The last two nights have thrown up three gigs in two different venues and I have definitely come to the conclusion (through the pattern of the last couple of years partcularly) that if I had the money, I wouldn't do circuit gigs in the summer.

In the old days you would hold your breath in December. The rooms were full of Christmas parties, large groups of at best apathetic punters with party hats on, sometimes abusive but generally good humoured and oblivious to you and not pissed off that a comedian was on in the background of their 'talking'.

Now however we all have to put up with the 'Stag and Hen' season which tends to start at the end of April and tends to run beyond the summer and into September. This means that now  the majority of the year, the gigs are no fun at all, just riot control and doing your most base level lowest common denominator material at a forttissimo level. Normally these 'people' just talk throughout your act, shout that you're shit or tell you afterwards that they find you offensive whilst wearing a t shirt with Susie Slapper printed on it.

This scenario occoured on Friday at Bristol Jesters, it wasn't awful but it was bad enough. On Saturday at The Komedia in Bath it was surprisingly bad. As I left I felt like if I saw another set of women with deelyboppers I wouldn't be responsable for my actions. To my pleasant surprise though, I walked into Jesters Bristol to close the show and to my surprise there was no fancy dress in sight! It was mainly men but the women were in couples or in large mixed sex groups. Everyone listened, pretty much everyone laughed (apart from one funeral faced twat in the front row) and a good time was had. Comedy clubs without party pricks are the best audiences around. Afterwards me, John Robins and Michael Legge went to the pub, it was opened late and a lot of real ale was sunk. One out of three but at least the one good one was a great one. Well done Bristol people, you dressed normally and laughed at jokes.

I can see storm clouds gathering over the comedy circuit and the whole stag and hen nonsense will have a big say in it's future. Roll on the Autumn.

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