There’s nothing happening tonight. Nothing at all. No Geek Night. No Link Night. Zilcho. Just so you’ve been warned.
Author: Dan Q
This Will Make You Laugh
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This repost was published in hindsight, on 18 March 2019.
Matt R wrote:
Well it would have were you there. I hope.
Sunday came and went and left me with the greatest buzz I think I’ve ever felt. I’m loving this comedy lark. I was terrified of the performance right up until the end of my first set and then I started to relax into it. Things started to fit and I let my material flow more than I probably should have in that I abandoned what I’d worked out of my script and left much of it up to the audience. It certainly paid off that night because the audience were spectacular. They deserve the most credit for the night as they came along wanting to laugh but best of all was their forgiveness. They would sit listening with the attitude “OK, that didn’t make me luagh but maybe the next one will”. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen that sort of generosity from an audience before.
The performances went well and Dave was better than I thought he would be (don’t misread me, I thought he was going to do well and he did marvellously). He’d rehersed his stuff well and thought it through and the closest I can come to a criticism was when he talked through the laughter, but that has to be balanced against his angry man ‘character’ and starting and stopping that can remind the audience that they’re watching a rehersed, rather than spontaneous, performance. Absolute Kudos to the man for not being phased by a joke that didn’t go as well as he’d hoped. I think it’s still got potential if it has a bit more set-up and is moved a little later in the set so the audience is more in tune with his character.
The ‘winner’ of the night was Adrian O’Toole who really was very good. He kept the audience laughing with his festival experiences and paused in the right places, had his call-backs to earlier jokes, spoke to the crowds experiences, called in his own without alienating them. He was very very good, especially considering he had only got up as part of a Gorman/Wallace style challenge system. You phone the man, set him a challenge and he’ll try it. When we told him afterwards that he was kind of expected to perform at the next comedy night he was very despondent. “But I’ve had twenty years to come up with this material” and that was exactly how I felt after my first show. I didn’t know how I’d ever be able to come up with anything else. I hope he carries on trying because he was a delight to watch.
Big shout out to Scatman Dan who’s review and expansion on what other people had done was fresh and exciting, definitely the sort of thing that we’ve been looking for — anything that goes against normal comedy boundries and pushes things in a new direction. Refering to other comics in your act is at least tabboo and at worst shunned and disparaged. I see both sides of the argument but if it’s done in a respectful manner I don’t see too much of a problem with it. If it’s not… well… I think that anyone who would do it without being respectful should be condemned to a red coat forever. Dan, of course, was nothing but respectful and I’d like to see him back, especially with some of (forgive the expression and please take no inference from it) his own stuff. I especially liked his explanation of the second war in Iraq.
There was a guy videoing it and I’ll let you know how that turns out. I really want to see it to find out where I went wrong (getting more and more Ducth Couraged on stage may have been one of them) and what bits worked better than I thought. Don’t worry Mum, I’ll send you a copy too.
Not quite finally I’ll be performing again (possibly MCing) at Yr Undeb on Tuesday. No, this is not the professional comedy nights that Steve-o runs but it is for RAG week and so please come along to support a well deserving charity case… and RAG! BOOM BOOM! No. There’ll be about five of us doing comedy and I really don’t know much about what else is going on that night but it should be good, and if not at least it’s for a good cause.
Finally I’m quite worried that I’m only funny when playing to a small crowd of Aberystwyth students who, if they don’t know me, at least know of me.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
What is a “setup experience”? And why do Microsoft want to share it with me, anyway?
I can’t actually find a definition of the word “performant” – can anybody help?
Yahoo! UI Library
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IRC Doesn’t Kill People – People Do!
There’s just been an interesting debate on the RockMonkey ChatRoom (#RockMonkey on Freenode) about where the channel is going, where power should lie, and all that jazz. It’s pretty much inevitable that this kind of discussion takes place on a channel, but this is the first time I’ve seen it happen on such a small one (and at a pleasantly low temperature, too). Changing times, eh?
Among many users of the channel, I’m sure it’s no secret that there are a few… personality clashes. That’s healthy, and can leads to great debate (or blazing arguments). The concern I raised was that channel operators (effectively: moderators of the chat room) haven’t been using their wizard-like powers in a responsible manner.
Jon asked me to blog it, but I soon realised that any blog entry I wrote would inevitably sound bitchy. So instead, I’ll just provide a link to some fantastic channel guidelines which explain what Freenode think is good practice when participating on, and, particularly, running and IRC channel. It says, far more eloquently than I would, exactly how I think the channel would be better run, and why.
Open Mic Night
As I’d promised, I went along to the Ground Zero open mic night at The Angel tonight – and it was a most spectacular night. Matt was MC, and did a wonderful series of gags and skits to liven up the crowd and fill the gaps between the performers. Unusually, all the acts were of an extremely high quality – a lot of good material from a lot of different people, delivered well. Particularly worthy of mention was Adrian O’Toole, who performed during the second act a fantastic piece of comedy, having been charged with doing so as part of an ongoing dare/challenge with some friends. Apparently, he’s joining… pretty much any society that’ll have him, “doing it all”, or some such thing, and part of this included doing open mic comedy. By the end of the night, he’d been signed up to be in a Christian indie band, despite not having the appropriate qualifications in either religion or music. We’re going to invite him to Troma Night. Even if standing in front of several dozen people and telling jokes didn’t break him, the traditions of our weekly film night might.
And so – infused with beer and impressed by the atmosphere – I put my name down on the board for the second act. And it went remarkably well: as well as could possibly be expected considering that I’ve never done open mic before, that I hadn’t planned to do it tonight by more than half an hour, etc. Rather than try to compose some humour within the few minutes available I opted to instead advance upon the acts of some of the people I’d seen so far: Matt had talked about the quirks of Aberystwyth; “Magic Ian” (hmm… Supergran reference, Claire and I wonder?) discussed The Crystal Maze… etc. etc… and so I took a little from each and added my piece. It was sloppy because it was unprepared, but for an improvisational spot it worked wonderfully and I was glad to see that the crowd mopped it up. I’d have liked to have ended on a better laugh, but all-in-all it was great… I’d do it again (albeit with a little more preparation).
The funniest moment of the night for me, however, happened not on stage but in the toilets. I’d just gone to the gents in between the second and third acts, and had just finished washing my hands when another attendee came in. He looked at me and recognised me as somebody he’d seen on stage earlier, muttered a congratulatory message, and went to shake my hand. I took his hand with mine, which I then realised was still warm and damp from the sink. “Sorry,” I said, as a look of repulsion spread across his face, “I pissed on my hand.” His face was priceless.
In other news, Adam linked to what is perhaps the funniest thing I’ve seen online in a long time: If you read his blog you’ll have seen it already, but who cares – watch it again: Ultimate Showdown!
Further reading:
A Change Of Plan
Okay, contrary to what was advertised earlier, there won’t be a Geek Night this week (unless Claire or somebody else wants to run one), as I’ll be going to the open mic night at The Angel, where Matt’ll be doing his stuff. If you were going to be coming to Geek Night but now (obviously) won’t be, please consider The Angel as a second option.
If you’re concerned that the cancellation of Geek Night is a crafty way of us denying you access to the tasty brew I was giving out last night (which was unanimously named Yeast Infection – Alec‘s suggestion), fear not: folks are more than welcome to come by before The Angel and tank up, or there’ll be enough to save for events during the coming week (there’a about 18-20 pints left, not to mention the other beverages that went down surprisingly well amongst the non-beer drinkers last night).
Right: got to get on with some work.
Open All Night
This is a reply to a post published elsewhere. Its content might be duplicated as a traditional comment at the original source.
Guys, I really need your support here and I know that it’s very last minute.
There’s a comedy open mic night tomorrow in The Angel and, not only am I performing in one of the slots, I’m also the MC. This is a big thing for me so if you could all come along I could at least be guarnateed some laughs. Well, that’s not entirely true; I’m worried about failing in front of my friends and possibly even worse that you’ll only laugh because you know me and I’ll carry on with this dellusion that I’m funny but if tomorrow isn’t a success (for the bar, I mean) then we may not get to do anymore at The Angel and then I’m certainly scuppered. I know that some of you already have plans and again I’m sorry that this is so last minute but if you could make it to The Angel at 20:00 tomorrow (Sunday) and pay £2 on the door then that would be fabulous. Had I more money I’d bribe you all with drink. Also it is open miic so if you’ve got a great anecdote or a good impression feel free to step up and give me some respite.
Please please come.
I really hope I’m good.
What’re You Doing This Week?
For the benefit of the Abnibbers (and the other folks that hang around The Place), here’s a roundup of some of the events of the rest of the week:
Thursday
Naruto Night from 8pm, as usual. Proposed anime for the night includes Bleach and Excel Saga, with the possibility of Full Metal Alchemist if the appropriate episodes can be obtained;
Naruto otherwise.
Friday
Geek Night has been moved to Sunday this week to make room for Link Night: Claire, Paul, JTA and I, infused by the power of the Four Sword, will continue our quest to free Hyrule
from the clutches of an evil Bad Link (and Ganandorf) and free yet more maidens and stuff. Yay. Player slots are filled, but spectators are welcome (and are certainly allowed to
entertain themselves with, for example, the other GameCube). In addition, it’s proposed that Binky use this evening to perform
the first part of his distillation experiment, as at least two of his experimental samples will have reached maturity by this point. =o)
Saturday
Troma Night as usual. The theme this week is “Bring Your Own Pint Glass” – all attendees are requested to bring a pint glass with them (buy
one, steal one, whatever – I don’t care), in exchange for which I’ll repeatedly fill it with any one of a selection of the various beverages that I’ve been brewing for the last few
weeks, including wines made with grapefruit, peach, pear and pineapple, a spirit of Binky‘s devising (made from one or more of those
previously mentioned, but probably the grapefruit), and lots and lots of cask beer. Bring your own bottle, as usual, if you think you’re going to need it, but a pint glass and a sick
bag should be sufficient for most. Proposed on the film agenda is “a good old-fashioned Troma Night”-theme: a good film; a bad film; and an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
If you enjoy what you drink on Saturday, please consider donating a pound or so into “the tub”, the proceeds from which will be used to buy further materials for the making of more communal alcohol for Troma Night. Making alcohol in large quantities is cheap (on money – most of the investment is in time spent washing things, shaking things, boiling things, etc), but not quite free. And if you don’t enjoy what you drink or you’re as skint as I am, just consume anyway. Mmm… beer.
Sunday
Geek Night. In accordance with the prophecy, this week’s Geek Night takes place on Sunday rather than Friday, to make room for questing and merriment on the part of the four
incarnations of Link in it’s place. Usual deal this week.
Angry Saudi Protesters
In the style of her comic, The Aber Effect, and in the light of recent protests about the religious implications of a comic, Claire has made a marvellous one-framer, shown below:
Much thanks to Claire for allowing me to publish this online.
Curry At All Spice – TONIGHT!
Curry at Cafe All Spice tonight. All welcome. Geek Night moved to Sunday this week. Jon, Hayley, and TGB in town. Time not yet certain, so meet at The Place during the evening or get a message to Claire or I and we’ll let you know when we know… but it’s likely to be about 9pm (when TGB expects to arrive in town). Also; keep an eye on this blog post for updates.
Be there, or be sober and hungry.
Special instructions –
- Alec and Suz – we’ll phone you before we leave The Place and pick you up on the way through. Testicles permitting.
- BYOB. Usual drill.
- Gareth seems confused by my agreeing to organise this, though. Hmm.
- UPDATE: Meet in Scholars at 8:20pm for pre-curry drinks.
In actual news, Abnib Gallery now carries 877 photos. My efforts to keyword/caption them all is going slowly, so if you want to help, please do (just sign up an account on the site then contact me to get your permissions sorted out).
What Might Have Been
You’ve all seen nanofiction before (which must, of course, have no more than 55 words of text plus no more than 7 words of title in it), as is used in games like Chrononauts and some of the other Geek Night favourites, but I’ve only recently discovered the idea of a drabble – a work of fiction totalling exactly 100 words.
I thought I’d share with you all a drabble written by a friend of mine (she’s put it only in places it’s hard to find, so I’m duplicating rather than linking).
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
From the day we were born, my twin sister was always the one people noticed. In our first photograph, just hours after our birth, she looked rosy, while I looked pale, like a wax doll. She grew into a beautiful and talented young woman – her singing voice was quite something to behold. I have no doubt that my mother loved me – although my father’s discomfort and disappointment in me was fairly blatant – but I remained something that was discussed as little as possible. I didn’t want to envy my beloved sister. If only I had been born alive, too.© Faye L Booth 2005 – used with permission – no unauthorised reproduction, in whole or part
Fabulous, I thought, and so I got permission to share it with you lot, too.
Wanted: One “Link”
Wanted: one competent video games player with free time on Saturday daytimes (and probably at other points during the week) to waste a couple of dozen hours over the next few weeks playing The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures alongside me, Claire and JTA. We’ve come into possession of (or will have, very soon) a copy of the game, a gamecube, four gameboy advances (or SPs), link cables, etc. Hopefully, we’ll be ready to kick off this coming Saturday afternoon.
Why do we want you? Because Zelda: Four Swords is blatantly best-played with four simultaneous co-operative players making a collaborative effort to save hyrule/banish demons/rescue Princess Zelda/whatever the plot is this time around. This game is getting good-to-great reviews, but every reviewer is saying that it’s best to play with the full gameboy/four-player affair, so we’ve decided that this is what we’re going to do!
Why is this game special? Well; it’s a truly co-operative RPG which feeds upon the puzzle-solving and co-ordination abilities of a group of people. It’s fluffy and friendly. And, coolest of all, it really does make use of the four (eek!) GBAs we’ll be throwing at it… if your character is seperated from the rest of the party, the adventure continues on your own little screen, right in the palm of your hands, until you can rejoin the main TV screen. Secret voting on each other’s performance, puzzles which require synchronised efforts on the part of the team members, and other goodies, make this a very promising little game.
Provisos:
You probably have to like Zelda games, or, at least, the idea of them.
You’ll need to drag your arse around to The Place to play it with the rest of the group on a regular basis (schedule to be determined), or we’ll happily replace you with somebody more
interested.
BYOB.
Want to join our ragtag band (or even come along early for Troma Night and spectate/shout abuse/complain that “it’s not like the Zelda games you remember – that’ll be you, Paul)? Let me know. And may the triforce be with you.
10 Useful Firefox Extensions That Don’t Get Glamorised
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Holiday (The Aber Effect)
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Ooh. Open mic. I’ll give that a go, if I can think of something to say.
See you there.