Testing your material really does rock!
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Pelayo Matute – a real mentsh!
Back in July of last year I wrote a post about how testing your material in front of others is imperative. Well last night I had a concrete example of why it works!
At my friend Inge’s last artists’ salon I decided to try out some material for a gig I was doing with Dawn Whitwell the next night. I ran my set and everyone gave me their thoughts. There were many helpful notes, but the most useful came from my friend Pelayo who suggested some changes to a part of the set where I give some examples of things that sound completely ridiculous in an English accent.
I hadn’t changed this material for six months, and had felt that it was weaker than some of my more recent material, but with Pelayo’s suggestions that piece was transformed and went down a storm at Absolute Comedy. I was especially grateful because this was a gig that could eventually lead to paid work as a stand-up. If I hadn’t run my set in front of my friends I would never have got those new ideas and beefed up that one gag that brought the house down last night.
There’s another artists’ salon in a couple of weeks. I’m going to be running some new material for them and listening closely to what they have to say.
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