Audiences and what to do with them

[23daves]

I was back in London again yesterday evening, this time to attend an open mic called “The Human Zoo” (unfortunately not connected to the Tommy Boyd unscreened radio phone in show of the same name) at the Urban Bar in Whitechapel

Comments

[jon_skyisblue]

Open mics can be shocklngly stressful can't they? I find some of them quite tough - they all seem to have their regulars and 'outsiders' can be greeted with a scary amount of resentment. That coupled with the fact that they're nearly always extrememly intimate, so I can see individual audience members facial expressions changing throughout my songs...

[23daves]

To be honest, I find nothing as stressful as a full-length gig, purely because you can no longer hide behind the excuse of "this is new material I'm just trying out..."

That said, there does seem to be much more likelihood of heckling and general ill-feeling at these open mics, which can be very tough to deal with, and because they're usually promoted by word-of-mouth it does mean that you may sometimes feel that you're invading someone else's private party. As I've been off the circuit for a year now and seem to know fewer faces than usual, I'm steeling myself to expect similar bizarre events over the coming weeks and months. In a way it's good, though. It stops me from being too complacent.

Oh, and I enjoy seeing the facial expressions. When I'm blinded by the lights and can't really see the audience, I tend to have less of an idea of how things are going down. It leaves room for more self-doubt (or more misplaced confidence - delete where applicable).

[prosepina]

I feel rather ashamed that through all these years i've never yet made it to one of your gigs. Gimme some notice next time and I'll see what I can do?

I do admire your bravery getting up to do an open mic, I can't imagine myself ever having the resilience to do such a thing. Just as well I'm not a poet really...

[23daves]

You don't have to perform in front of people if you're a poet. It's purely optional. That said, I really can't think of many other ways of getting one's work across at the moment. I suppose I should also say that the idea of doing stand-up comedy terrifies me. I'm happy if people laugh at amusing bits in my work, but the idea of actually having to MAKE drunk, rowdy audiences laugh fills my bowels with terror. Live poetry is like falling off a log in comparison.

Anyhow, yes, I will give you notice when someone actually offers me a gig! It's unfortunate that the only bit of my writing you've ever actually seen in a live context is that god-awful play I staged at university, which I reference in my latest journal entry. You can only be pleasantly surprised after that, quite honestly.