, there was plenty! Asking people what they though about various parts of the story (if cheating in spin class is ok, what's your favourite cheese, what's the worst thing that's happened to you on a first date) and they were very up for providing their opinions.) It was great, and I realised that Tim is incredible at crowd control, especially dealing with the rowdy Londoners on the second row... While I didn't get picked on (the guy next to me did, and M was repeatedly asked to pour the beer down his gullet), I still got lots of eye contact which was, uh, very nice.
Don't want to spoil anything from the actual show, since it turns out he's extended his tour to include Edinburgh and London, but I'll rattle through some highlights:
- The girlfriends in the film! I spotted Kirsten Schaal and Sally Hawkins
- The "I asked if I was, in her opinion, a catch" poem (I think it's called 'Under the Stars'?). Anyway, that was my favourite poem from the last series so seeing live and up-close was brill
- The costume changes (omg)
- Him claiming to bring his Perrier award to every first date
- "FUCKS SAKES CAROL"
(I actually brought the tickets to this gig immediately after listening to that last episode and being so distraught that there'd be no more Tim on the radio, haha.)
Anyway, great gig! Had to get up at 4 the next day since I was meeting some new colleagues in London. They were great for a laugh, and it was a pretty casual environment, so I apologised for my awful Kronenburg-spittled hair:
Me: I was at the front of a gig last night, so sorry if my hair smells a bit.
Co-worker: So who did you see?
M: ....have you heard of Tim Key?
C: Oh my god did you see Megadate?! I saw it last year in Soho
M: Yes!!
Other co-worker: Me too! The poohsticks bit was my favourite
And then the conversation just devolved into comedy chat, which I was more than happy about haha! They'd both seen his other shows as well, so I grilled them a little on those too. We got talking about James Acaster and so much other acts! All in all, a good day
