Big Head Comedy: Probably has a show near you!
Here we talk to Big Head Comedy, about how they juggle organising 5+ shows a week on top of a day job AND dealing with a phobia of crowds.
So, I’m usually up at 6am and go on a lovely run. I have to do it then as I still have a day job and it’s the only time I can do it. I'm 31, I don’t have the luxury of being relaxed anymore! The aches and pains are getting too accustomed to my body. I have to do some sort of fitness or I will physically break down.
I don’t really consider myself a healthy person, but I am a person who likes to try and be physically fit. So, you know, I balance a lot of exercise with a lot of eating horribly and we don’t need to get into my addiction to Pepsi Max Cherry.
When I get back I start my day job, it's remote so I work from home, there’s only a couple of days I have to be in the office a year, it took me a long time to find this job but all that struggle is really paying off now as it allows me to do all this.
I’m usually producing 2 or 3 shows a week, and on the day itself I like it to be as clear as possible with no distractions as something will always come up, whether that’s in the venue, with the talent, etc. So it’s a case of being as organised and as available as possible for when those problems arise, the sooner the better. It wasn’t like that at the beginning. There was definitely a period where I suddenly went from doing one show a month to like five or six, I was like, this is not viable.
I found myself kind of in this situation where in the summer of 2023 I lost a venue, and so I was trying to find more. But because I had built up a good sort of level of credentials, a lot of venues were interested. I was also looking to expand. So I was just like, “Yeah, sure!” and I just took on all these shows at once. So now I have Seven Dials Playhouse, Escape Bar Stratford (I had a space in Hackney then too), then I started moving into working on solo shows. All this all converged around the sort of same time in September 2023.
Show nights are quite regular for me, so when I finish work I grab my laptop and the flyers to the next show. That’s where I’m not as organised as I would like to be at the moment, I do tend to just chuck it all in my bag.
I kind of split venues into two categories based on what kind of space they are. So Hoxton Hall, the Seven Dials, they're both theatres and they have great resources like staff and front of house and techs. Techs in theatres are also always great because they are used to doing whole shows with 100’s of ques so a comedy show is nothing to them. They know the situation. And you also usually have a green room and arranged seating, etc.
And then there's the venues Stratford or Hackney which are great at, like, staging the show and helping us put it on, but they don't have staff members to do that kind of thing. They've got stuff to do, in those situations, you have to be a lot more proactive. You have to watch the door a lot more or make sure there's no one randomly trying to get in. You probably also have to bring in a tech, who might not know the space.So those venues are a lot more down to you on the night, rather than the theatres where you are more of a cog in a slick machine.
If anything, what I do most on the night is try and sort of establish who I am for the talent, so that when I'm working with them in the future, they can recognise me and they know me. It's more to establish that relationship with them. They're usually fine and relaxed. So usually I’m in the green room chatting and at the same time trying to work out if anyone needs a pre-show chat and who’s in their head and needs to be in a space on their own.
Actually I remember one of the times I did a big show earlier this year. One of our acts also brought their teenage daughter, and their daughter was having some issues with their boyfriend, and the green room became this amazing, very female space of all these women giving relationship advice to this younger woman. I became very aware that I was this man having to walk into the room every time to be like, “sorry, yeah, mic check for so and so…” I became very conscious of the fact that I was invading this very female space that I had organised and now ruining. So, when I went in there I would just find any excuse I could to get out of there as quickly as possible!
Once the doors are open though we all find our places, mine is usually a side room or any kind of space where I can’t be seen. Basically, I have, like, a phobia of crowds – I get panic attacks – which is dumb for a comedy producer to have. So usually I'm not watching the show itself but instead I'm in another room listening to the show, because then I can be in a space by myself. So when I'm planning a show, when I'm picking a venue I like to pick a space where I can do that, which is why Rosemary Branch Theatre is so lovely, because they literally have a Punch & Judy box at the back where I can see how the show is going but no one can see me.
I’m comfortable with excommunicating myself from a situation, so at my shows I do have a good time, because I know myself and I'm not trying to force myself into doing things that I don't want to do because of some sort of presumptive idea of how a producer works. Like they have to be schmoozing, they have to be in the crowd or they have to be chatting to as many people as possible. No, you don't have to do that. You just have to be good at your job. You have to be good at admin. It really bugs me that people assume that producing is a fundamentally schmoozy role when it definitely doesn't have to be.
So yeah, I'm very proud of the fact that I do put those sort of blocks in place for myself, and don't let it affect my work or the perception of me as a producer. I always end up having a great time at the show because I do it in the way that I want to. When it finishes, I’m tired. Not stressed, but I am tired. I mean, I'm 31! And in a long term relationship with a phobia of crowds. I'm not, like, “lets hit up de clurrbb.” You know? I usually just wrap up stuff with the show. I always get loads of snacks for the act. So I pack all those snacks back into my bag, especially all of the untouched Pepsi Max Cherry cans and if my partner's there we will go and get a coffee. Yes, I will have a sit down coffee at 11pm. We all have to have a vice and I guess caffeine is mine.
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