April 2020 was the first month since September 2014 - when I started gigging regularly - where I did 0 gigs. Not one. Not even a virtual gig. Edinburgh was confirmed as cancelled, and my booked shows at Greater Manchester Fringe and Brighton were removed from my diary, along with a load of paid gigs I was looking forward to. This meant that April was a month where I had to both find a new creative outlet, as well as try to find a new way of bringing in some money.
In terms of creativity, I tried to make sure I did at least one creative thing a day, just to make sure I still felt like I was being productive. For 14 days in a row, I streamed on Twitch, playing a mixture of Fire Pro Wrestling, Snooker 19 and Crash Bandicoot on my PS4. Through a mixture of putting out regular content, posting about it on social media, and engaging with the streams of others, I managed to get myself to 50 followers, and become a Twitch affiliate! This did feel like a success; however, I could not shake my frustration with the quality of the steams. They often had moments where the screen would buffer, or the picture quality would be poor - I can only describe it as being like a video filmed on an old Nokia - and there were even a couple of occasions where the stream would completely crash. Ultimately, this has led me to the conclusion that streaming just isn't an option for me at this time, as we simply don't have good enough internet to do so.
I remember a few years ago, when I wrote an article about being a working-class comedian for the British Comedy Guide, there were a couple of people who responded "well if you can't afford to do Edinburgh, just make things online, everyone can do that" - and yeah, most people have the internet, and they can put videos online, but it is ridiculous to believe that money doesn't also skew the creative side of the internet into rich people's favour. It's everything from having the best internet and best equipment, to being able to play the latest (so inherently, most popular to watch) games, or even just simply making a video which is basically flaunting the fact you have money through creativity: how many times have you seen a video called "I open £200 of FIFA Ultimate Team cards", "Is this new MacBook worth £1000?", or "Here's a video of me in Japan! How well it compare to my trip to New Zealand last week?"
That last one isn't an actual title - at least I hope not - but it exemplifies the fact that there are a lot of successful creatives who manage to do so by offering a window into their richer, more successful life, so for people to pretend the internet is a fair utopia is absurd. Maybe this is the crux of why I am gutted that I can't stream to a high quality: because I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the interaction - it's the closest I've got to feeling like I am gigging since lockdown - and I enjoyed the creativity, but I can't do it to a standard I am happy with, because we can't afford better quality internet. And that hurts.
Anyway, that's a longer blog for another day. If you're interested, there is a playlist of archived streams and highlights here. I am hoping to use that same YouTube channel to
do some sort of YouTube let's play series, because I can at least film me playing videogames and upload it as a non-live option, so I am trying to take that as the best alternative available to me.
Another thing that kept me busy in April - both in terms of my time, and in terms of creativity - was the Virtual Snooker World Championship, the official virtual snooker championship, organised by World Snooker Tour themselves! It still feels like such a surreal thing to have been involved in, but as a big snooker fan, I am very proud to have taken part. I made a few videos detailing my tournament experience, including an interview I did on BBC Radio Sheffield as a virtual snooker player! Snooker Loopy or what!
Ultimately, I am gutted to have not played better in my matches, but hey, it was a fun thing to take part in, and the best players reached the final anyways, so I can't be too down about that. As I say in the final video of that playlist, there were a couple of weeks where we were all playing the game for hours each day, really practicing, trying to get ourselves in the best form possible - for a brief moment, it made me feel like how a real professional snooker player would feel...the only difference being that I was practicing with a cup of tea while wearing my trackie bottoms, I imagine. But yeah, it was a load of fun, and if you are looking for a game where you can spend a load of hours knocking some balls about, then Snooker 19 is the best one out there. It's crazy that in April 2019, I bought a preowned PS4 off eBay because I wanted to play Snooker 19 and the rereleased Spyro trilogy, and a year later I was competing in the official virtual snooker championships! I am still waiting for the invite from Spyro for his skateboarding world cup.
As well as appearing on the radio as a virtual snooker player, I also appeared as a political comedian on Ashley Haden's Political Breakdown. It's always good fun appearing on Ashley's show, and this time was no different, as we ended up somehow talking about what would happen if a load of comedians tried to organise a bank heist. Give it a watch, and do subscribe, because Ashley is a fantastic political comedian who really should be more well known than he is.
I am still making sure I do at least one creative thing a day, however little it is: my good friend Daniel Kempster is also doing the same thing this month, and he is detailing his progress each day via his blog. If you have Twitter, do give him a follow here, and check out his blog. He's a fantastic writer, and one of my very best mates, so go cheer him on!
Thanks for reading.
Tom.
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