Stand-up comedy

A confession: I perform stand-up comedy on the weird and wonderful London circuit.  I've been going for a few years and I'm starting to get paid for the occasional spot but no one's suggested that I give up my day job.

It's great in so many ways but what I love most is the immediate feedback.

As a consultant I can wait months to hear if my recommendations were effective or if the training program I delivered bore fruit.  Sometimes I never hear anything at all.  The isolating effects of self-employment often feels like I exist in a vacuum.  Stand-up comedy is the exact opposite: the feedback is immediate, binary and potentially brutal.

They either laugh or they don't.

When they don't laugh its horrible.  When they do it's wonderful.  And best of all, it happens in an instant.