The Raw Comedy Quest 2012 - The heat

Right after my debut set, i had booked in again for another raw meat Monday. Whilst emailing off about it, Hilaire, the lady who coordinates the raw meat nights had told me about a competition coming up, the 2012 Raw Meat comedy quest. The comp was open to anyone that wasn't an amateur. Hilaire suggested I talk to Jerome Chandrahasen (former national comedy quest winner and welly comedy scene big wheel) and enter. Remember at this point I had just the one set behind me that went great so my confidence was high. I contacted Jerome and signed up for the very last heat. I had already entered by the time I had that shocker if you've been reading past blogs.

The structure of the comp is like so, 4 heats in Wellington featuring 8-10 performers a night, each night 4 get picked to go to compete in two semi finals of 8 each, then 4 from each semi feature in the wellington final. The top 2 from that go to Auckland for a shot at the national title. 

The idea is, everyone gets 6 mins to do their set, which is judged by a panel of pro comics. This was a big step for me and I had no idea about the caliber of acts. I also thought it was probably time to throw away the secrecy and try drum up support, I was going to need it!

 Fast-forward a few weeks and arrive just after my second raw meat night. My confidence had taken a bit of a beating with what happened there and I gave brief consideration to pulling out of the comp. That nagging desire to test myself kept me from doing that; I wanted to find out where I was amongst all the other amateurs out there. I also kept remembering how well my first time had gone and I did believe my stuff was funny.

I wrote my competition set 2 days before the big night; it wasn't that tough because I just pulled together the best of the 2 sets I'd done. I also wrote a completely new intro that I thought was pretty good, the hardest part was wrapping it up into a 6 min package. When I timed it at home it was all over the place, came in at 5:30 when I recorded it, 6:30 saying it out loud and timing and 7:20 on my last practice. I cut a couple of non-essential bits out but the truth is I had no idea how long it would be. I posted it on Facebook and told people at work. 2 guys from work were going to come, Kim was in and so was James. The night rolled round and I discovered my pre gig ritual. I asked James to come have a drink with me beforehand, we met at the southern cross. For me, just meeting up with my best mate, having a chat about other stuff, and a couple of beers to take the edge off, is the perfect way to prepare. I might have a quick look at my set notes before I go up, but my philosophy is a bit like my exam prep was in high school, quick revise but fuck, if I don't know it by now, I never will! 

So after my pre gig drink with James, we set off to the fringe bar and James kills a bit more time as I have to be there at half 7 for the 8pm start. I'm a bit more nervous this time; something's riding on this set now and a few more people I know will be there. I arrive at the fringe and head to the green room area straight away to see when I'm on, second to last act of the first half, a good spot I reckon. There's 3 before me and one after, plus the MC for the night is James Nokise, a pro. I played a season of football with James last year so that small bit of familiarity helps ease the anxiety a bit.

Gradually the other acts start congregating in the green room. Tonight's acts are: Myself, Thom Adams, a guy just down as "Matt", A lady called Jac, Aidan Weekes, Josh Franklin, Roni Saul Kent Lambert and a bloke called Terry. This is a bit closer to the atmosphere I've been expecting for a while, a few of the guys are quite Boisterous, Thom and Kent are having a discussion about animal dicks and trying to one up each other in the humor stakes, the guy Matt is organising his guitar (musical act) and Aidan and Josh are pretty quiet. That’s explained when I learn it's both of their first ever times trying stand up comedy. Everyone backstage agrees that's ballsy and a couple of people that have done this for a while give them a few words of encouragement. The guitar guy then approaches Jerome and asks if he can pick which semi final he'll be in as he's busy one of the nights... Jerome looks a bit confused but says yeah sure.. I was thinking, Wow, this guy must be awesome if he's taking the semis as a foregone conclusion. Kent is probably the loudest of the group and seems really really at ease, he and Thom seem the more experienced in the room. Josh, Aidan and I have a bit of a chat being all fairly new, the others are very much keeping to themselves. Jac pops in and out and I can barely remember seeing Roni at all. James comes to tell us it's a pretty big crowd in. I'm relieved, it feels more comfortable with a big crowd. Thom is opening the show and seems totally unphased by this. It's not long now. 

The show gets underway about 10 mins late and there's a good energy coming off the crowd of about 80-90 people. James as the MC takes the stage and right from the get go he is destroying it. He does about 10 mins to warm up the crowd but he would've only needed one, they're loving him! Good I think, the more receptive they are the better. Thom is introduced and we are into the competition proper. His set is a slow starter, He gets a few laughs and I was quite surprised that his routine wasn't just full of dick jokes like his pre gig banter. The crowd quite like parts of his set but just looking at my watch, it appears he's gone way over the 6 mins we all have allocated. That counts against you in the comp we have all been told. If you go too long you can be disqualified. The hi-tech system they use is a flashlight from the sound desk at 5:30 and another at 6mins that stays on. Thom finishes up at about 7 mins 30 and heads backstage, I got the vibe from him that he wasn't that pleased with how he had gone but considering he was first up he did OK. Jac is the next performer; she is an older butch looking woman with close cropped grey hair. It did not go well for her, her material was predominantly about her sexuality and it was quite graphic and intense. She got the odd giggle, but the overwhelming response was deathly silence. There were a few faces being pulled backstage too. I think I saw Roni looking absolutely horrified at one point. Jac finished up to a golfers clap and headed... Out the door. Second time I'd seen that now, horrible set and out the door, why wait around feeling bad I suppose. James did a great job of warming the crowd right back up before Aidan made his debut, I was getting ready for my set and only briefly saw his stuff, he did pretty well for a first time, not terrible, not great. James then introduced me and I once again completed my 'walk on, shake hands, remove mic and nerves disappear' routine.

I could tell early on it was going to be a good set, I got great laughs right through, a tiny bit of banter with a guy in the crowd and I was very happy with how it flowed. Some of the jokes got even better responses than I thought and some of the ones I thought were killer just got a good giggle. It felt like I raced through my set and I didn't see the light. I finished to good applause and headed backstage relieved. A few others congratulated me, Kent shook my hand, I think he was expecting me to be less confident given my inexperience. 

Guitar Matt was up last for the first half. He did two songs, almost no spoken intros. The songs were really clever, well written and he gave a good performance.. The only thing was, no one laughed. I didn't hear a single laugh his entire set. Undoubtedly a talented guy but for a few reasons he didn't hit with the crowd. The first half closed up and the lights came up. 

The people that had come to support me came up to me for a chat, Jim and Brendan from work had been drinking a few beers.. Jim more so, he told me I was in front at this stage and Brendan agreed. I knew I had done well and was feeling like as it stood, my set had the best reaction. Kim came up to me and said I'd done well, James said the same. I was feeling really good and could relax and watch the second half. A couple of people from the crowd said some more nice things to me and with that the second half got under way.

James did another 10 hilarious minutes, the gulf in class between all us amateurs and him was obvious. He talked to the crowd and got people involved a lot, they loved it and he was enjoying himself. It was time for the second debutant Josh Franklin. Josh got a very good reaction from his set, the thing that struck me was this guy was doing this for the first ever time and his delivery and timing were just spot on. Very few of his jokes went flat and as he finished up to great applause I thought yep, he's through to the semi's too. Kent Lambert went after and he got big laughs too. His stage persona was pretty different to the bloke backstage, again good timing, good delivery and a hit with the crowd. I was getting worried now, if I was through and Josh and Kent were too, that left one spot and we had two acts left. Roni Saul was on next and in my opinion she got the best reaction of the night, she was supremely confident and with her thick Scottish accent the crowd lapped it up. Big laughs the way through and she must have walked off knowing she had done well. Now I was really worried, that was 4 through, including me in my own mind and one to go. The judges could have seen it different too, Thom the opener could go through for all I knew, he had the tough task of being first and while it wasn't a huge reaction for him, he in no way bombed. 

Terry was up last, an older guy. He got laughs too, his set was quiet in parts but got laughs at the punch lines, it was hard to tell how the judges would receive him. This was going to be tough now. They were only moments away from announcing the 4 that had made the semis. 

All the acts were at the back of the room together, minus Jac the one that left after bombing. You could feel there were nerves in the air. Guitar Matt and Thom were sitting on bar stools, Matt was just staring at the bench he was leaning on. My goal had been to get out of my heat and after feeling really confident early on, I now had no idea which way it would go. James the MC was handed a piece of paper and announced the names in no particular order, Roni Saul.... Huge applause and a few woops, she was stood next to me and looked pleased. Josh Franklin, more applause, the debutant through to the semis and deservedly so. I thought at this point that I was a gonner, every second that passed I thought more and more that I would miss out. Adam Wright.. My name was called! Good applause and Kim shrieking for me! And lastly, Zack Galifinakas... That was Kent who looked like him and had joked about it in his set. So that was it, the four of us through. We all shook hands and smiles all round, Matt was still staring at the bench and Thom was in contemplative silence. I felt bad for them, they wanted to do well and were clearly disappointed. 

The lights came up and the congratulations began. People came up to me and said well done, my little support crew were really pleased and quite a few people from the crowd came to shake my hand and say they'd enjoyed my set. What a buzz! A couple of girls said I was their favourite as they left, that was a great feeling. It's the best feeling being told by people who don’t know you from a bar of soap that you've done well and they enjoyed what you did. It's my biggest thrill still and I can't speak for the others but I bet they love it too.

For anyone reading that enjoys a standup at a local level, make sure you tell tem. It means heaps and gives you a big boost.

So what a night, Id accomplished my goal of getting out the heat and was confident I had a good set I could take to the semi’s with minor tweaks. A couple of people from the wellington comedy scene came and shook my hand, Ben Stokes said he really enjoyed it. Rick was there too and he approached me at the end to get my contact details about doing a set at another comedy night in the near future.

My next blog is the semi final at the San Fran Bath House.

Thanks for reading

*If I got any of the order wrong, sorry, it was a while ago now!