2. Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday (June 16^th) was my comedy birthday!  My first anniversary of performing stand-up comedy.

Now for those of you out there who are not happy with your lot and are cruising through your mundane life, let me demonstrate what can be achieved in a year with an ounce of talent and pounds of hard work:

• June 16^th 2010 – Made my stand-up comedy debut
• August 15^th – Died on stage for the first time.  Also my first compering gig.  Was better for the experience!
• Sept 18^th – Gigged on a pro-night for the first time (will explain the difference between pro-nights and new act nights in another entry)
• Oct 16^th – Gigged out of London for the first time in the lovely picturesque town of Swanage, Dorset. Had to take a ferry to get there!  Lovely middle-class older audience who ‘liked the cut of my jib’
• Nov 2^nd – Set-up my own new act night with my good friend Stu George at the restaurant/bar he runs, Navajo Joe in Covent Garden.  The first monthly Covent Gag-Den was a resounding success and we have continued to run this gig on the first Tues of every month!  Come down and see what the fuss is about?

The Covent Gag-Den - first Tuesday of every  month

• 2^nd Dec – After a few weeks of intense rehearsals, made my debut on the sketch show ‘United Colours of Comedy’, was a lot of fun doing something different to straight stand-up and I’d like to thank Victor Daniels for the opportunity and faith he placed in me.  Look out for more UCC shows later this year
• 12^th Dec – With over 300 entrants and after three rounds, I found myself in the final of the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year 2010 competition.  Competition was stiff and I delivered a super-set, was unlucky to not place but got a nice review from Steve Bennett.  He runs the comedy website Chortle and is the comedy equivalent of Simon Cowell
• 2^nd Jan 2011 – Survived the King Gong show at the Comedy Store in Manchester.  This is the worst gong show of them all, where the audience has the power to vote you off any time before your 5 minutes are up.  Survivors then go into a clap-off to determine a winner.  It remains to this day, the most vicious gig I have ever done.  Basically 2 minutes of set-ups and 3 minutes of me slamming hecklers… Boy did I slam some of them!  Great experience and made me stronger.  Didn’t win, but the guy who did win deserved it on the night
• 8^th Jan – Another competition final.  This time the Max Turner Comedy Prize at the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell.  This comp is run in memory of a comic, Max Turner, who died 2 years earlier.  Got the runner-up spot (3^rd) out of a 100 acts.  Gave my £25 prize money to the charity that the night was supporting
• 9^th Jan – Made my debut on the black comedy circuit.  The black circuit runs in parallel to the mainstream circuit but is run by black people for black people and is notoriously difficult to crack.  Like British singers trying to crack Hollywood in that respect.  Many a Cheryl Cole has died on the black circuit.  I smashed it… Standard.

Smashing at The Sunday Comedy Club

• 31^st Jan – Having survived the King Gong at the Manchester Comedy Store, I tried another crack at the King Gong at THE Comedy Store in Piccadilly Circus.  Was another vicious night, with a handful of acts doing well, but the majority of them crashed and burned.  I went on last with a ‘fuck-it’ attitude and managed to have a stormer, one of the best gigs I’ve ever done and after the one-minute laugh-off I was crowned Jan 2011 King Gong!  All this with heckles of E-E-E-D-L coming from the back of the room... What a month :-)
• 5^th Feb – I got paid for the first time!  Only £10 but it was the first ££s I’d ever received and it made me happy
• 28^th Mar – My first real set-back.  I was knocked out of the Amused Moose competition in the first round.  I wasn’t very good and didn’t deserve to progress.  Was disappointing because I really wanted to do well in this competition as it is a good indicator of what you can achieve as all former winners/finalists are either HUGE names in comedy or at least making sizeable waves
• 4^th May – One setback followed relatively quickly by another.  This time got knocked out of the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year at the semi-final stage.  Felt very hard done by if I’m honest as I thought I’d done more than enough to at least get into the pool of runners-up spot, but on the night didn’t even make the top-3 which not only flabbergasted me, but also some other comics and audience who were there... Alas... Give me BBC NCA any day!

Other points to make:

• I performed 119 gigs in my first 12 months!
• I held down a very demanding full-time job
• I ran the London Marathon after months of training in a time of 4hours 12minutes 28seconds!

Post London Marathon

• I have managed to take 4 weeks worth of holidays/time-off where I didn’t gig at all
• You really find out who your friends are when you embark on something ‘different’ and I’d just like to give a huge thanks to Abs Awan, Chris Wade, Zaira Shaal, Stu George, Charlotte Scott, Waqas Khan, Bilal Mansoor and Nousheen Bangee who have been extremely supportive... Love you guys x
• I have met some AMAZING people on my journey so far who I am proud to call my friends and who I hope will be in my life forever and ever... Amen!  They know who they are x

Looking forward over the next couple months I have:

• 18^th Jun – So tomorrow I am in the FINAL of the BBC Radio 2 New Comedy Award... A bit of a big deal... To be honest writing this post is NOT helping me to relax in the way I thought it would!
• 2^nd Aug – Another day another final.  This time the final of the Red Hot 24 Talent Search for a new comic.  I’ll be up against 4 others, should be fun night
• 4^th – 28^th Aug – I am attending and performing in my first ever Edinburgh Fringe Festival... Albeit the Laughing Horse Free Fringe.  I’m also going to be fasting all month so this is going to be a huge mental and physical challenge for me.  The show I’m in ‘Chuckle Sandwich presents: Gags, Songs & Bombs!’ is a showcase with two other hugely talented acts, Kate Lucas and Gary Tro.  You can catch the show every day from 23.15–00.15 in, A Room With a View, The Three Sisters, Cowgate, Edinburgh

A lot to take in?  Know this reader... You are capable of so much more than you are doing right now... Go out there, chase your dreams, whatever those may be... And reach for the stars...

From a personal perspective, I am still only at the start of my journey, I am a complete and utter novice at stand-up despite the relative successes of the past 12 months and if I want to achieve the success and appreciation I crave, I have SOOO much hard work ahead of me... But, I love doing this and I’m prepared to work for it... See you on the other side people!

- Tez