Ashley Frieze – The Run In

This car needed throwing away

Last blog post before going to Edinburgh, so here’s one last bit of advice.

I got this advice from working with the owner of this blog site – Mr Ian Fox. Since I joined The Great Big Comedy Picnic in 2005, there’s always been a “run in CD”. This is a single mix of music which runs from when the get in starts until we start the show. In the case of Ian’s special run-in CD, the track culminates in the intro sting that actually starts the show.

There are some good reasons to have a run-in CD. Here are some of them.

Playing music in the room creates a nice atmosphere – a quiet room doesn’t set the mood for the audience waiting for a show to start.

Playing your music gets you in the mood – just using the Take That Greatest Hits album that’s lying around is nowhere near as good as using music you’ve selected.

The music starts to be synonymous with your show – you do a show over and over, the linkage between the music and the feeling of starting the show is a nice thing. It’s a gift from evolution that we get to associate music with feelings.

It seems more professional – it does.

It helps you pace your set-up – you don’t need to clock watch. You’ll have an idea that track X is the one where you’d better have finished setting up by.

Not bad reasons. You really have a few choices for how to make your CD. Here are some ideas:

• Have a continuous track with links between different songs – DJ stylee
• Just choose your favourite songs and let them play one after the other
• Put announcements into the mix so the audience know it’s 10 mintues to show time etc
• Put announcements, but lie about the actual timings, to make the audience think it’s sooner than it is – this sets a greater expectation and hurries people up at the bar if they think they’ve less time than they have.
• Put a big sting at the end which you’ll walk out to, regardless of whether you’re ready or not.

I’m currently listening to the runin track I’ve made for my show. It’s getting me in the mood for going to Edinburgh. I’m heading in the direction of Edinburgh in a few minutes. Then the fun can finally begin.

Ashley Frieze – The Seven Deadly Sings (Remastered), 2:30PM, 13-28 August, Pravda Room, Espionage, Venue 185. Part of the Free Festival

You can also follow Ashley on Twitter.