Not a real sports injury

I don't have a lot to report from the last few days. I've had a bad run of gigs, not in the sense that they've gone badly, but in the sense that the last three gigs I've been booked to do have been cancelled due to lack of audience. I think it's the worst run I've had in years.

It's a vexed issue, whether or not to go ahead with a gig with a small audience. When I was starting out, anything above 5 people was great, but now even the smaller gigs I do tend to have a "double figures at least" rule. Obviously you don't want to disappoint the people who did turn up, but trying to do comedy to what looks like a panel of judges is pretty dispiriting. The audience tends to feel uncomfortable too; laughter is a social response, and if there aren't enough people to laugh out loud, the gig will be very very quiet. Comedians stand at the back of rooms and mutter darkly about "smilers". When the lights are strong we can't see people smiling. As a response it's as useless as nodding on the radio.

So the gigs were cancelled. Whether it was because of the tube strike, the nice weather or lack of publicity, I don't know. Audiences for comedy are notoriously hard to predict. For example, is rain good for a gig, or bad? Every promoter has a different answer. What I do know is that having three gigs in a row cancelled is very annoying. Every time you build yourself up for the gig, think about the kind of stuff you're going to talk about, consider whether or not to do some new bits, and then there's a massive sense of deflation. Sometimes all the comedians hang around afterwards and have a drink together, which can bit a lot of fun, but not this week. I think everyone's tired from Edinburgh and just wanting to get home.

But tonight I have a last minute gig booked in South End. Gigs outside London tend to be more reliable in terms of audience, so let's hope it's fourth time lucky!

In other news, I have been playing Tiger Woods Golf on my Wii and have a sore arm.