I may not have gigged at all yet since moving to London, and I may have discarded my entire set after my last gig up North to try something new, and I may have written a new five-minute routine in a different style which I ended up chucking in the bin because it didn't sound like 'me', but it's not all bad on the comedy front.
Since I discovered that a certain comedy chain runs a weekly joke competition on Twitter, I've been spending a lot of time and energy on writing new one-liners for said competition. Since I've won third prize, and then second prize, within the space of two months, I must be doing something right. (Although that £100 first prize still eludes me, but would come in bloody handy.)
Asides from the accolades, the competition - and Twitter itself - are helping me to become a better joke writer. The 140-character limit, and the fact that I'm gaining a bit of a reputation (and more followers) from other tweeting comedians means that I have to work harder to craft a decent one-line joke then ever before. When I have my days free I can write and post up to a dozen gags a day, half of which are at least half-decent. Even when I'm working a day job, I can while way the hours by thinking up a few gags and then posting them to Twitter via my mobile phone.
The downside of course, is that by immediately posting my brand new jokes to Twitter, they become public property and can be shared across cyberspace, which renders them void for use in a live set.
The previously aforementioned new routine took me several weeks to write and didn't come naturally. When it was done, and after I performed it for Yvette, I decided it was not much good and decided against performing it live. Although it made some interesting points, it wasn't really my voice and the joke count was rather on the low side.
Therefore, I've decided to return to one-liners. Except that I don't want to go back to my old stuff, because I think I can do better, and I can't use the Twitter stuff for the reasons I've already mentioned.
All of which leaves me in an unenviable position for a comedian - a willingness to return to live comedy, but a blank piece of paper with "JOKES" as the heading...
