The awesome adventures of Jack Chi: Impromptu standup comedy gig in Edinburgh @ the monkey barrel

So I got to do an impromptu gig for a paying audience in the sense that I was sharing the stage with professional/semi-professionnel acts.

It all started with my morning tour. I arrived in the city center and was led by the most enthusiastic and energy filled guide. By mid noon we took a break at a local bar called the beehive. I original just wanted to go to the washroom but when I was inside I noticed a poster advertising standup comedy for the night. Of course I inquired with the waitress and she gave me the contact info of Ben the organizer.

After my call I was left disappointed since they were already booked full and there was another act who actually wanted to jump on. He told me if it was any other week we could have worked something out. But Ben was really nice and put me on the list for free tickets and a friend.

I messaged my couchsurfers Nicky and Daniel. They were both busy so I decided to go alone.

I checked the time and the show was suppose to start at 10:30. So I got there one hour before. But the show had already started!

There were some seats left at the front still and it was a packed out venue with about 30 people in the audience. I walked in and hit the front chair a bit as I sat down. The MC - Rick was just doing some crowd control with a member of the audience when this happened. So like any good MC he had to rip me apart. So he started with: "looks like we got a Ninja in here!" I was calm and collected and replied back. We banned for a while with him asking me where I am from and what I do etc. The crowd loved it - it was the biggest laughs of the night!

I said the truth I told him I was traveling in UK on a comedy tour. I think he thought I was just being cheeky and asked if I wanted to do 5 minutes! Haha great of course I said yes! So I went back stage and prepared.

When I came back on I did my usual set with some crowd control worked in. I had done some flirting earlier with the girl sitting behind me. So I worked into that material and hinted that I was simply doing this as an elaborate ruse to get into her pants.

My set went down well and got lots of laughs. The comedians themselves told me as much and congratulated me on a job well done during the break. They also gave me several websites and their names as reference for future clubs. Score! The MC is Rick Malland and the headliner is Tony Jameson.

After the comedy I caught the last train back to Nicky and Daniels place. They were renovating again and I helped out as well. They fed me this delicious stew and I told them about my night and we talked and worked till 3am when I went to sleep. I also got some more details about the incidents from the previous night and that helped me fit more pieces to that story. Nicky gave me two trophies for my pokemon accomplishments haha. One was a dart trophy and one was a badminton trophy.

In the morning I took my blablacar with Steven and that is another story for another post.