Patrick Monahan takes new-style socially-distanced gigging in his stride

Patrick was delighted to be the first indoor act back at Worthing Theatres – for a socially-distanced audience of a maximum of 211.

He admits that at first sight the spaces where seats had been removed looked like missing teeth, but once the crowd were in, the response was great from an audience who loved being back every bit as much as he did.

“The Pavilion is beautiful and they were able to arrange the seats. It was the opening night. I was the live test and it was great. I think we were almost at capacity, just a few empty seats either side in the wings.

“I did a few car park gigs during lockdown, but this was so much better. When people turned up, it was like those gaps were filled, and it looked great. It was just like a theatre with extra leg room for people, with space either side of them. You can only really see the first few rows once the lights are down, but you could see people in their twos and fours and sixes. You could see where the couples were, where the families were, and there was a great atmosphere.”

And though he feared a mask-wearing audience would result in muffled laughter, in the event it didn’t.

“It’s ironic that theatres are the last places to open – and yet they are so safe and so well organised. You think of the pubs reopening ages ago and it is so much more difficult to get social distancing in pubs. But in theatres you don’t get stag parties or hens; you just get an audience of people wanting to go out and have a good time and have a laugh.

“I was just buzzing to go on. Even though I always love doing stand-up, last night I was just so excited. It was my first live gig since March 7. I was about half a dozen dates into my tour and then it all stopped. Back then I was talking about people just starting to buy loads of loo roll. It just feels so alien looking back.

“Last night I did a few jokes about what was happening, but I didn’t want to bore people about corona stuff. I went into my show and did my routines, and it was just fantastic. They were a better audience than I could ever have wished for.”

As he says, a socially-distanced audience of a couple of hundred on a Thursday night were far better in so many ways than 500 people who’d been drinking 2019-style on a Saturday night: “And if this is the way it is going to have to be, then great. I love it. I am not going to complain. It is much better than shouting at people in a car park.

“When I first realised people would be actually wearing masks during the show, I was worried that the laughter would be muffled, but you could hear it just as well. I worried that if you had a heckler, you wouldn’t know where it came from with 99 per cent of people wearing masks, but it was great. I was able to have a bit of banter with the audience.”

The point is that we have all got to adapt if we want to carry on, Patrick says: “If it carries on like this forever, then it would be brilliant. You either adapt or you go back to shouting at people in car parks... or doing online stuff. The online stuff is fine, but you really can’t beat this. It is called live stand-up comedy for a reason and that’s because it is actually happening live in front of people, and it was wonderful to be in that room. Laughter is so contagious.”