Jiggery Pokery Cabaret - week 2

I think it's starting to work out, this cabaret thing. The cutting of all sketches seemed to have helped, and the comedian/band thing seems to work - I think we just need more comedians, and more features that get the audience involved. Tonight's second show just seemed a little more confident. The audience, it has to be said, weren't there for the show we were putting on but largely seemed okay with us invading their Wednesday evening down the pub. Kev was on good form tonight as host - he was last week too, but this week he seemed more relaxed, he seemed to have more of a control over things. Acoustic act Alighting were as exactly what Alighting always are - delicate, but likable, nice tunes, very easy on the ear and the perfect way to start the evening. Comedian Jen Spencer, who I have to admit knowing nothing about before the show (all I know is that she's a friend of a friend, is from St. Ives and saw me in a band about 10 years ago), was superb. I know I said that about last week's comic too, and I don't intend to just praise people for the sake of it, but she was really very good - even better considering she wrote her set on the morning of the show. There was a very loud bunch of drunk Italians at the bar who talked very loudly over her entire set, but she didn't flinch once, there's a Victoria Wood quality to her that suggests she'll more than likely go onto much bigger things. The 'name that tune' session went well, Rob (from Eureka Stockade) enjoyed himself perhaps a little too much with the Britney Spears stuff but it all adds to the random nature of the evening. For some reason the soundguy insisted on there being a 10 minute interval, I have no idea why and for me it ruined the flow of an evening which, when it got going, was really buzzing along nicely. I'm not sure why he did this, wouldn't like that to happen again. It felt silly going back on for just a few songs, so Eureka Stockade (with myself on drums, obviously) played a slightly longer set than planned - 6 songs, and went down very well, much better than we normally do actually. And the loud Italians seemed to love every second of it, ironically enough, and I think we played pretty well tonight, which hasn't always been the case when we've not rehearsed as a full band for a couple weeks. Our set by the way, I think, was: Through Every Darkness, Resistance, Without You, She Got Good, All Alone and our encore (yep, that's how well it seemed to go) was Heroes Fall. On the whole, as a gig - a great night, as a cabaret - likable fun but still needs a bit of work. Next week, perhaps, we'll get it right.

JIGGERY POKERY CABARET WEEK 2 - LINE UP
Kevin Wright - intro
Alighting - 3 songs
Jen Spencer - guest stand-up
Eureka Stockade - one song
Name That Tune (with Richard from Alighting, and Andy & Rob from Eureka Stockade)
Eureka Stockade - 6 songs