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It was a week before Christmas, Tuesday 18th December to be exact, and I learned a lot upstairs at The Library Comedy Club in Upper Street, Islington. In fact I learned a great deal about the world of stand-up from then on, too – at least London’s ‘world’. Thanks to the fabulous compere James Redmond,…

A week today, I would have just completed the first of 4 lunchtime stand-up performances at the Edinburgh Free Fringe – and I will be getting legless out of relief or shame or both. I know all this because Ryanair have emailed to remind me. Okay, they didn’t actually remind me about the stand-up or…

In a few hours I’m going along to see the stand-up comedian, Adam Bloom, who is performing in my home town. Ricky Gervais has described him as being one of his favourite stand-ups for about ten years (ten years – get it? – please see the previous chapter of this blog, if not). ‘Bloom,’ says…

OK … here’s what I’ve learned so far about stand-up. It’s f***ing hard. I’d almost given up. I’m probably still giving up. In fact, I’ll probably always, almost be giving up. But I’ve promised to participate at a SUCK event again this coming Saturday in Barcelona, so I can’t give up until at least Sunday….

I had a phone call this lunchtime from Frank Blunt, the documentary film-maker. He’s back in Glossop, Derbyshire, and he sounded breathless and excited – or maybe just pissed. He said he’d been viewing some of the footage this morning of his ‘no-nonsense Frankumentary’ on stand-up comedy together with his producers, and they’re now commissioning…

I’m back and so is this blog. Frank Blunt and his documentary team are back in town, too – but they’re not letting on when or where they’re going to film next. It’s to do with their ‘fly-on-the-wall’ psychology bollocks. (Who came up with ‘fly-on-the-wall’ in the first place? What fly? Whose wall?) Anyway, I’ve…

I’ve just heard that Frank Blunt and his documentary crew are returning next Tuesday to follow me around for another week. As if 10 days at London open-mics wasn’t enough, he now wants to see another SUCK show in Barcelona to see if the comedy has ‘improved’, and to interview me about my ‘one-man 40-minute…

So … the older guy at the New York Comedy Club suggested we talk afterwards. We did, but very briefly. He said my routine had been good, but that I needed to understand the difference between ‘storytelling’ and ‘one-liners’. ‘Did I?’ I wondered. We hadn’t really covered that in the Logan Murray course, and I…

A quick blog update. If there’s one lesson I learned from last night’s ‘King Gong’ at the Comedy Store it is that there is comedy and comedy and comedy and comedy and not everyone laughs at the same thing (not that anyone at all laughed at anything I said). It is true that any ‘gong’…

They let me on in the end, upstairs at The Camden Head in Islington last night. I apologised as soon as I arrived that I was without a guest, but Katerina Vrana (a brilliant Greek comedian and the ‘Free & Funny’ MC for the night) put me on 5th in the first half … and…