Me on the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki. Feeling safe around the Danish lifeboat.
Me on stage in Tartu. 300-350 people were in, it was a brilliant first night on this small tour.
Danish in Finland is double the size it is in Denmark. This can't be right!
All in all a fine adventure of comedy. One of the great things for me was the possibility to do 25 minutes in front of big audiences for a 3-day run. It's been a while as the locals say.
Back in London my first gig was in front of 6 people, who were all going on stage themselves. The perfect contrast to the glory of Estonia and Finland, and the perfect reminder to me of why I like the London circuit.
Of course it is great fun to do shows to 100+ audiences, it's a kick, it's one of the best sides of this drug called stand-up comedy. But what makes those shows good, really good is when the performer really wants to perform. There's no way to be sure of this, until you see that person in a room with only 5 other acts saying: "Let's just workshop it!"
I really admire the big amount of people on the London circuit, who are so eager to perform. It's very inspiring and they lift the rest of us up another level. Some of my best nights here, have been in front of less than 10 people. You really have to work for your kicks, but when they hit, it feels so much better.
The morale in this blog is, if you find a drug that suits you, you should experiment!