The other day my Mum reminded me of an old nursery rhyme she used to sing to me when I was a baby called 'I See The Moon' and it's been stuck in my head the last few days. It's got a really beautiful melody and I'm looking forward to playing around with it on the piano.

 

I've been reflecting on the one-year cycle that a lot of the live comedy touring industry operates on in Australia. I tried for a few years there to write a new hour of stand-up every year as a way to build a career in this industry. The reason I started doing that is because that was what I saw other people doing, and I assumed that that was the only way to do it.

 

What I realise now is that when comics who have a profile - from doing TV work, radio, or social media stuff - tour a new hour every year, they are playing to audiences who already know them and just want to come out and support the person they know from other media. I don't have a profile like any of those people, so when I write an hour of stand-up in a year, even if it's as good or thereabouts as what anyone else is coming out with, when faced with the choice between me, and someone they know from TV/radio/Instagram, audiences are going with the other people every time. The only way for me to compete and draw an audience without a profile is to create a show that is different and unique enough to sell on its own merits.

 

I've been thinking around ideas for the next show I might write as the one I've been working on for the last two years slowly finds its feet. I'm definitely going to stay with the piano, and I'd like to incorporate a certain story that has been told a lot recently in my family. And now, after my Mum reminded me of that nursery rhyme tune the other day, I'm thinking I might try and incorporate that as well.