A Sporting Chance
It's an epic summer of sport, which is not always good news for other types of entertainment, competing for our leisure time. Just this last weekend we had the start of football's European Championships, the US Open golf and cricket's T20 World Cup - and a lot more besides. Then next month it's the Olympics.
The football in particular takes over the national zeitgeist, and it's tough to get crowds if you're doing comedy at the same time. All those regular club gigs and Edinburgh previews trying to compete with Germany vs Scotland, or the England games, and particularly into the knockout stages - it's tricky.
Obviously we all like to be loyal to our favourite clubs or comics, but live sport is one of those communal activities that tends to trump it, excitement-wise. You don't want to be at a gig when some seismic clash is happening, really; it's just not the same on catch-up later. A lot of fans will also have a wager to add more spice, and go searching for the best betting sign up offers to get a little win in early doors. You just don't get that personal investment with stuff on the stage.
Having said that, live comedy is closer than most; literally closer, if you end up in the front row - at club gigs you are highly likely to end up as part of the show - and particularly if you actively choose to sit there. Certain punters definitely go along with a competitive head on, ready to heckle and try to take on the comic in a sort of personal roast battle, despite only one of them having a microphone.
You do wonder what their mates and/or partners make of that attitude, trying to out-shout the performer they've paid money to see: if they do manage to win that battle, they basically ruin the night. Great!
Which does make you wonder, are persistent comedy hecklers the same people who go to football and shout abuse at players on their own team? As that hardly helps either - no-one's confidence was ever improved by someone calling them a useless waste of space.
In truth, people like that, you'd rather they stayed in the pub and watched the England game rather than going upstairs and watching someone do an emotive work-in-progress. At least if he shouts stick at Harry Kane on TV it's pretty pointless, as Harry can't hear him and probably wouldn't care less anyway.
For the acts themselves, performing can feel a bit like you're an athlete, getting the energy right, so you're peaking at the right time. That's particularly true for the improvisers, which really can seem like comedy sport: there's no script, it's usually a team affair, you train rather than rehearse and the results are different every night.
Britain's most famous improv troupe, based at The Comedy Store, even call themselves 'players.' Although, unlike England's players, they don't have a massive laptop-wielding backroom staff, giving them pre-match tactics, half-time energy drinks and a post-gig massage (well, as far as we know). Then again, who needs a set-piece coach when you've been doing these set-pieces as long as they have?