Rugby World Cup Comedian......

A huge hello to one and all,


Since my last post, I have mostly been working and sleeping. With a tiny amount of drinking thrown in for good measure. I have been working at Eden Park Stadium during the Rugby World Cup and it has been amazing. I'm a rugby fan anyway but even if I wasn't it has still been awesome to be a part of a great atmosphere with loads of street entertainers, including dancers, musicians and plenty of hammered drunk men in fancy dress. My favourite street vendor was a 10 year old boy who was stood outside his house near the stadium selling biscuits for a dollar each. Not home made biscuits, just your everyday store bought chocolate biscuits which cost about $3 a pack and this kid had made a fortune! And at times like those, when you're half filled with rage because you can't believe anybody is putting an end to this boy taking advantage of hungry passers-by you think to yourself "Why didn't I think of that?". Watch this space people cos that kid is going to become a very wealthy man one day.

I also had myself a wee gig last Monday (03.10.11) at The Classic in Auckland. I still haven't performed on the main stage yet because they have been filming a TV series there so I have had to settle for the comedy studio upstairs. I have definitely decided that Auckland is my favourite place to perform so far. The crowds here are awesome and they come in quite large numbers to watch an amateur night, and although they don't realise it at the time, they hand over their hard earned cash to see me! I couldn't get my family to pay to see me but New Zealanders seem happy to. Plus The Classic is the best comedy club I've been to, not the biggest by a long shot, but it's a cool place that has a good vibe.

As far as I'm aware it was a pretty good gig. I was happy with how it all went, but I'm yet to sit down and watch the video to confirm this. I have made the personal discovery that my favourite part of any gig is when you stand at the bar after the show and allow people to buy you drinks and comment on how funny you were. My ego is a hungry creature and needs constant feeding.

The only negative on the whole evening was that I got stuck talking to a couple of girls after the show, real intellectual, feminist and outspoken types who I wouldn't mingle with in normal life if mingling cured cancer. One of them was adament that New Zealand was the most racist country she'd ever been to (based on her afternoon in the museum and one night of comedy) and said her "Blood was boiling" over the amount of racist comments made during the night, half of which I'm positive were in my set. The other seemed a bit more chilled out but worked on a TV show in the UK which for some reason gave her the impression the sun shone out of her balloon knot. I think I stood for about 45 minutes nodding and agreeing while these two girls, nae, women simultaneously talked at me. And not one time did they offer to buy me a drink.

I finally taught myself the other day how to convert videos so they can be put on an iPhone or iPod. If you are a performer and find looking at notes particularly boring, I can't say enough good things about having a video at hand to watch at any time. I must have watched my set ten times on the journey into Auckland before my gig and it really helped with memorising everything, seeing exactly where you get laughs and what needs more work. And because I was confident with what I was saying, I feel that I portrayed that confidence and had a better show because of it. That's my tip of the week if you're interested.

One other thing I'd like to bring to your attention is the overwhelming success of the Melbourne Fringe Festival show a few of my dear Aussie friends put on, 4's Kin. I have to say that I'm hugely jealous that they're doing so well and the reviews have been fantastic. If you live in Melbourne and want to go and see a Fringe show, it's too late. They've packed up and finished after a sell out two weeks. But I have no doubt they will be putting on shows in the near future at other festivals so keep your eyes peeled.

Back to me.

I had a quiet word with the manager of The Classic and he promised he'd get me on again before I head off on yet more travels to The Cook Islands at the end of the month, so hopefully that will come to fruition. Failing that, I fear I have had my last gig in New Zealand. At the end of October I will be continuing on through South East Asia for a couple of months where I feel there won't be much of a comedy scene. At least not in English. Then it's back to the real world and Motherland of England to see how my comedy fares there.

So keep tuning in to find out if I manage to get a last gig in NZ, whether I get arrested for streaking at the RWC final or if I get murdered in Southern Thailand.

Thanks for reading,

Sean

The Ball Is Rolling Auckland...........

Hello and welcome along once again,

 I'll start by quickly explaining the last video post I made. I doubt you will of seen or heard of Dayne before unless you live in Australia, but Dayne won the Raw Comedy competition this year which is a pretty amazing acheivement. Thousands of people enter every year from all over Oz and the finalists perform on TV and are thrown into comedic stardom (within Australia). Now, not only do I think Dayne is effing funny, I also had the pleasure of gigging with him a couple of times in Melbourne before he won the competition so I thought I'd pay him the compliment of promoting him a bit, although fame has probably gone to his head and he acts like an arse hole now. Maybe someone could let me know?

On to more important things now.

The Classic Comedy and Bar

 

I have returned to Auckland for a spot of work during the Rugby World Cup that is being held in New Zealand, and on Monday 12th September had the pleasure of performing at The Classic Comedy Bar in Auckland's CBD. It's a really cool venue which, the couple of times I have been there, has drawn pretty big audiences considering it's an open mic night. I think on Monday there were around 40-50 people in the audience.

I really wanted to take some pictures of me performing for the blog (and to satisfy my own vanity) but I also really wanted to record my performance for analytical purposes. But unless I took two cameras, which I think would of been a bit much, I could only choose one so I went with filming it. I had considered putting the video on here but I'm really not sure if the world is ready to see how average I am at comedy. But having looked at it, I'll have to wait a while before I have a better gig than that one.

It went really well I think. There were a couple of ropey seconds where I didn't quite hit punchlines as hard as I would like and a bit towards the end where I briefly forgot the next segue, but other than that I was pretty happy. I think it was really helped along by a large alcoholically lubricated audience and the fact that I myself was pretty alcoholically lubricated. All in all it was a very lubed up room. It was also only the second time I did my new set and I think with a bit more tweaking I might have a pretty strong 6-7 minute set. It seems people find it funny listening about how shit it is being ginger.

The MC for the night, Rhys Mathewson was awesome and a really funny guy and I would of been very happy to have paid the $5.00 fee to see him had I not been on. But I think the highlights for me were two young guys (they couldn't of been older than 16!) that apparently had just graduated the "Comedy Class of 2011". If they are only just starting out, they are going to be awesome a few years from now.

I already have my next gig pencilled in at The Classic for Monday 3rd October, which is ages away annoyingly. If I get the chance I'm going to head to Snatch Bar in Ponsonby to see if I can grab a spot there soon. The only problem is the travelling considering I have no vehicle at the moment.

But in the meantime, keep checking out the blog as I will post a couple of new videos, probably including one of my new beloved TV show Flight of The Conchords. And if I feel brave enough, maybe a video of me. But probably not. But maybe.

Taking New Zealand By Storm......

Hi.

How are you? I hope you are well.

Firstly, let me congratulate you on making it along to another blog. Congratulations.

Crikey, what a HUUUUGE response I've had to my plea for more interaction. I've been absolutely overwhelmed by it all and I'm extremely grateful. Two comments. That's two thirds of my entire group of followers. I'm beside myself.

Don't take the sarcasm to heart because it does genuinely get me excited when I see I have a comment.

Right. Down to business.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to grab a spot at The Fringe Bar a couple of Mondays ago, when I was hopeful of getting a last minute gig arranged. But I went along nonetheless and had a jolly good time. I managed to spend quite a lot of money on alcohol, which in turn, made me enjoy the comedy all the more. Everybody wins. Except my bank balance.

However....drum roll please.....I did attend my pre-booked gig last Monday and have now officially performed stand up comedy in two different countries. Just not my own, yet.

I was a bit rushed to get to the gig as it was also my first day at a new job and getting back was a struggle. But I made it, checked in and saw I was on second. It was a lot more nervous than any other gig I had done for a number of reasons. Firstly because I was wildly underprepared to perform a brand new set. And secondly because it was the first time I had gone on stage without the Melbourne open mic-ers in the audience. At least with them there, I knew I'd get some sort of pity laughter if it went horribly. But no-one here knew me so if it went badly, it would just be me and the tumbleweed.

The girl who went on before me was a bit poo (it works two ways, I don't know them either so I don't need to be nice to them). This enstilled me with a bit more confidence because I knew I wouldn't be the worst person on that night.

My gig went pretty well I think. I managed to remember the whole set (just) and got quite a few laughs. There were some jokes that didn't get any laughs and I was faced with a brief wall of silence. But they were just the "Filler" jokes. The jokes in between jokes that are just supposed to keep the laughter ticking along. All in all I was pretty pleased with how it went. I think the new set has potential but needs a bit of work to strengthen it up a bit. Oh and if you are reading this and you are either Dil or Rob.......I'm seriously debating cutting the "Mum story" out of it all together because that was one of the bits that got tumbleweed. Or at least come up with a stronger punchline than "same".

That will make no sense to anyone other than those two people so just ignore it. Or nod and smile along politely as if you know what's going on.

There were six comedians on that night, and when I came off stage after being on second, I really felt that I was the best so far. That lasted until the next guy got on. I couldn't really hear what he was saying because the MC was telling me how he used to work as one of those human statue things that you see busking. But he seemed to get a lot of laughs. And the guy after him was awesome. Before he went on, he was telling me how he was a Christian and had only performed at religious festivals and I thought he was going to be gash. But he made me lol. In fact I lolled a couple of times. I was very pleasantly surprised. Although, I did find out later that night that half the audience were there to see him. But he was still my favourite of the night.

I don't know if it's the competitive side of me or what, but I always like to rank everyone who performed to see where I came. I didn't win on this occasion, but it was a biased audience so what can I do? I think with a bit of fine tuning and a bit more practice, I'd smash it.

I can now tick Wellington off the list of places I've gigged. I'm moving back to Auckland next Saturday for a new job during the Rugby World Cup so I'm hoping to be able to grab a few more gigs while I'm there. There are a couple of venues that do regular open mic nights so it shouldn't be too difficult to get one arranged.

If you have any ideas for a joke I could use, feel free to post them because it would be my honour to take credit for your ideas.

Oh and real quick before I go....I've just started writing the script for a comedy musical show that I've decided I want to perform somewhere like Edinburgh Fringe next year. Obviously I can't play any instruments so the "musical" side of it will be down to my closest friend Rory. But I really feel like it could be genious!

In the mean time, thanks for coming along on the ride.

And I'll catch you next time.

Sean