Friday night was spent at the building formerly known as the Millennium Dome (for all of 5 minutes) before the concept became associated with massive disappointment. This was the feeling virtually everyone felt who went to it when it opened in 2000 to celebrate this artificial milestone, only to find it was full of a load of old shite that nowadays you'd expect to find in your average charity shop.
Now the building is called the O2 Arena, and the comedian who hosted us there, Jo Koy, observed the irony that it's named after a phone company but you can't get decent coverage in it.
The contrast with our stand-up experience last Sunday couldn't have been more striking. Jo Koy attracted 20,000 people, whereas at the other gig the crowd was approximately 19,995 people fewer. And 2 of those people were Iu and I. Netflix clearly has a role to play in boosting your audience.
Nonetheless, there’s something about the industrialisation of comedy to this scale that depersonalises the experience - which I think means it loses some of its edge. The broader the appeal, the more challenging it is to be truly original without turning off your audience. Or maybe I’m just a comedy snob. I appear to prefer my comedians to be moderately successful and living only just above the breadline.
Fun fun fun