Mmm Bank Holiday Monday. Day of doing nothing. I considered doing something, but decided instead to go online and see if my girlfriend was doing the same. I won't go into the details, but we ended up replanning my evening. While I was going to go to Bridlington to do a gig, I was also going to stay in the hotel in which the gig was running as I was to receive a visitor. The lady in question was prepared to travel for over 4 hours to see me, I was happy to stay in Bridlington in return. Not only that, but it turns out that Bridlington is quite a nice place.

When I'd called the hotel about staying, I suggested that I didn't need bed and breakfast as I'd be leaving really early and would miss breakfast. Their solution was to ensure that I got an early breakfast the next morning. I was rather hoping they'd just charge me a cheaper room-only rate. This trick didn't work, but announcing that I was a comedian knocked about 30% off the bill. It's good to be a comedian!

The gig itself was lovely. I felt like I knew what I was doing. My "racists" song was still not quite the big hitter I want it to be, but I think that it will grow in time and I also think that it's not meant to be a massive hitter. I have a stronger set up for it now, so it may drag them in more quickly.

The promoter seemed happy with how things had gone, so I was happy too. The audience were very very nice and it was nice to be appreciated, rather than talked over. Sadly, my voice was in very poor condition and some of the audience reaction was dulled by my obviously damaged performance and the audience's realisation that I didn't appear to be singing in a manner which was pleasing to the ear. I have a theory about musical comedy (me? a theory? how surprising!). My theory is that you can liken it to blowing up a balloon. The size of the balloon is the size of the laugh you'll get. There are thing which put holes in your ballon:

• Poor rhymes, where it's not for comic effect
• Bad singing
• Noticeably bad playing - I get away with it by unambitious accompaniments
• Poor craftsmanship altogether - songs exist because the human brain reacts to music and words in a certain way, if you produce something that doesn't feel right and, again, it's not purposefully bucking the rules, audiences feel cheated and it doesn't work

Sadly, I was breaking my second rule with my dodgy voice. I'd tried plenty of drinks and I'd sucked about 4 Vocalzones... it wasn't enough.

An early night was required to give us a chance for an early morning without a road accident on the way back to our respective parts of the country. It had been a welcome get together for us, and I'd managed to demonstrate my new "racists" song to someone who matters.