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I
don't have a terribly successful history with competitions.
The
first one I ever entered was BBC Talent, where I competed with John
Cooper (who now MC's around the North), Seymour Mace (clearly the
best of the night and now doing very well) and Dan Nightingale (now
resident compere at Manchester's Frog and Bucket).
I
enjoyed the night, but was clearly too awkward and unsure to get
through.
So
it was with some apprehension that I made my way to Manchester's
'Frog and Bucket' on Monday, to try and 'Beat The Frog' - which
is just the 'King Gong' show, but with a frog.
As
previously mentioned I had ditched my 'comedy' character and was
going for straight gags.
I spent
the afternoon wandering around Market Street thinking up new material.
For
some reason, on gig days, the brain panics and says 'Hang on, all
that material I've been doing to great effect for the last hundred
years, that's rubbish - I know, I'll do this routine about insurance
salesmen on Mars that I've just thought up'.
This
is usually a bad idea.
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Mayor
came back on with his trademark
"Aren't
I beautiful?"
and then we were off.
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Hartley prepares to go on stage.
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The
show started at eight-thirty and Jonathan Mayor, a large black man
in drag, was our MC for the evening.
We
started with two people who had 'beaten the frog' on a previous
occasion doing ten minute sets.
The
first was bad, the second brilliant. I was going to be the second
of the actual contestants to take the stage, and two beers had relaxed
me into warm fuzziness.
Mayor
came back on with his trademark "Aren't I beautiful?"
and then we were off.
Neil,
the first act had a great routine about erm, night-ladies in Amsterdam
and made the five minutes before energetically bounding off stage.
He
came across as someone who 'was just giving it a go' but was quite
effortlessly funny - either it was a carefully written act, or he's
one of the most natural comics I've seen in a while.
Then
it was my turn.
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