My healthiness continued and I was up early making myself porridge, though unused to the pans in the flat I managed to burn it, which means it doesn't taste as nice as usual. But undeterred by this disappointment I got on with some work on the Radio 4 show and then went to the gym. And found myself bursting with energy and vim and vigour. I easily managed a 30 minute run and then did a 20 minute cycle.
If you've been following the last few Edinburgh blogs you will know this clean living is not unusual at this point in the Fringe (ie before it has even started), but the signs are looking good that I might keep it up this time. The exertion and early start made me a bit weary in the afternoon and I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but not going to beat myself up about it just yet. I've had a couple of new ideas for the show and am going to try and iron out all the wrinkles and plug the gaps tomorrow. When I will also get into the venue for the first time to do the tech.
Seven of the Collings and Herrin live podcasts have sold out. So if you want a ticket to one of the remaining three then pull your finger out.
Book here.
I was delighted and surprised to find out that Christ on a Bike has already sold out for Friday. Tickets are cheaper for the first few shows, but evenso the room is almost twice as big as last year and I wasn't sure I would sell out any of the performances, so that's a very good sign. So if you want to take advantage of the low price tickets on Thursday and Monday and Tuesday especially then
Book now!.
Tom turned up in the early hours of this morning. I don't know him too well, but we are getting on well. He had left his jacket with his credit card and money in it in the last hotel he was in (and only just realised this morning when he went out to buy stuff for his show) and has already managed to get a parking ticket. He writes shows about the crazy stuff that goes on in his life and it's not hard to see where he gets it from. Even when he's not trying he is a walking disaster area. He was trying to buy a projector but didn't have the means to do so. I offered to buy it for him, before wondering if the whole unlikely jacket left in a hotel a day and a half ago scenario could possibly be true. Maybe he was a clever con artist who had realised he could wheedle his way into my trust by becoming a comedian, then sharing a flat with me, then pretending he had left his jacket in England and getting me to part with £500. Nice score. Free projector for Tom.
The plan would have fallen down a bit as the rent he has already paid me was more than double that - yeah well done Edinburgh thieves, scoring five grand for a month's rent. Do the students who usually stay here and who have stolen all the mugs and the tin opener and broken the boiler (we now have no hot water or central heating) pay that much a month? Do they pay that much a year? I hate you Edinburgh and when I am king I am going to have all the houses in this theiving city pulled down brick by brick and then thrown into the sea, where they will be sculpted to form a statue of my laughing face, rising above the waves, with a tape recorder in it continually playing my best Scotch accent, with all the landlords of Edinburgh tied to the cliff and forced to worship it. So if you get a vote on whether I should be made King of Scotland, Edinburgh landlords, think long and hard about your decision.
Tom found funds elsewhere (from some other less canny mark) so all was well.
Whilst I have been sober it would seem from his tweets and the dire Precious Little podcast that Andrew Collings has been drunk for four days. I hope he will be OK. I thought he might go a bit off the rails and over excited once he got here, but he's started already. He's already going to start swanning around like he's a comedian once he starts his show, with an air of entitlement to be here. It will be embarrassing if he becomes the edgy and unpredictable one, but at the moment I am really enjoying drinking my herbal teas and eating stir fries and running on the running machine listening to Desert Island Discs.
Oh God. I might be attempting to keep my body young, but I am old. So old.
I picked up my now altered and comfortably fitting suit from the alteration place. I think it's maybe time to start wearing suits all the time -at least on stage. Oh God. I am old. I am so old.
For these few days the Fringe is easily forgotten or at least ignored, but just starting to get an excited feeling about it beginning. I hope this will be another good year. As long as the tickets keep selling I can relax and enjoy it. And the early signs for the 19th time I have done this stupid thing and my 28th, 29th and 30th shows (
Check this out if you don't believe me) are looking good.
Nothing can possibly go wrong...
