Rob Gilroy: Making A Stand #39

This week I have made a huge decision.

I know what you’re thinking – “Rob, you always start your columns with these short, attention-grabbing statements that force us to read on, then you simply tell us about something that is neither as exciting or as interesting as we were lead to believe. It’s almost as irritating as your overuse of hypothetical questions from us, the reader, which you only use to enable yourself to follow a further line of comedy. It never works and, if anything, they’re frankly becoming quite laborious. Stop it.”

Firstly, thanks for your feedback; it’s been duly noted. Secondly; watch the attitude, you. There’s no need for it, not here or in person. Pack in it.

As you (the fictitious reader I have envisaged) have quite rightly pointed out; I do tend to oversell certain aspects of this column, however this week I actually do have a genuine announcement…

I have decided to quit – let me finish – doing stand-up – please, let me finish – as my – seriously, let me finish – comedy character Jerry Bucham.

To recap, I am retiring Jerry Bucham.

Before you start complaining to your MPs and setting up online petitions to get Jerry re-instated, please let me explain. (Besides, I think 38 Degrees have more pressing matters than getting me to keep putting on a Bristol accent.)

A few months back I discussed my desire to try stand up as myself. It was something I was hesitant and excited about.

After a long period of questioning whether or not I am interesting enough to do it as myself, and whether or not I have anything different to offer, I bit the bullet and did it.

Despite the answer to both of these questions being ‘no’ I have continued to press on, regardless.

While I wouldn’t suggest the comedy industry had been waiting for this moment – I’m no Nelson Mandela and Jerry is by no means a Cape Town prison – performing as myself for the first time has been, in a small way, a revelation.

I love doing character comedy, I think it’s interesting and different and I will always love it.

Inhabiting another character is a fun way of finding a new set of topics and creating material that isn’t well-worn, but at the same time it can be restrictive.

I found myself constantly struggling to develop as an act – the idea of parodying protesters only holds attention for so long and with the songs I would sometimes find it hard to create a range of styles, as opposed to ones that were simply ‘Don’t do this’ and ‘Do do that’.

I now have the freedom to tackle whatever I like, as long as it’s funny.

The thing that spurred me to make this definitive decision was being part of the weekend line up at The Stand in Newcastle last week. I was originally booked to perform as Jerry but I was keen to see if I could do it as myself.

The lovely Standian people, either out of kindness or mindless stupidity, agreed to let me risk the success of three whole nights on this whim. I did and the response was overwhelming.

I’m not saying I brought the house down (although I did fuse the entire place) but the reaction was above and beyond what I’ve experience with Jerry and seemed to suggest it was the best, and most enjoyable, way forward.

Doing comedy is hard. You have a million and one things to overcome before you open your mouth – nerves, remembering lines, being confident, sussing out the sort of crowd and countless others.

All these things have the potential to hinder how well you go down, that’s not even including just being good at it. It’s a lot to get over and, if you’re a character act, you add a least a dozen more hurdles on top of that.

Who are you? Why are you at a comedy club? Why do we want to see someone pretending to be a protester? These are all questions the audience probably ask themselves subconsciously and while there’s nothing wrong with dealing with them, sometimes it’s better to make things easier for yourself.

If you’re a magician, you’d probably hide the rabbit in your hat before you go on stage, you wouldn’t stuff in down you boxers, then nip to the loo part-way through your act. That’s what I was doing. Except the bit about the bunny and the toilet.

It’s still early days with my new act (me) but it’s one I’m very excited about.

There are lots of things I need to consider – whether or not I try rework Jerry’s material and use it as my own, remembering to speak without a Bristol accent from now on, working out when to pull a rabbit out of my flies – so many things.

Ultimately, I still need to get better, a lot better, but at least this time round, I can hit the ground running. Or at least pick myself up, dust off my chinos and start a pleasant trot.

And I couldn’t have done that without Jerry Bucham. Thanks mate.

• Rob can be seen (AS HIMSELF!) at My Newt Comedy at The Waterside in Shipley on Monday 20 January and at The Stand, Newcastle on 22 January.
• He can be seen (STILL AS HIMSELF BUT WITH OTHER PEOPLE) as part of Jolly Mixtures at Giggles Live at Junction Goole on 18 January alongside Howard Read.