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Hey Reader,

On Friday evening at 8pm I stood on a stage in front of 60-odd people and remembered: I’m not for everyone. And that’s okay.

I was at the Piston Distillery again performing at their comedy night and the vibe was… weird.

It was a very tough crowd. The first two acts did not get as many laughs as they deserved, Dave the host was feeling the oddness too, and I was on straight after the break.

Not gonna lie: I wanted to run away. It was the closest I’ve come to chickening out.

The crowd is super middle-class, so I doubt anyone would have thrown their drinks at me or anything but still: if you’ve never stood on stage in front of a crowd who are expecting you to make them laugh, and so far they’ve not really laughed that much, it’s a singular feeling.

But I went on and I did my thing and a few minutes in I realised: I had them. I relaxed into my storytelling and grisly-yet-delightful anecdotes, and it went really well.

Especially when, a few minutes in, a crowd of the rudest dishrags I’ve yet encountered would not shut the fck up.

My brain can’t tolerate loads of background noise and there was already cocktail shaking going on at the bar. Now these clowns are yapping to my right? When the rest of the room has paid good money to hear me do my thing?

Nah bro.

So… I dealt with it. I’ve never had to do that before. I did it. They shut up for the rest of my set, everyone else laughed and — best of all — I got a HUGE cheer.

Possibly they were confused. Possibly they had not realised they’d bought tickets for a comedy night. Possibly they were just self-centered, rude bastards who think they’re more important than everyone else in the room.

But I had the mic and it was MY space. And I owned it.

And afterwards, people came up to me and told me how well I dealt with the situation, which was lovely.

Loveliest of all, though — and this made me cry later where nobody could see me — was the mother and son who told me how much they loved my set, because his partner is autistic, and it helped them understand further, and the partner would have loved me.

And that makes it all worthwhile.

The laughs — yeah, that’s great. Turning a room around? THE POWER. Felt amazing.

But being told I’d made some people feel seen?

That connection?

That’s why I do comedy. That’s why I help people write their books.

I’m not for everyone and that’s okay.

The people I am for are glad I’m here.

Remember that next time you’re scared to put yourself out there, then take a deep breath and do your thing.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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