It’s mid-February and I’ve just done my first gig of 2010. I lack the eye of the tiger. Anyway, last night I did a gig, my first since November of last year, and it was quite fun. It was the first time testing what I think is a fairly solid 5 minute set, and it went quite well. Having said that, I did forget the end of my set, but I’m fairly sure nobody noticed. Not even when I said “I’ve forgotten what I was going to say”, or launched into a rant about how I’d completely gone blank and couldn’t remember what I’d planned on doing. Of course, it’s possible that all that did give the game away somewhat, but I guess we’ll never know.

I’m saying that the gig went quite well, I haven’t actually listened back to it yet. I record all my gigs on a dictaphone so I can see what worked and what didn’t, then cut the material that didn’t and replace it with stuff that might, the idea being that eventually, you’ll have something great from start to finish. No doubt that when I listen back to what I thought was quite a good gig, I’ll be stunned to discover that there’s just silence, occasionally interrupted by the sound of myself chuckling at just how funny I thought I’d been. Let’s hope not though.

What was interesting was that when I did forget my material, people said that they actually saw my true voice come through, which, presumably, is an inept berk. At the moment I’m fairly relaxed when I’m on stage and relatively low key. I think when I forgot my material I actually started to have a bit more fun and became more energetic and engaging. It’s something that I shall continue to experiment with, as I’m still trying to work out what my actual style is. I’ve got a year to mess about with it. I originally thought 2009 would be my training year and I’d do ready to try and move up a level this year, but in actual fact I realise now that 2010 will be the year I’ve got to try and master this craft, which could potentially make 2011 a very exciting year.

In other news, I had some peach iced tea the other day. It was pretty good. I get the feeling I’ll be having more iced tea in 2010. In many ways, that makes 2010 a very exciting year, all those varieties of iced tea to get through. I’ve actually just searched for ‘Best Iced Tea’ on Google, but unfortunately all the results involve making your own iced tea. That’s no use, I’d mess it up. I tried making pancakes this morning and messed it up spectacularly, meaning I had to just sit about grumbling into a yoghurt after I’d poured all the batter down the sink. Maybe I should make my own iced tea though. I could become an ice tea master. That would be good.

This hasn’t been interesting at all. I’m still going to post it though. I’d like to think that in years to come, I’ll be able to look back on all these blog posts nostalgically and say “oh, look how boring I was back in the day!” as I spend the day stirring a tin of paint and discussing iced tea with a stuffed cat. Anyway, there’s got to be something more constructive I can do, so I’m going to go and see if I can work out what it is.