When I was young, my parents took me to see Max Wall's one man show. I remember this captivating, hilarious, silly and fairly terrifying man, "In the flesh and not a cartoon". He did Professor Wallofski, of course, but I most I remember him just standing there on stage, in his suit and crumpled old hat, telling stories about his life that he had made into jokes. As someone who nowadays does one man shows, I think about him often.
Last night I did the last performance of "Three Balls and a New Suit" - bits of it might reappear in other shows one day, but as far as I know, as it stands, that's it for that show. It's done. I was hoping for a lovely final show, and if I'm being honest, that didn't really happen. The venue seemed to be on a too tight schedule, I only had 10 minutes to set up my stage, so couldn't really warm-up, and even though only half of the people who had bought and paid for tickets had taken their seats, I was told we couldn't wait and I had to start right now. Couple that with some tech issues, the venue phone not being turned off during the show, and a few other gripes, and I was disappointed with it. Luckily earlier on in the week, my penultimate performance had been, I think, the best it's ever gone, so I was not too downhearted.
So now I delete all those words from my brain and start again. I'll be debuting my brand new one man show in about two months and then taking it to the Edinburgh festival. I have a title, and a vague theme, and a notebook full of half-formed ideas, and that's all. This is all, like Max Wall, silly and terrifying.
Last night I did the last performance of "Three Balls and a New Suit" - bits of it might reappear in other shows one day, but as far as I know, as it stands, that's it for that show. It's done. I was hoping for a lovely final show, and if I'm being honest, that didn't really happen. The venue seemed to be on a too tight schedule, I only had 10 minutes to set up my stage, so couldn't really warm-up, and even though only half of the people who had bought and paid for tickets had taken their seats, I was told we couldn't wait and I had to start right now. Couple that with some tech issues, the venue phone not being turned off during the show, and a few other gripes, and I was disappointed with it. Luckily earlier on in the week, my penultimate performance had been, I think, the best it's ever gone, so I was not too downhearted.
So now I delete all those words from my brain and start again. I'll be debuting my brand new one man show in about two months and then taking it to the Edinburgh festival. I have a title, and a vague theme, and a notebook full of half-formed ideas, and that's all. This is all, like Max Wall, silly and terrifying.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting!
Surprised I have never heard of him before. Totally engaging comedy!
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