AliceFraser

Soho Show With Andy Zaltzman

Added 2018-12-19 18:33:32 +0000 UTC

So I’m sitting in Zaltzman’s shed, and we’re writing nonsense for his annual end of year Revue Show. Last night was opening night, and it was chaotic and fun and educational.

(Word to the wise audience member, opening night is like meeting a baby. It’s likely to be cute, messy and not quite dinner party ready. Come if you want to see that, but otherwise wait til later in the run. Some people I know deliberately come twice to shows, once early, once late, because they enjoy watching something develop.)

Sometimes standup can be a lonely business, and it’s undeniably odd being alone in a room imagining the potential of jokes to make people in the future laugh.

It’s also really hard to find the kind of collaborators you can trust to bring out in you the parts of your skill and jokes that you like but can’t easily pull out of thin air.

As a “woman in comedy” (blech), it’s also rare to find properly platonic, productive, creative chemistry with anyone, and it can sometimes feel like a risky proposition in more than a few definitions of both those words.

That’s one reason I’m super grateful (bleuurgh) to be working with Andy on his show. Firstly, it’s not my own show, so I get the joy of working without putting my whole neck and budget on the line. Secondly, writing on my own, my jokes can lean to over-worthiness or preachiness. Andy has such an enjoyment of silliness that I find myself pitching and loving jokes I’d normally scrap in the silence of my own mind.

It’s a good thing.