It's Too Early with Gwen Filosa

So here is me!

Being interviewed by the wonderful Gwen Filosa on her radio talk show "It's Too Early" on Island Radio 106.9.

What an experience! So much FUN! 

Gwen was just great, I immediately felt at ease and my listeners (hello to my three listeners - I had family in town ahahahahahaa) told me that it was very natural and was simply just great entertainment.

FUN! It was fun! And it feels so liberating and energizing to push one's self outside of your comfort zone!

I'm going on a radio show...eek..I have no idea what that involves or what I have let myself in for!

Yep, it might be outside your comfort zone, but heck when things come your way, I'm a firm believer in just saying YES! 

So that is that.  The die has been cast.

I stood up and did *somewhat* comedy

Following on from my earlier blog about "If I was to do Stand Up Comedy" well I am ecstatic to report back that I did it!

It went really well!  Well so I thought, plus so said all of my supporters in the audicence.  Not biased at all! 
Ah no, also one of the KW regular comedians said to me "this is just your first time in Key West, you have done this before right?" When I said no, confirmed it was my absolute first time anywhere, she said something along the lines of me being a "savant"!  Ha!  

No seriously, coming from her (she is an awesome writer [her real job is a reporter] and a seriously funny perfomer), that is high praise indeed! Yoink.  I'll take it!

But! There is work to do.  And I know this.  My script needs rewriting and, and my delivery needs a lot of work too.  The first 1 minute/my intro went fine - a few little laughs from the audience, all was good.  During the 2nd minute, nothing was happening, the audience were attentive and responsive but no real laughs at all. Hell, no worries, I didn't let it bother me and pushed on through. Minute 3,4, and 5 is where it really happened. The last part of my act went awesome!  I really felt relaxed up there, moved around the stage, acted out/mimed pieces which worked well and got some great laughs. 

Improvements needed:

1. Fix that second minute.  It needs complete scrapping and a totally new narrative in there.  I have ideas that I need to bring together.  For the moment I have just tightened up that piece, sharpened the language and tried to summarise it into short succinct sentences.  This will work for next time until I have the new material ready.

2. Don't move around so much.  Stop fidgeting.  Stand STILL. Be cool Amy!

3. Speak slower.  Give the audience time to laugh before moving on. Know my laughs and take the pause at this time.  But also! Be prepared for the audience to laugh unexpectedly at parts (yay!) and just stop and go with it!!

4. Commit to it! Or else remove the piece.  At one point I planned on doing a bit of an Irish jig.  In the end I did a bit of a half hearted yoke which did not have the impact I planned.. Do it all, or do none at all.

If I was going to do a stand up comedy routine.... Part 2

...it might go something like this

(For Part 1 of this sketch - click here)

Ok... so where was I...oh yeah, talking about myself.  Ha!

"So I moved to Key West.  I bought myself an atocha coin (point to necklace) "Key West dog tags they call them eh!"" *Laugh*

Actually, I really shouldn't, with my Irish accent. talk about gold coins.  *Laugh*
Apparently when I talk about gold coins.....I sound a bit like a leprachaun

Aahahahahhahaahha

No seriously!  So I bought the coin and was telling my friend all about it,"it's a grade 4, but a really good one, almost grade 3, isn't it it's mad to think it was on the bottom of the ocean for 400 years yadda yadda yadda"

Well at least that is what I thought I was saying...

What he heard was something like:
*Stare dreamily into the distance*
Put on Major Irish Accent, speak in romantic/dreamy/Irishy acccent
"Ah yes, this gold coin here, lost in the mist of time to the bottom of the ocean until the brave and strong Mel Fisher dove down just like Brittany Spears boyfriend in Oops I did it again, and brought to the surface...
(OK SO I NEED TO DO SOME MAJOR WORK HERE TO GET THIS RIGHT/EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO SAY -[essentially a big load of Irish bullshit] BUT YOU GET THE DRIFT RIGHT??)


And then. Appaaaaaarently, or at least he says so, I jumped on to the table in Half Shell and did a little jig
*Act out a little bit of a jig or something with arms and legs*

*Laugh*

"Right folks! On that note! It's time for me to depart!  Thanks for listening to my wafflings! Good night!"
*Wave*
Get off the stage faaaaaaaasst




Edit.
So!  I did it!  To read my blog post about it click here

If I was going to do a stand up comedy routine.... Part 1

...it might go something like this:

Hey, hi, how's it going. So, I think you can hear by my accent that I'm Irish. So! [holds up drink] clearly I'm drunk.  [Pause]
*Laugh* Ah no [small pause] that's not because I'm Irish...that's because I live in Key West *laugh, slash smile*

[Pause] 

So yeah, first time up here, not really sure how this goes.  Suppose I should introduce myself, tell you a little bit about myself.

My name is Amy. I'm Irish.  I told you that already I guess. [pause] Em.  Gonna blame that one on the drink *wink, tip head to drink*
I'm a twin. Yeah, so I have an identical twin sister back home in Ireland. Like reeeeally identical.  There's literally [point to myself]  two of me walking around this planet.
[small pause] We're so identical that I can't walk down her street holding my boyfriend's hand because her neighbours think the is having an affair on her husband.

[pause]

We really are alike.  Like I'm not kidding you.  Like a couple of years ago, we got our DNA tested, and it showed that we had 99.9999999999% identical DNA.  And when we tell people that, they are all like "omg, but you two are so alike I'm surprised it's not 100% identical"
[sarcastic voice] Well no Karen, we don't have 100% the same DNA, because then we'd be clones wouldn't we, not twins [shake head, take sip of drink, pause, laugh]

So when we were born.  ...God. We were really ugly babies.  [eeeugh, shake head, make eek/grimace face].  No, like seriously, we were ugly!  ...It's my mom I feel bad for.  Like imagine going through a really tough twin pregnancy and then you get two little thing things with big eyes, bald heads, scrawny little legs looking like two little aliens...or owls.  [Laugh, shake head, shudder, laugh more]

ACT OUT:
Like there's my mam, pushing this big massive pram; - you know those 1970's prams - like something out of the exorcist movie.  And she's only delighted with herself and her new twin babies.  And she meets someone she knows....
"Oh Mrs Bebbington! You had your bab.… *Act out Sticking your Head into a Pram*
"AAAaaaaagh" *shriek out loud and jump back from the pram*

TBC

Work in Progress!
(For Part 2 of this click here)

Feedback welcome wanted.  Comment below please!

Edit.
So! I did it!  To read all about it, click here
https://keywestmonkey.blogspot.com/2019/12/i-stood-up-and-did-somewhat-comedy.htm

Creativity [ˌkrēāˈtivədē] NOUN the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.

Those of you who have followed (or probably more likely; those who have occasionally dipped into) my original "Amydublinia" blog are probably wondering why in hell I have started a second blog, and what in hell am I going to write about.  Good questions my friends!  Good questions indeed.

Truth be told, at this point in time, I probably don't have the answer to those questions... I just know that for a while now I have been trying to think different/write more creatively/just BE more free in my expression [style and subject].

Some feedback (criticism??) I have received about my other blog is that I "write very factually". You know, while that is not a bad thing per say, after all I've always said that is what I do; "I chronicle, I document, I record", being completely honest with myself I guess there has always been a small part of me that aspires to do more.

What is that "more"??!! Again, at this point, I don't have that answer.  But I am interested and excited, to find out what will happen.  To give it a shot and see what I can do - if anything at all?

I think I will struggle. In fact, I know I will.  Being completely open and free is not something that comes natural to me.  Although I am from Ireland; the land of Saints and Scholars, an island with an incredible literary history, the producer of a mind boggling number of authors, playwrights, songwriters and poets; conversely we are a people who are afraid of failure, afraid of appearing too big for our boots (biggest crime ever in Ireland lol!), afraid of putting ourselves out there, afraid of what people will say.

Ah heck who cares?!  Maybe it will be shite. Maybe it will be pure shite. Maybe I won't even be able to produce anything at all.  Well so be it.

Let it stand as a record, I tried.

So, let's see what happens in this little space on the internets!  Want to come along for the ride?  Want to see what evolves from this little experiment?

Let the catharsis begin.