When a show doesn't quite land

Now that I have working transport again, I'm back out there with the shows. 

I've had a good week, I feel rested and, as a teacher, this has been a good one. I had to take an actual exam the other day, a new requirement for external teachers, which I sailed through (and got myself a little qualification I'd never asked for to boot) and all of the students are all on great form, which tends to happen when the sun comes out. Got offered a swanky new teaching job with lots of hours in a school that's walking distance and politely turned it down. Good to be in demand though, yeah? 

Tonight though didn't quite click the way I wanted it to, I was over in Ely where my good friend, Rishi, was hosting. It was my now regular double bill of shows, with an interval, the dark comic drama, 15 minute break, and then the drumming chaos one. I appreciate it's a lot for an audience to sit through, but I'd like to think both shows are so different it almost feels like you're not watching the same performer, that's the plan, anyway. There's even a different costume for each show and everything. I'm gonna blame tonight on a few things: 1) Cockiness, because the last one went so well and I didn't bother to even look at my script before tonight because I thought I knew it 2) an audience of 4 men who perhaps weren't up for 'serious' theatre as much as they were honestly lovely and stayed attentive throughout 3) it had been a long day - 9 hours of teaching, dashing back to walk and feed Freddie dog, forgetting props so I had to dash back and get them...I was an hour late for the show, in that time, the audience had carried on drinking. 

Or, maybe, I just performed the first half, the 'No Dreams...' play, below par. I just struggled to get into the awkward swing of it all, it just felt like it was dragging. The ending just felt abrupt, as if I was ending the show for the sake of it. It worked brilliantly two weeks ago, I need to get my head around why it didn't fall into place tonight.

The second half, the 'Band Playing...' show was messy, bonkers fun, conversational and more suited to the audience I was working with. They enjoyed that, I can tell. 

I drove home in silence, the show was about 40 minutes away, I usually drive back from a gig this way. Overriding thought? Look at the script again, relearn bits of it. But, also, I can't wait to do more. Lots more, which is cool because there's plenty in the pipeline. 

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