Toughest Gig Yet!
Posted by fridgy on September 1, 2010
Hi there friends,
Well I’m back in Sydney now after a trip to the USA. I went over there for my older brother’s wedding for about 10 days. Now I regularly get on my website and blog about comedy gigs and while I’m fortunate enough that almost all of my gigs have been either great, good or decent, there have a been a handful of forgettable ones.
I particularly remember speaking about a gig I had in Manly at the Boatshed over a year ago where all my friends came and I died on stage. I remember it so clearly – there was more silence than at a party with all of Matt Newton’s friends. It was horrible. I also had a similar gig at Liverpool at the Macquarie Hotel about a year ago. About 5 or 6 people in the crowd sniggered a couple of times and only applauded when I left the stage. Similar story in Hurstville a few weeks ago, people were more interested in the TAB and when their schnitzel was ready than hearing me speak. Fortunately these nights are few and far between, however out of all of these tough moments I had a pretty tough one the other night…
I was my brother’s Best Man and not only organised the bucks party in Las Vegas the week earlier, but of course therefore had to do a speech. The first 2 or so minutes were going great. I opened with “how beautiful do the bridesmaids look tonight!? (applause) I haven’t seen women this amazing since the Pleasure Pit in Vegas!” (laughter). All was going well while I told stories about my brother growing up and people were laughing plenty. However then I did the regulatory “nice” stuff about my brother and as soon as I mentioned how important it was to have him around when my parents got divorced (coupled with the fact that I looked at my parents in the crowd at this moment) – I broke down in tears. It started out as my voice wavering and a bit of a sniffle, but sure enough soon I was crying. You know how things are always worse when people clap and my bro got up and hugged me. I just needed 30 seconds to calm down but I couldn’t, I still had to keep saying nice things about my brother and couldn’t get it together. Anyways, everyone said they LOVED the speech and many people were also in tears, but I didn’t exactly feel like a big, brave man afterwards. ‘Dying’ on stage is bad, don’t get me wrong – but crying on stage isn’t all that much more pleasant.
Anyways, all in all it was a great wedding and while it was sad to leave, it’s nice to be home.
A couple of gigs coming up and I’m in a new Carlton Draught ad (I’ll post the link when I find it), so please stay tuned and pop by regularly.
Thanks so stopping by friends. Please don’t laugh at me for crying. You know I’m a Roger Federer fan – if only I could play tennis as well as I can impersonate his trophy ceremony’s.
Done.
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4 Responses to “Toughest Gig Yet!”
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Always said you’re a big softie.
Seriously though Paulus – there’s nothing more moving than genuine emotion and we were all fortunate to have been able to share exactly that with you on the big night.
Like everyone else there I teared up as well, so instead of seeing it as a “downer” – it may very well have been your best ever performance.
Ideally, speeches are supposed to grab the audience and give ‘em a shake – I’m still shaking!
Loved it!
Thanks big man – very kind of you! I hope I didn’t come across as ashamed – I’m definitely not. It’s just amazing how difficult a moment like that can be!
You’re right though. That’s what speeches are about! You did great too big man!
Yep… I agree- it was a speech, not a comedy gig. You won people over with your emotion. People loved it!
Oh PS- you forgot to mention that you started crying AGAIN when Andrew gave his speech.
Thanks.. Oh and I spilt Jagermeister in my eye while Andrew was talking that’s all!!