Slight regrets this morning for my drunken display at Best of the Fest, but better to be regretting an inappropriate gig than an inappropriate dalliance I suppose. Well maybe not.
I woke up early, but went back to bed after a couple of hours, finally waking up in the mid-afternoon to go to a Free Fringe gig that I had agreed to do 10 minutes at (Kill the Monster at Laughing Horse at Lindsays). Would I lose it here to? Was my career over? No. I banged out some gags and the audience laughed and as I walked back home found the prickly embarrassment of the night before was subsiding. We move on.
Nice review on
Chortle. I knew he'd seen a good one and had been hoping that this might be my 5 star year, but a very positive 4 star instead. As a couple of people have mentioned not liking the tube shooting bit so much I decided to try dropping it tonight (this is why I think it's worth reading reviews, because it can help you improve your show - you have to know which ones are worth paying attention to mind). I think the show was a lot better without it as it turned out, partly because there is probably one too many conversational bit towards the end of the show and maybe enough shocking stuff too. It was another sell-out and the crowd were laughing hard at stuff and I messed around quite a bit, so I still over-ran by 5 minutes, but good to be finding new ways through. Almost every joke I do now pays off somewhere later in the show. Only the chicken cottage one standing alone at the moment as far as I can recall and I am sure there will be some way of reincorporating that. But the show is still massively enjoyable to do even after 16 performances. Best Fringe ever? Certainly in the top three.
Edinburgh is the most difficult time to blog. I am aware that just writing about the gigs went is a bit dull and I am wracking my brain for some kind of non-show related anecdote to share with you. But there's not much to say. I did Political Animal (that is show related) where the audience sit and listen to you however complicated what you're talking about may be, so that was a pleasure. Good to see Danny Bhoy doing his political set. He was joking about it before, saying he didn't have anything, but in the end it turned out he did. Everything is politics in the end I suppose. I talked to comedian Nick Revell afterwards, who at least comes from the generation after Bobby Davro so maybe I am moving on. I had more drinks with Toby Hadoke who resented not getting mentioned in yesterday's blog entry (he's doing a show about Dr Who which I really wanted to see, but which I clash with, but I've heard great things, so if you are a nerd- which you obviously are as you are on a computer reading a blog - then do go and see it) and Jimmy Cricket's daughter who was slightly annoyed that I had not given you her name - Katie. Katie Cricket. I went to Bristo Square and ate a slice of pizza and chips on a wall. Victoria Coren went by and we chatted about poker and how I wasn't a sad idiot for eating pizza and chips alone on a wall at 1am. I went to Brooke's bar and talked with more people. Then got fed up and walked home, alone again. And pleased about this again. I am starting to really worry about myself!
A group of young people recognised me and told me that they'd been at Best of the Fest last night and wanted to know how the potato routine turned out. They acknowledged that it might not have been my best gig. But I gave them a leaflet for my show. Flyering at 3.30am. I rock.
I enjoyed looking up at the Edinburgh architecture on my long walk. The buildings are truly magnificent, with their intricate turrets and columns and that imposing hard rock that they are all made out of. I started thinking about what bits would survive the destruction of our civilisation and be discovered by future archaeologists. It's a terrific and beautiful city, especially if you look upwards, rather than down at the pavements flowing with urine and vomit and the passed out bodies of the drunk and be-drugged.
