I asked for seven minutes on Saturday. I rehearsed my set – it runs about eight and a half. I know from experience that for this length, I actually need to come in about a minute early when I rehearse to allow for a pause (and hopefully applause) here and there when I do it on stage.
But what to cut? This section leads to that one; those things bridge to something else; that line is a setup for a callback.
I don’t feel quite ready to craft a coherent six minute version in four days. On one hand I am sort of panicking – after all this is my first time on stage in three years and I don’t want to bomb – but on the other hand, I know I can always fall back on a proven 30 second closer if I’m running too far over time. Logically, I know I’ll be OK, but there’s that little voice of panic in the back of my head that says otherwise.
Steve Heyl 