They think it's all over....

Well, the Barnstaple festival is over and the first Smoking Shows have been done - all at the same time as England are getting kicked out by Germany. But still enough of the doom and gloom because the festival was BRILLIANT!
True audiences weren't big and the venue was hot as could be but everyone working on this festival was fantastic, warm, welcoming, looking after the performers. And the performers themselves all supported each other by going to each others shows and being really positive about the whole event. I've been at other things were egos have abounded but not here.
Part of the beauty of the festival was the randomness of the selection. You didn't know who or what quality or whether it would be your bag, often until you'd paid your £ 4.00 (£ 2.00 ticket prices for performers! - bargain much cheapness) to see the shows and in truth I didn't see a duff one.
I don't know whether people would all say the same about the Smoking Show. Certainly a number of people gave great feedback, and the review in the freebie mag was good and one great local bloke gave me a new joke to put in, which I did and it worked. Oh, he enjoyed the show as well by the way.
I did push myself with this one, in terms of how hard I went in for the performance - if you start a show pogoing to XTC where are you going to end - and the personal content. Never done that before. Not sure whether I will do it again.
So will the Smoking Show go anywhere else. At the moment I'm kind of thinking about it and what would need changing before it moved on. I know one thing though that I did do what a friend of mine calls the "Ronseal" trick - did exactly what I say on my tin.
Will I try and do the festival again next year. I think so. Maybe with something completely different. The other thing is that the template that was used, I really think would work up here and I'm going to have a think about perhaps a Stroud TheatreFest.
So, it only goes to say thanks then to all the stewards, the venues, the techies, and Bill and Gill the organisers for a fabulous job of making everyone so welcome. Oh and also the other performers. I didn't get to see everything - when do you but came away with the firm belief that theatre is as wide and as varied as people can make it and as long as it's done with conviction and belief and the desire to entertain it's brilliant!