Hey that 'halumi' bit killed in the Emery household...

I think most people think they are pretty funny. Certainly I will re-tell my own moment of comic genius ("you had me at halumi") to anyone foolish enough to encourage me. But last night I watched a generous handful of people who thought they were funny attempt to make a room full of 300 people laugh.

It was RAW comedy and my god it was sometimes raw (yes Mr "Rape: it's so 2007" I'm talking to you, and to a lesser extent the guy who looked like a serial killer).

Luckily for me I wasn’t there to see the 18ish-year-old make me squirm in my chair by bombing so very badly or the guy who sung an ode to Shane Warne to the tune of Greenday’s Warning. (I couldn’t make this stuff up.) I was, instead, there to see the incomparable Dan (www.boltongray.blogspot.com) who was heads and gay shoulders above the rest.

As well as a mild hangover and a certain whiff of smoke and beer in my hair the whole thing gave me new respect for people who put themselves out there and do that kind of truly mental stuff. It is something I could never, ever do, even if I were the (surely screwed up) offspring of Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker.

But it does make me wish that I could be a bit more of a risk-taker or the kind of person who ever actually crosses anything of her ‘to do before I die’ list instead of merely adding new entries.

Actually I’m adding that to the list: Do more stuff that makes you want to vomit.