Last night at The North Star was proof of this.
An absolutely stellar lineup it must be said but the North Star is a difficult room to play and huge thanks to Darren and Amy for wanting to keep pushing forward with Anarcomedy every month. It's a free gig in an open room meaning background noise is a problem. Many punters, despite publicity, stumble across the gig thus lacking the usual investment in having come deliberately for comedy. We're still working on technical solutions for sound as well. Wireless mics are great but generally require a more orally intimate relationship with them reducing their suitability for stand up where gestures and mic movement are significant elements in a performance.
Despite these difficulties the night was opened by the always solid Jason Patterson. He did great work with what began as a distracted crowd, opting for engagement over material as a table of three at the front decided that somehow their drunkenness meant the gig was for their entertainment only and engaged in slurred banter throughout the set. Jason's naturalness is always a great counterpoint to such annoyances and he took them easily in his stride.
Following Jason was last month's open mic winner Zahra Barri. Zahra's style is an off kilter ditziness with some great right angles to her material. It was a shame that mic problems and background noise meant her voice didn't always come through but she survived with aplomb and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of her.
Closing out the first half was Mark Restuccia, a comedian of whom I've been quite a fan for a number of years. Again, sound quality and the interruptions of our three drunken pseudo-comics in the corner didn't quite do justice to Mark's wonderfully droll approach but feedback after showed almost universal approval of his style and his experience came through in his superbly relaxed approach to both his material and audience engagement.
The North Star is a strange venue in that we tend to see a slight change in audience in the second half with most seats being filled by the time Stevie Gray opened. He's loud, cheeky and charming and having had the benefit of seeing how the room had worked in the first half he charged on determined to take no prisoners. His one legged pirate Linda McCartney tribute song accompanied by an unsuspecting audience member replete with hook, eyepatch and pirate hat is the perfect antidote to a noisy room and reengaged the audience while dragging more punters in from the back rooms.
Closing out the night was the ever wonderful Elizabeth Hotson whose ASBO wielding alter-ego, Julie Jones, never fails to impress. I'm sure none of the punters present will listen to the Casualty theme tune in quite the same way again. The only down side was her close due to the fact she had to reenter the stage to save the crowd from my absence caused by having to mix the music for her set in an office above the pub. Apologies to Julie but you know I love you cos I'm scared of you.
Sooooo, the night was won despite technical difficulties and feedback was excellent on the whole.
And lessons learned?
The night needs to become a more specifically engaged comedy night with the room more obviously set aside for such.
Better sound management needs to be in place with a more dynamic mic set up and mixing options available in the room itself.
Don't worry, I'm working on it and thankfully The North Star's Darren and Amy are in for the long haul so things can only get better from here on in.
Once again, huge thanks to Jason Patterson, Zahra Barri, Mark Restuccia, Stevie Gray, Julie Jones and of course the Ealing crowd.
Anarcomedy will be back at The North Star on Oct 28th. See y'all then.
No comments:
Post a Comment