Gym and Steve Williams and Daniel Sloss, Comedy at the Union

I finally managed to go to the gym today. No excuses even if it was pretty busy, I went in and spent about an hour. It was good, the adrenaline rush from a good workout is something I forgot the feel of.
However I'm still slightly jealous of my cousin and bro in Mauritius who apparently attend a gym for about Rs500 (About £10) a month which includes a trainer, diet plans and build up drinks. Sure the surroundings are probably not great and you won't get the TVs on every inch and all equipments like you do here but the service should be good. And seeing how skinny they both are, they'll need the diet plan and build up drinks.

I'm also just back from the comedy night (Laughter Lounge) at the union (Dundee University Students' Union). This is a fortnightly affair which I always try to make (I've only missed four shows in the last three years). I love stand up comedy and comedy shows in general. This week we had Daniel Sloss and Steve Williams.

Daniel, as I have now learned, only started gigging last year, as part of a gap year. You can tell. I don't think he has even started to shave yet (He is only just 18). However his confidence on the stage is astounding. His jokes were not the best but they did bring enough laughs. Delivery was excellent and nothing seemed to faze him and he interacted well with the young university audience at a level which older comedians sometime fail miserably. Being so young he may not have the repertoire and experience of older comedians to bring out a plethora of jokes at different levels and his typical teenage trouble type jokes may seem repetitive but in this case I think it helped build up a rapport with the younger audience. His confidence, delivery were a good compensation to the lack of variety. A couple years and some new experiences will make him a prime comedian. No wonder he's not likely to go to University after all, he has a future as a comedian.

This was the second time I had seen Steve Williams at Laughter Lounge. He started off with the usual audience interaction before launching into a few jokes which he did last year. Maybe I was just tired but most of the rest of his set was mediocre. The jokes were there but the punchlines were lacking in impact. The last time I saw him at a gig he actually made his show through audience fed material which is always hilarious. He did try this this time but as for a while now the turnout at Laughter Lounge was poor and there were even moments of total silence! Laughter Lounge has always been hugely popular and packed full, at times with many people having to stand. Audience participating in the shows have always been memorable. This has been falling off for a few gigs now. At this rate the Lounge might fizzle out which would definitely ruin one of the best events at the union.

Steve's set was not all poor, he went on for ages and all of the jokes got laughs. His finish made up for the mediocre middle part and he came back with style soliciting big laughs and applause. However I still think this performance pales to his previous one.