Once the puppet was finished, I had a body and nowhere to put it. So I started scouting.
I found a place in Hackney called The Glory. Downstairs they had a basement, maybe a hundred seats, small enough that you could feel every laugh land or not. The whole point of the night was trying out new work.
I went along to watch. Liked it. Got talking to the organiser afterwards and his response was about as easy as these things get: everyone loves puppets, bring it along.
So I started writing. Took two or three weeks to scrape together five minutes of something I thought was funny.
It landed on a Thursday. I worked the day first, got changed after, and headed over.
I arrived alongside the rest of the bill — a singer, a comedian, a few drag artists. They ran through the rules and that was it. I got fourth on the bill, which for a first performance I was pretty happy with.
Three acts go on, then a break, then me. So I sat at the back of the room watching everyone else work. My watch started buzzing. Resting heart rate 140. I was doing nothing. Apart from sweating.
They did the introduction. I slipped away to get the puppet, the music started, and I got called on stage. Walked him up there and ran the monologue over a jazz track.
I could see the younger crowd not quite getting it. But from the back, good laughter — the older guys understood exactly where I was going.
Sadly it wasn't recorded, but a few clips turned up on Instagram afterwards. It worked. You could see him — the eyes, the mouth moving — and hear me fine underneath it.
First time I'd ever been on stage with a puppet. It was fun. I enjoyed it.