Carly Smallman - You Should've Been Here Last Week

[00:00:00] You can count the punters on one hand But the street they were completely wrapped

[00:00:12] They were filled up to the gunnold Stave a cueing down the street

[00:00:16] They said you should have been here last week

[00:00:19] I swear you should have been here last week

[00:00:23] Oh yeah, you should It's got to be an accidental to be honest, the niche finding, but I'm glad I found it. Yeah, I'll let you explain the first one and well, both of them.

[00:01:41] Okay, so the first one is bring your own baby once and it's a when you first get there because you're naturally instinctive to think, Oh God, there's going to be young kids there. Of course, it's they don't understand them in the material and you're doing it for the parents, aren't you? We always really try and encourage the community that when they come

[00:03:00] in, they're like loads of people go, I can't do those kids. I haven't got any child friendly

[00:03:03] material. I said, it wouldn't matter because these worse heckle than any heckle I've ever had. It's just like, okay. It's hard to take a kid down, isn't it really using the animal tactics? Absolutely. It's all right, John. I was like, your shit or like, you're fat and you've got something like fun to say back, but you're not funny. It's just such a definitive statement of

[00:04:24] your lack of talent. So how did you one. Then we were like, oh, maybe we should like just approach other venues and see if they're interested. So we spoke to the comedian down in Brighton and at the time up the creek in Greenwich. And when we put those on sale, the next month, they all sold out really fast as well. We just thought, oh my God, like this is a thing.

[00:05:40] This is the thing that people want

[00:05:41] and that people feel that they need.

[00:05:43] So gradually, I've been kind of just trying to increase

[00:06:42] is the comedy providers. What's the worst excuse you've had for Mr. Lege from the community?

[00:06:46] Oh, God.

[00:06:47] Do you know what?

[00:06:49] There's been loads of excuses, loads of excuses.

[00:06:52] I'm trying to think of worst ones.

[00:06:54] Do you know what I'm noticing recently, which is actually worse than a lame excuse, is they

[00:06:59] just don't give an excuse.

[00:07:00] They just say, I can't make it anymore.

[00:07:03] And this is something I could call the gig and you're like, can you give me a reason

[00:07:06] why you can't make it? not going to franchise it. I'm thinking the best way to do it is just to pay trusted people to help me run the events and just book it all centrally because also if you franchise it out you might end up in a franchise if someone doesn't watch a comedy or go to a lot of live comedy

[00:08:21] so they might not know how to book them. We've had like NHS workers come after a night shift before. So we have had it before, but it's quite rare. And I feel like if you have a baby with you,

[00:09:41] you don't mind the noise so much,

[00:09:43] but if you don't, it would be difficult.

[00:09:46] I don't even hear babies anymore.

[00:09:47] That's a superpower I've developed. one of the first ones you did, a parent was saying to their kid, they were referring to him. Oh, really? He's like, oh, what have I said? You know, you've just, yeah, as you say, you're antennae has got to be sort of detuned, does it work? Yeah, yeah, you've just got to, I always, the advice that I always give to comics doing it

[00:11:00] and also that I try and take myself, because I play them, as you can imagine, a lot, is just

[00:12:03] tricky to choose the best venues, but we do try best. And we also make sure that we never sell the venues out

[00:12:06] so that people have a lot of extra space

[00:12:08] when they come to the show.

[00:12:10] What for prams and stuff?

[00:12:11] Yeah, so the prams, like we have buggy parks

[00:12:16] and things for those, but it's more like nappy bags.

[00:12:18] And, you know, there's a lot of leakage that comes

[00:12:21] when you bring your baby out with you.

[00:12:22] So we just make sure that everyone that comes to our shows

[00:12:25] has got loads of space.

[00:12:27] They can get up and move around. If you produce good quality events, sorry, my dog is crying, so I'm just stroking him for the listeners. My dog had surgery and he's been very curious for himself. But I always think that if you produce good quality events, people will come to them. Also, there's plenty for everyone. I wouldn't set up one on the same street as another event.

[00:13:41] If people wanna give it a try, give it a try,

[00:13:43] but I will say, not many have lasted the duration,

[00:14:47] fine. I think what the perks of job is you get like comedians bring their babies and you get to meet all the babies of the family. We just move on to the to the tarot one. I'm fascinated by this.

[00:14:56] So if with the tarot one, do you necessarily have to ask that question because I think what you're doing, it's actually in the building where I live. So... Yes, it is in the building where you live. Yes. It is. It's here. Exactly.

[00:16:20] Oh yeah, you're sitting literally above it right now,

[00:16:22] the venue.

[00:16:23] Ooh, have you felt the vibrations pull?

[00:16:26] Only when the bus goes past,

[00:16:27] but I'm not else's. Why is it so many women in gay men then are in the Tarot? I mean, that sounds like a... What is it? I don't know. I wonder if it's because they see a comedy show hosted by two women and feel more connected. There can't be a link between being gay and Tarot.

[00:17:41] It just... That would be mad, wouldn't it?

[00:17:44] No, I don't do that.

[00:18:41] hope, funny and entertaining.

[00:18:46] You've stumbled on two formats now, which are a twist on the normal sort of. And we've also got things like that.

[00:18:49] That's a big thing now cinema, you know, comedians,

[00:18:52] comments on films, etc, etc.

[00:18:54] I mean, do you think this is a growing thing?

[00:18:57] And what do you think, you know, in the future holds for sort of people

[00:19:02] trying to twist the format to different shapes and?

[00:19:05] I honestly haven't given it any thought.

[00:19:07] Like I didn't even feel like I was doing anything particularly it. Look, I think it's quite hard nowadays to make really good money just as a club comic. I think that's part of it because a lot of people with a few exceptions, the money ain't going up at gigs. Yeah, no. We hadn't noticed that at all. In fact, that's all we ever talk about on this

[00:20:20] podcast. Oh, really? It gets mentioned every single. So I think a lot of it does come down to the venues and also I don't know about other gigs. I mean woman there is still sexism on the circuit you must be polite and friendly when you get to the gig like overly so because they like I know the time of turning now but really if they can get away with not having a woman a lot of promoters

[00:23:03] would and you still see it in certain lineups women are very underrepresented so

[00:24:01] and then you get from most of going, well, I can't put women to come and do my overnight gig

[00:24:04] miles away in here.

[00:24:05] We don't want to, because we might get right.

[00:24:07] Like, I know that sounds really like dramatic,

[00:24:10] but it's honestly happening.

[00:24:11] And we're thinking for 200 quid, no, sorry,

[00:24:15] we're not putting ourselves at risk.

[00:24:17] So I think it needs to come from the promoters.

[00:24:22] And I think we need to talk from the male comedians

[00:24:25] on how they can help.

[00:24:26] And also if the male kind of like those kind of more microaggressions as well. Just to, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in a green room. Like it's hardly ever happened where one male comic has said something completely inappropriate and everyone kind

[00:25:42] of just goes into themselves because it's been mentioned be representing comics. They should be involved, but they're not here to answer.

[00:28:20] So I'll just point the finger,

[00:28:21] and tell them they should pull their finger out,

[00:28:25] stop, stop even pointing at them.

[00:28:26] We've reached the end. super-efficient so it comes a week beforehand and then the other one which is also like hey man yeah it's like oh wow you know the gigs somewhere in Somerset yeah just follow the lay lines that kind of thing where you do up you you're almost on the phone to where is this gig where is it go that happened to

[00:29:41] be quite recently that I did a gig he goes, well, I followed the email and I can't seem to find the venue. So Pete Graham goes, well, just where are you life in, I would say, isn't it? And he said, oh, we don't need to leave till, you know, well, basically what he meant was, don't leave till even till after I finished my job. So about 5.36 o'clock, we met him somewhere like Beamsgate. Yeah, oh, we were terribly late to get out. Because that's on the outskirts of Ipswich.

[00:32:20] Yeah, A12.

[00:32:21] Yeah.

[00:32:22] And so we, but the thing was there were two pubs

[00:32:25] in the same area called the there, it's all gravy. Well, when I started, which I suppose a decade and an half ago, it was just before really good, it was an A to Z. In the days before I drove then, I did one gig in Dover and all I did was I did look

[00:35:01] at a map and I thought, well, the gig caught me. Well, it probably told you to pieces, wouldn't they? That's what they're training to do. Yeah. And once they finished doing that and they, what was left of me, they said, well, what the hell are youiggan Wiggan Northwest from I'm on either worst train station in the UK. What a hell-hell that place is. But isn't that the place where Paul Simon wrote the sound of silence?

[00:37:47] I don't know. No, witness, he wrote it on Widnes. Subscribe, subscribe, and also ring the bell for notifications when the next one's coming up. We'd like to get at least 200 people watching this. I was going to say a thousand. Dream big. Yeah, I'm going to 250 then.

[00:39:01] Yes, that's what we want before the end of the century. We'd like that to happen.