35. Comedy Night in Kentish Town part 1.

After last week’s heroic trek to Guildford it’s a huge relief to potter ten minutes down the road from Diane’s to the Oxford Pub in Kentish Town for the Monkey Business Funny Night. Martin, who runs it, is what they call ‘a character.’ He needs people who are kind to him and who fit in happily around his slightly bumbling manner. I’m very grateful to him for giving me my first break in London and, as a former radio and TV reporter who spent years working ‘live’ I can adapt where necessary.

But a lot of comedians aren’t so adaptable and they rub up against him. It’s their stuff hitting his stuff. We’ve all got stuff of course. And I think a lot comedians have a bit of a problem with authority. After all, if they didn’t where would most of their political jokes come from? Martin does not run free comedy nights; he does this for a business and he wants you to bring friends -  whom he charges. That doesn’t go down very well as so many comedy nights are free nowadays.

There was an article in the national newspapers recently who said that comedians were mostly borderline psychopaths.

The four aspects measured were:

•             Unusual experiences (belief in telepathy and paranormal events)
•             Cognitive disorganisation (distractibility and difficulty in focusing thoughts)
•             Introvertive anhedonia (reduced ability to feel social and physical pleasure, including an avoidance of intimacy)
•             Impulsive non-conformity (tendency towards impulsive, antisocial behaviour).

Hmm. Well I can relate to that. Though I need to learn more about antisocial behaviour. 

Certainly a lot of comedians  don’t relate to other people’s emotions – and I do see that on the circuit quite a lot. Not many comedians are sociable with other comics unless they are members of the same tribe. I recently got a ‘did you do Edinburgh?’ ‘No, not this year.’ ‘Oh’ – and was ignored as a rookie from then on.

Well I am a rookie. Due to the life-enhancing dis-ease I haven’t been on the circuit half as much as one ‘should’ be on it in the first couple of years of doing stand-up.

The ones who do socialise; who are supportive and kind stand out like a very-not-sore-thumb. Pray God I am always one of them.

Tonight I’ve got ten minutes to most people’s five minutes. I check with Martin because Eric, the lovely comedian I’ve been chatting to (definitely not a psychopath!), says we’ve all got five minutes. I offer to drop half the act if he needs me to but Martin says, ‘No, that’s fine, Maggy. You do ten minutes. You’re a professional.’

Now there’s lovely... I feel very chuffed.