Florence Time & Salon Details + Writers Meeting Sunday.

So, I’ve been in Florence for um… three days? Trying to simultaneously plan the shape of next year and also completely relax my brain and not think about logistics for five minutes.

Part of me thinks my hindbrain will figure out what it wants to do if I just let front brain drift a bit (apart from weekly Gargle and News Quiz writing, of course). Part of me thinks I should get out my post it notes and system cards and start mapping out plans.

Florence is a very beautiful city, and I’m on the non-tourist side of town, though very close to walk to the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo if I want to go sneer at tourists while being one. The rent is less than what I’d be paying in Sydney and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work from wherever in the world while also at this point being pretty tired of living out of a suitcase, and a bit hollowed out by not having a home, and wanting to go curl up somewhere safe and comfy in my childhood, in a place and time that doesn’t exist any more.

Here are some of the things I’m thinking.

1) should I do the festival circuit next year?

On one hand, the structure of deadlines provided by the festivals makes me produce a show. And I like writing and performing an hour (much more than I like doing club gigs). I also like the community of the same colleagues and friends who you see in each different city - it’s like living in a little fairy village that pops up every few months in a different place in the world.

On the other hand, I think the effort input to results output of a solo stand up comedy show might be not a good one. It’s a lot of work to put into something that a few thousand people will see.

Filming it helps offset that ratio, but this time round I felt like… I was maybe the only one who wanted to film it. Well, me and my audience. Or maybe just that I wanted to film it more fancily and everyone else was happy with a basic setup.

I didn’t feel necessarily like it was something my agents/producers cared about at all, because it wasn’t being filmed for a streaming service. Just for putting out on my website/Patreon and possibly Vimeo or YouTube? I don’t want that to sound like complaining; more trying to figure out where I can step back and where I need to push for doing things the way I want.

Maybe this is all an overreaction to how stressful Filming Day of CHRONOS was: though when I finally got on stage, I really loved performing the show.

2) If I don’t do the festival circuit, what should I do instead?

I think part of what’s attractive about the festival circuit is that despite its uncertainties (ticket sales, reviews), it’s much more under your control than say, writing a pilot for a TV show or a book. At least if you write a solo standup hour, you know that you can show up and perform it. A pilot takes at least as much work, and the vast majority of them absolutely sink without a trace.

More Audible Documentaries? More short-form podcast seasons?

I could try to get more regular TV writing gigs - trying to get onto the Panel Show circuit in the U.K. is probably beyond my touch, but would be worthwhile putting more effort into. (More Mainstream Jokes? Plastic surgery? Do something viral?)

3) I am vaguely thinking about leaning more into a Year Of Patreon;

just producing things specifically for This Audience, and trying to build the community here. Starting with writers meetings, and then going to maybe a Patreon Specific Book or Show or AudioBook or something. This could be lots of fun, and if I made something good, could be sold on sort of incidentally - in that it wouldn’t matter if it did or didn’t get picked up by anything mainstream, because it would already have been made For You, and Enjoyed (I hope) By You.

Whether I do that instead of the festival circuit or as well as? Maybe something light for the festivals, like an hour of songs or a best of show?

Anyway, all that’s percolating in my brain. No decisions yet, but as always, your thoughts welcome.

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Salon this week is Wednesday 1pm London time, or your local time equivalent: converter here.

I’m also doing a Writers Meeting for whoever would like to join on Sunday at 1pm London time. Stick it in your calendar and I’ll put the links up closer to the time.