Shuffling the Pack
Taking a gamble can be useful for freshening up comedy ideas.
One thing comedians have to get used to when they go full-time is suddenly finding a lot more of it on their hands. Time, that is. Once they'd do a nine to five, daydreaming of material while staring at spreadsheets, then rush to gigs straight afterwards. Now you get up, stare at a blank Word document or scriptwriting app, daydream about anything but jokes then probably give up and play online poker instead. Which does then give you something to write about.
For comedy people, relatable everyday pastimes like that are all potential sources of material. Writer and frequent Have I Got News For You presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell certainly threw herself into the world of poker, while keeping copious notes. She became a professional player, wrote a regular Guardian column about the game and a book, For Richer, For Poorer. A worthwhile hobby indeed.
The veteran stand-up Andre Vincent actually launched an Edinburgh Fringe show, Pokermen, back in 2011, turning comedians' off-duty card schools into a fun, accessible spectator sport. And then there's Ricky Gervais, whose early shows included a typically contentious routine about losing at a casino. They can be lucrative, for some. Vincent had entered a few tournaments but 'never come anywhere,' while Coren won huge prizes. If you think you might enjoy a similar fortune, then check out the best live casinos in the UK over on bestcasinosites.net.
Speaking of big high-profile tournaments, this year's Edinburgh Fringe features a show by Joe Stapleton, a US comic who is probably best known over here for presenting poker on TV - indeed, according to the blurb for his show, American Apologist, he's "Channel 4's fifth-best late-night poker commentator." Which makes a change from the usual blurbs trumpeting people's appearances on Mock The Week, Radio 4 or an obscure panel show on one of the lower profile TV networks.
His Edinburgh show is chiefly about his four years in the UK and the bizarre stuff going on back home in the States these days, but you wouldn't be surprised if a big chunk of his audience turned out to be TV poker fans. Which creates an interesting conundrum. How much do you acknowledge that?
It's an issue that has bedevilled live comics who've gained a big following doing different stuff away from the stage - football podcasts, for example. Punters turn up expecting a live version of their podcast about, say, Liverpool FC, and in fact it's a highbrow concept show about religion or politics or dealing with the departure of a loved one. Which can lead to those punters becoming a bit restless.
So it's all about getting the balance right. If you're best known for poker stuff, throw in a bit of material about the game, maybe a few little easter eggs just for the poker fans (a bit of terminology maybe). And in an ideal world, everyone will be on board.
You don't want to go too far with it though, because who knows, one night you might wind up with a whole audience full of folks who've just wandered in out of a classic Scottish thunderstorm, and who wouldn't know a fold from a flop. And no-one wants an unexpected flop on their hands.