The English comedy night at The Liffey was fun. There was a decent crowd of about 50, which although less than what Pete and Louis had anticipated, was enough to get the atmosphere going.
As I wrote yesterday, I was a little bit nervous about performing in English, as although I occasionally do business gigs in English, I mostly peform in Swedish mixed with English. I was more worried about performing in front of my peers for whom English is a second language. I’d also been given the headline slot so I had to live up to expectations. Things went well and I think I delivered, and as soon as I had finished I realised that I was already looking forward to doing some more stuff in English again soon.
What was most interesting about the night was to see comedians I have only ever spoken to in Swedish, perform in English. How the words came out of their mouths was almost as funny as what came out.
Of those that I have seen performed before, first up was David Druid who is a bit of a small time celebrity, presenting on P3 and The Comedy Channel. In Swedish he is a typical young bloke, mouthy and quick on the draw. In English, for some reason he turned into the most effeminate mincer I have ever seen onstage and whenever he couldn’t find the word in English he filled the gaps with ‘motherfucking’. He was like a cross between Eddie Murphy and La Cage Aux Folles.
Martin Lagos and Zeid Andersson, who I have nothing but respect for as comedians were both competent and pretty good, but where they usually hold the audience in the palm of their hands, they both struggled to really build their acts in the way that I have seen them do in Swedish.
For me the funniest, most surprising voice to come out was Niklas Folkegård’s who somehow unintentionally replicated the sound of a very posh English aristocrat. He is from Gävle.
The future looks good form Laughs at the Liffey, and they need to build up a regular audience, so if you are free of a Thursday in Stockholm pay them a visit!
The next day’s pitching meeting went well. The usual story of no promises made but no doors shut either. The producer and another director have promised to read the script over the weekend and if they like it, we move forward…..
