After more than a year away from the stage due to the pandemic, comedian Romesh Ranganathan has begun performing live standup gigs again. He describes the experience as both thrilling and nerve-wracking, likening it to starting from scratch.
Ranganathan admits that his skills have eroded during the long hiatus. He compares regular gigging to going to the gym, noting that he performs better when he is consistently on stage. To regain his 'match fitness', he booked multiple gigs, starting with an outdoor performance at a bandstand in Gravesend, which he describes as the comedians' equivalent of Wembley Stadium.
The first gig was challenging. Ranganathan was nervous and struggled with basic aspects of performance, such as what to say and in what order. He told the audience he might be bad, and proceeded to amble through his set, sometimes forgetting what he was saying. He also lost track of time, unsure if he had performed for three minutes or 30.
Since then, he has been on a learning curve. After doing four gigs in one evening, he began to feel muscle memory returning. Timing improved, he found his comfortable stage stance, and he stopped putting his hands in his pockets, a nervous habit from his early days.
One challenge was a heckler at his first gig of the night. Having only been heckled by his children during home schooling over the past year, Ranganathan was initially stumped. He responded honestly, asking the heckler to 'park' his comments while he figured out how to do standup again.
