So we’re off. It has been a strangely relaxed start to Edinburgh for me. Usually at this stage I would have spent the day re-writing and desperately trying to learn the bits that I am not totally sure about, but this year I didn’t even look at the script. In fact there isn’t even really a script to look at as I have never got round to collating all the bits yet: it’s mainly just up in my head, relying on me remembering the bits that I have ad-libbed over the various previews.

But I am so confident with what I am doing that I haven’t even bothered going over the show in my head since the last preview at the Red Rose on Saturday. I had vaguely thought about what I might cut, but was going to think about that more this afternoon, but I was a bit tired after going to the gym (three days running now) and didn’t quite get round to it. In a way I was feeling that if the show was a little bit unfamiliar to me that it might feel looser and more relaxed.

I think that’s pretty much how it turned out. I had a decent crowd of around about 80, which was a bit less than I had hoped for, but the Fringe has not yet properly kicked off and there aren’t too many people around and talking to others this was a pretty amazing crowd. Standing in the wings at the Pleasance Above reminded me of all the other times I have waited in the same place to go on for other shows, often giggling with the rest of the cast. Though a show like Excavating Rita happened years ago, because of the strange nature of the passage of time up here, it all feels so recent that there was a part of me thinking that Paul Putner and Catherine Hood might actually be waiting in the opposite wing. It plays strange tricks on you memory coming back to the same place year after year to do something similar but different every year.

Thankfully this show is not as complicated as my Excavating Rita in which an archaeological dig had to be built on stage in about ten minutes, and the back to basics approach of stand up really takes the pressure off and means there was very little to be tense about. I just need a microphone and someone to turn the lights on at the beginning and off at the end.

The audience seemed up for it all from the start and I had a lot of fun. It was without doubt the best first Edinburgh show I have ever done and I enjoyed it very much and it seemed that most of the crowd did as well. There is still a lot of potential to be unwrapped in the material and hopefully I will relax even more as things go on and enjoy it even more. I can’t remember looking forward to the next performance so quickly after one had just finished. It’s very exciting. This could be a very fun year.

Buy Collings and Herrin T-shirts here and AIOTM T shirts here.

For details of the Christ on a Bike tour click here and you can book tickets here for The Lyric Comedy Nights

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