Since my last MY Comic Life, I’ve turned 38 yet again. (For those of you unaware of this phenomenon, it turns out I’ve been 38 for most of this century). My very Scottish father treated both me and my brother to a birthday meal while pointing out “that it’s a good thing you only have birthdays once a year or you’d be costing me a fortune.” Goodness knows how he would have reacted had the meal not been discounted thanks to my Equity card!

A few days later I had another birthday meal this time with friends which was not only fun but when it came to paying the bill there was so much money left over I actually made a sizeable profit on the night.

This year has also seen me finally getting to do some pontificating on screen while slowly getting pissed for a new YouTube channel called Off The Mic. What can I say? I joked to the producer that they should provide me with Pina Colada on set and they did. To be fair, I was unable to drink all of it but luckily said drink came in a handy handbag-sized bottle (fortunately for me I have a rather large handbag), so in the end the Pina Colada found a good home. Though admittedly not for very long. As for the show, it was great fun to work on, forced me to write some topical jokes for once and working with the fellow comics was a hoot.

I also met an amazing woman called EJ who came to MY Comedy London night one month. Despite EJ and her friends having the mick taken out of them (what can I say they did sit in the front), EJ later invited me onto her That’s Oxfordshire TV show. If I learnt just one thing from being on that show, it was that I really need to wear longer dresses.

The first couple of months of 2017 also saw me perform at a wide range of different gigs.  In fact, one of the strengths of the UK comedy scene is the variety of gigs on offer. In February I performed in the early afternoon to a room full of teachers. It should have been a disaster – a room of sober people, just back from lunch, who have to attend as part of a training day.  Mind you, if anyone knows what it feels like to be standing in front of a room full of people who don’t want to be there it’s presumably teachers.

Such is the life of a comic. One night you can be in a theatre playing to 1,500 people, the next night you are in a room in a pub with no lighting, no mic, no real audience, performing to 8 people who clearly don’t want to be there including you.

Only the other week I enjoyed the art deco splendour of The Bloomsbury in central London, hosting the Society of Box Office Managers Awards, being wined, dined and presented with a magnificent bouquet of flowers at the end of the night; the next day I was at a Caribbean social club in Luton and the day after that I was part of the evening’s entertainment for a Easter Weekender in Dudley, spending Easter Monday on a bus from Dudley to Birmingham which seemed to take in most of the West Midlands and be almost as long a journey as the train from Birmingham to London.

I also hosted a fab gig in Gloucester where a woman came up to tell me that she’d seen me before, thought I was hysterical and I was the only reason she’d come to the gig. But before I had a chance to exult in smugness and self-satisfaction, she followed it up by immediately informing me (several times) that while she had thought I was great everyone else in the audience at the previous gig had absolutely hated me to such an extent that she had been forced to stop laughing. “They didn’t just hate you, they really hated you,” she confirmed for the umpteenth time. To be honest, the fact I’d played to silence for most of my 20 minute set to a room of 300+ people had alerted me to the fact that may well have been the case. As luck would have it, another woman who’d also been at the previous gig helpfully confirmed that they had indeed really hated me. That’s another thing about comedy: it’s always swings and roundabouts.

In other news, Jen Brister and I finally got round to podcasting about Season 2 of Outlander, a series that was aired this time last year. Considering we’re both comics, our timing seems to be particularly out of sync when it comes to podcasting about TV shows. We decided to carry on with the podcasts as we now have 19 avid listeners. Yes, 19 folks! We also decided to carry on for the simple reason that both Jen and I love the sound of our own voices.

Jen and I have also decided to play the YouTube generation at their own game and started promoting what we are up to via the art form that is video. To be fair, it’s not quite gone viral but we live in hope/remain deluded.

On the personal front a recent gynaecological visit has persuaded me that such visits would be made a lot easier for all concerned if they covered the ceiling with photos of Ryan Gosling, Sam Heughan or (add your own personal favourite). I have to say the doctor thought it wasn’t that a bad idea. In my humble opinion, it would definitely be far more effective than the current policy when wielding some foreign object towards a female patient’s nether regions of simply shouting ‘relax’ as if the two went hand-in-hand.  For the uninitiated, they don’t.

So as I reach the milestone of being 38 for yet another year, I look forward to more podcasts and YouTube clips with Jen Brister, the publication of my first short story – The Nightie – and a whole range of gigs from performing at Coventry Pride, the Bradford Literature Festival, to performing alongside White Yardie to gigging in Copenhagen and Gothenburg. That’s another thing about the life of being a comic. It’s never dull!

To sign up to my blog – just head to the home page – www.maureenyounger.com and fill in the rubric in the bottom right-hand corner. I know this because a much younger friend sorted this out for me. Thanks Darren!

For information about the gigs I run check out https://www.maureenyounger.com/mycomedy/london/ or https://www.maureenyounger.com/mycomedy/birmingham/. You can also check out other gigs I’m performing at via https://www.maureenyounger.com/my-comedy-corner/my-gig-list/

Credit for featured image: Off the Mic

© Maureen Younger and www.maureenyounger.com [2013-2019]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Maureen Younger and www.maureenyounger.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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