Yesterday was the most terrifying Halloween I’ve had for many a long year. It was finally my time to do stand-up comedy at the Bright Club Wales. I had tentatively agreed to do it way back in April when I saw a colleague, Peter Coles, doing a turn. I have had a naive curiosity about doing stand-up and I have always wanted to give it a go. Because I firmly believe that you should never be too scared to give anything a go, I signed up.
I’ve done after-dinner speeches, been best-man at 2 weddings and regularly give public talks so I thought I would be fine. Until I remembered that this time I had to be funny. It wasn’t an option to go on stage and be amusing and sweet in a slightly awkward way. I actually had to make people laugh. Fortunately, it went really well and I had an amazing time on stage. I decided better of doing a Brian Cox impression.
Before you watch be warned there is strong language from the start – it got me a cheap laugh!
There were a couple of other amateur acts including Rhys who used to be a student of mine, and some professional acts; Bob Ramsey, a spirit medium (he looked more like a large to me) and Jon Chase (aka Oort Kuiper), a really brilliant rapper and science communicator. His video of the Periodic Table rap is great.
And lastly, many thanks to MC Dean Burnett for invaluable advice while I was preparing my set.
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[...] know one particular contributor, our own Ed Gomez (who also blogs), was a bit nervous before the show but he needn’t have worried, as his set turned out to [...]
Edward, what can I say, other than I never knew you had it in you to stand up infront of a live hostile audience and make them laugh. I have send many happy days listening to you make a small group of friends laugh till they cry, so well done!
What can I say? I wish I’d been there. My envy at your bravery is as limitless as the theories surrounding n-dimensional space. Well done!