Small gigs

I was just wondering how you guys all feel about or deal with small gigs and spots (by small I don't mean the venue or whatever I mean like when there is only a handful of people in the crowd). The reason I ask is last night I was at an open mic a event (which was mostly music acts, I was the only stand up) that was organised by a friend of mine and despite him telling me I could go on early he left me until last and by the time I got on stage there was only about 4 people there to watch. Needless to say I left disappointed. Not because the jokes were bad or the performance wasn't good but just because the crowd was so small there wasn't really much energy or anything.

So basically I just wondered whether any of you had ever been in this situation and what you made of it and how you got around it?

Sounds like good preparation for the Edinburgh Festival (where the average audience is usually in single figures)!

With small audiences you have to be prepared to break out of your set, there's no point in just doing your usual 5/10/20/whatever, you need to include the people who are there and make it a bit more personal, talk to them, practice your compering skills, make it an "event" rather than one person monologuing to 4, probably self-conscious, audience members.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ March 25 2013, 6:10 PM GMT

Sounds like good preparation for the Edinburgh Festival (where the average audience is usually in single figures)!

With small audiences you have to be prepared to break out of your set, there's no point in just doing your usual 5/10/20/whatever, you need to include the people who are there and make it a bit more personal, talk to them, practice your compering skills, make it an "event" rather than one person monologuing to 4, probably self-conscious, audience members.

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Good advice. Just relax and adapt to the situation. If there are four people there then everyone's aware it's a bit of a farce, and acknowledging it will release the tension. If you just pretend it's a normal gig then you're going to look silly.

Also doing comedy at the end of a music night sounds terrible.

It's not always that bad. The first time I did it it was fine and it went really well but this I was left til really late because the person who organised and was doing a few songs just kept going and going and kept saying "oh you'll be on soon" but by the time it got round to me nearly everyone, including two people who had come to see me, had left. It was just an awful gig.