Having arrived in San Fran in the early hours of the morning, we picked up our hire car and then argued about directions for a while. The 20 minute journey took well over an hour, but at least we got to our Air B+B accommodation eventually. On the way I popped into a little backstreet off licence to pick up some beer and the bloke behind the till made a joke about shooting me because I was English. I didn't find this particularly funny.
Having slept very well, we caught a bus into town where a strange man kept glaring at me and then talking under his arm about killing me. I'm glad we got off at the next stop.
Went to Alcatraz which absolutely, totally blew my mind and inspired me in more ways then I could possibly put into words...I'm not one for history, but the audio tour as you're walking around these eerie, cold prison cells really woke me up. I've since ordered four books about it and have become a bit obsessed - it'll probably also be next year's Edinburgh show.
Then over to another part of town, where I had a stand-up gig. An open spot (so 5 minutes) in a gay bar that looked so worryingly outrageous on it's website but in reality was just like a typical English dingy bar with added posters of cocks on the walls.
Jim, one of the acts and also one of the nicest people I've ever met, said, "welcome to the worst gig of your career" - but he meant that not because of any hostility, but because it's a Tuesday night and nobody ever turns up to this show. A bit like every other open mic in Cambridge, then.
In reality it was better, because there was 15 acts on the bill which instantly felt like an audience, and about 6 or 7 genuine punters who were onside. I was the second act on and a bit of a frantic mess; they didn't understand my Red Bull material but got on board with some road rage stuff. I've watched it back; the content was pretty poor but my bumbling Englishman mannerisms worked a treat. Lots of little laughs throughout, 'nice Paul' rather than anything more exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment