Aug 28 (Day 26) Thats all folks.

In an effort to get my show tally up to 50 shows I booked two shows I had been intending to see all month. These were a comedy/theatre show called "Those Magnificent Men" and a tribute/impersonation show about Tommy Cooper called "Jus' Like That". I actually ended up going to four shows AND doing a tour of the vaults, so it was a big day and a great way to go out. 

The first show for today was "Those Magnificent Men", a comic theatrical production about Alcock & Brown, two English aviators who were the first to cross the Atlantic in a single flight. This was a great show, well played and with excellent stage setting, lighting and use of sound effects. There weren't so many "LOL" moments but it was light-hearted and just generally really well done, with the two actors actually constructing the main set-piece - their plane - as part of the story. A really great tribute to the two pilots and also to the hundreds of other names out there who were the "firsts" in their own field whose names are now fading into history.

I had a wait until the Tommy Cooper show started so in the mean-time I grabbed a ticket to a show I hadn't heard of previously but which was yet another one of those ones that turned out to be right up my alley. "The Fitzrovia Radio Hour" was a spoof of an old-time radio program with five actors on stage (3 male and 2 female) in which they play out their radio show as if it was going live-to-air. Replete with inventive sound-effects, stereo-typical 1940's radio voices, scripts of Nazi-hunting schoolboys, Cornish Mining dramas and the birth of product placement, this was one of the best shows I saw for the whole fringe. All actors played their "radio" parts really well and what made it even better was the "behind-the-scenes" drama happening for the live audience (one of the actors drinks a little too much and there is some serious flirting going on between multiple cast members etc) although I thought this could have gone even further. All took part in performing the sound effects as required and it was generally a brilliantly choreographed song-and-dance to ensure that everyone was where they were needed to be at all times. Absolutely fantastic.

I then went to see the Tommy Cooper show which was another highlight of not only the day but the entire fringe. The actor playing Cooper was amazing, taking on his every (and there are a lot!) mannerism, his delivery, his voice...everything about this was brilliant. If you don't know much about Tommy Cooper, he is well worth looking up because he had a truly original act that was a mixture of about a thousand different things all brought together seamlessly. Think slap-stick absurdist magician with a pun for every occasion and you're on the right track. What really highlighted this act was the opening scene, set behind-the-scenes in Cooper's dressing room which has its comic moments but highlights the sadness behind Cooper's on-stage persona and the drinking that eventually brought about his death. A wonderful show.

After my tour of the vaults beneath the city, I picked up a ticket to see Glenn Wool. Wool is a Canadian performer who has built up a solid following in the UK and Canada and has a slick, confident stand-up style that shows he has been doing this for years. I had never seen or heard of him before and went in with no expectations at all. He was very funny but as with a lot of the bigger names in the Fringe, I think that the laughter for a lot of their jokes is actually bigger than deserved. I found a lot of his jokes to be either very predictable or that I had heard them (or a variation) before and I wasn't doubled-over with laughter like a few people in the crowd. 

What a month it has been. There have been a lot of highlights, some amazing things seen and learned and generally it has given me a positive outlook about a lot of different things. With the writing I have been doing, it has given me the idea that I am at least heading in the right direction. Whether that is true or not will be seen sometime in the near future when I produce and host my first Burlesque/Cabaret Showcase in Adelaide. What I have seen has been overwhelmingly positive that even if the material you are working with right now doesn't quite work, that people will still find good in what you are doing, whether its from your performance personally or that they can see what it was you were trying to do. Whether that will be the case in Australia (where we are renowned for cutting down not only the tall poppies) is yet to be seen. But I will give it a crack and I know that at least one of the genres (from Stand-up, Sketch, Sitcom, Presentation and Cabaret) will resonate personally and hopefully with an audience too. Cheers!

Aug 27 (Day 25) The last day for a lot of shows.

Everyone here has what they call "Fringe Hangover". Its all coming to an end and everyone has been working so hard that they are now just rooted. Most acts take only one or two days off for the whole run (some doing two shows a day or more) and by the end of it they're dying to get out of Edinburgh and back to their real lives so they can take a rest. Even thought the Fringe doesn't officially finish til Monday night, most of the shows are now done.

The very first show I saw here was called "Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher" and I wrote at the time that I doubted I would see a show that was as good. Turns out I know my shit. Not only have I not seen an equal to this show (or the performance of its star - Humphrey Ker) but yesterday it was announced that Ker won the Foster's Award for being the Best Newcomer. Well earned, the guy is hilarious.

Another show I saw early on was ending today so I went back for another look to make sure I was right about that too. "Rom Com Con" starring Juliette Burton and Lizzy Mace is one where they road-test the RomComs to see how well they work in the real world. It was even better the second time around. The girls performances were slicker and they both hit their punchlines better. Its a sweet, charming show that goes from funny to poignant to sad and back to funny again and leaves you with nothing but positive feelings about love and possibilities. Word of mouth, some awesome flyer-ing and two 4-star reviews had worked a treat and the small room was packed with people clearly loving it. Excellent!

After that I had more Nachos than there are in Mexico and drank enough beer to drown in. After that I had a stomach ache and regretted the Nachos. Then I didn't have much to do but had agreed to go for a drink with some friends, so I went to the venue I knew one of them was performing in and watched the "Fresh Faces of the Fringe" show (9 new acts) while waiting. Again, some good new guys, some not-so-good, but I know they'll get better as long as they stick with it.

Daily Show Count : 2
Total Shows Seen: 48

Tomorrow and Monday - See at least 2 more shows to get to 50.

Aug 26 (Day 24) Bert Maverick: International Stand-Up Comic

Today was a big, big day. Firstly it was the last day of the comedy course I had been taking and that took up a good chunk of the day, spent mostly going over and over the material until it was drilled into my head and I could recite it almost verbatim. The "debut" show for the course was due to be on that night at about 11pm in a place called The Beehive, down in the Grassmarket so I had a few hours to kill. So I went to a nice pub and rewarded myself for sticking with it with a nice big rib-eye steak, which was delightful. 

I am starting to think that Scots only recognise one form of vegetable - the potato. They serve it with everything, in its many disguises but mostly either as mash or hot chips. And they do have about a million brands of chips and a stack of great flavours to choose from (including my favourite, Pickled Onion!) but for fuck's sake what about something GREEN?

After that I went to a venue called "Rush Bar" off Cowgate where a friend of mine, Elise Harris, was hosting a show called "Fresh Faces of the Fringe". I walked in and they were about to wrap the show up early as the two other acts had been on already and Elise made me go on stage, regardless of how unprepared I felt. There were only six people in the crowd and they seemed to enjoy my stuff (or at least laugh politely), even if I did miss a couple of lines. So my International Stand-Up Debut had been performed! And it wasn't the worst thing I have been through in my life. The show ended and the same show was due to start again in twenty minutes but with the promise of a few more fresh comics who were due to turn up. So I stuck around and had another go at it, this time to about 25 people in the crowd. It felt more comfortable already and got a more positive response from the crowd. An OK second effort.

After that I stuck around to have a drink with Elise and we sat through the next show on in the venue, an Irish comedienne named Grainne (pronounced "Gronya") Maguire. She was very funny but I think she went for too long. She reminded me of a cross between Joan Cusack and Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter in a charming, instantly likeable way.

By now I had been at Rush Bar for about 3 hours and I had a ticket to see a show at 8.30 called "The Manipulators" which stars two Aussie magicians, Simon Coronel and Vyom Sharma who dissect what "manipulate" really means and present various forms of manipulation throughout the show. Not a comedy but still full of laughs, this is a quality magic duo that work together well as they present clever sleight-of-hand with thoughtful back and forth. I'm a fan of magic acts (not all!) as long as they're not tacky and present well and this one was spot on. These guys will both be presenting their own shows in the Adelaide Fringe and I would say they are both worth a ticket.

By now it was time to head over to the Beehive and psyche myself into my 3rd set for the day. I met the host and the other acts, took a seat and prepared to give it another crack. I was on Fourth and the smallish room (about 50) was full to the brim. The first act after a good warm-up from the host was quite good - a guy with a bit more experience who held the crowd really well. The next guy was a deliberate fail...adding nothing worth listening to and seemingly only for his own amusement. Not sure what his story was but what a fucktard! Next was my course colleague Anneli Ritari who did a great job with her material (which I had heard a thousand times over the past four weeks) in a room that I then realised was largely filled with her friends, thanks to the cheers. Then I was up. Thankfully Anneli must have encouraged them to welcome me and they did so enthusiastically (which made me feel pretty awesome). The room was in a good mood and I hit more of my jokes than in the previous two shows and left feeling great. 

Then I left and when I got near the Bedlam Theatre I realised I had time to get in an see "The Improverts", an improv comedy show that had been getting very good reviews. Of all the different types of comedy show out there, Improv is usually my least favourite because I sit in the crowd often thinking of things faster or funnier or seeing exactly where theyre going before they do (I'm not a comedy genius, but if I get in before you, you should realise that maybe you're not all that sharp) than the people on-stage and I just find it isn't usually all that funny or clever. This was better than most but still didn't hold me for the duration. Not bad but still a bit meh.

Daily Show Count : 4
Total Shows Seen: 46

International Stand-Up Debuts: 3

Aug 25 (Day 23)

Another workshop today that was about adapting your Fringe show for screen. Didn't really apply to me because I haven't done a Fringe show (...yet) but it was worth going to anyway. Saw some good people do their stuff on stage and screen, heard from clever people like Tim Key and Miranda Hart and had a good time in general.

Then I went and caught a random sketch show called "Friends With You" by a female duo called Christmas For Two. As has been the case with a lot of the sketch shows, there was a lot of good stuff to see but pretty much an equal amount of "not quite" stuff that could have been dropped altogether or that went on far too long past the point of "we get it". Admittedly, a lot of them write, produce and direct themselves and this may be where they fall down - a writer would either cut it earlier or improve it when seeing it performed or  a director would probably tell them to cut it or at least put them in a different juxtaposition that would improve a weak sketch. And there is also the question of time - shows have to be at least 50 mins long, so when the comedians are doing it all, I'm sure they know some of the material will be weaker but they might need it to make the show go for long enough. Both performers were again excellent (the TALENT in Edinburgh is astonishing) and there were some really great sketches but if I were to tell them one thing, it would be to focus less on punchlines and strengthen the characters, because as with Brown & Corley when the characters are mental, the punchlines don't matter.

After this I went to the Spiegeltent for a (non-comedy!) vocal group called The Magnets. This is a beat-box/vocal/acapella group and they are just incredible. When you understand that the only instruments on stage are their voices, it is really amazing what they are capable of doing. They had just finished a tour of Australia starting with the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and will be back for Adelaide Fringe and if you get a chance, go and see them.
The last show I saw after watching the second Hearts vs Spurs game on the TV at a pub called "The Southsider". As luck would have it, they had comedy on there too and I didn't even know before I went in and the next show on after the football was a young Kiwi comedian named Nick Gibb in his show "Crumpled Antipodean Dandy". The flyer said Gibb was the 2011 Winner of "New Zealand's Biggest comedy award the "Billy T" which I previously had not heard of. The show proved to be a good one, with Gibb taking us through his life with Tourette's syndrome and his dealings with drugs, rough neighbours and his life in Palmerston North. He is a very funny young bloke and will only get better. The only criticism I can think of was that he digressed too often, digressing within digressions and getting too far off the track and then struggling to get back on it. But other than that, excellent stuff.

Daily Show Count : 2
Total Shows Seen: 42

Workshops Count: 2

Aug 22 (Day 20) Sam Simmons and Casual Violence

My Melbourne Comedy Festival highlights were two acts this year - a duo called "The Underlads" who I had no expectations of. There were only four of us in the crowd and they still killed it. The other was Sam Simmons, the master of random. Both acts heavily featured random-ness and extreme unexpected silliness and I didnt laugh harder than in these two shows in Melbourne. Looking back on the shows I have enjoyed the most at Fringe, they almost all seem to follow these themes. Caroline Mabey, Born in the 80's, The Truth (explained in doodles)...all feature loads of silliness and have all stood out for me. Maybe that says more about me than anything else, but I quite often find I know where a joke is going before I hear it and if I find it predictable it does nothing for me. I'm not alone in this - I spoke with a comedian the other night who said the exact same thing. Repetition of joke types without something new to push it further or add something new now shits me. And I rarely find anything funny the second time around either, so when people quote old jokes or movie stuff over and over, its just not funny. In movies, quite often what makes a quote funny is the character anyway (eg Ron Burgundy or Derek Zoolander etc) so quoting them without the character to back it up just isn't worth anything. BUT with Sam Simmons, the rule about something not being funny twice doesn't seem to count. I had seen Simmons' show "Meanwhile" in Melbs earlier this year and as I said, laughed hard. Its so random, you just don't know what is going to happen next. And seeing it again last night just makes his act/style even stronger for me. He has a commanding stage-presence even if his style is awkward. All his material is based on his stage persona working and I don't think some people would "get" what he is about - looking around the crowd, I could see a number of people who just looked baffled, both at Simmons and at the other people who were doubled over with laughter and that included me at my second viewing of the same material. Hilarious.

After this I went to see a sketch show called by a group called "Casual Violence" in their show "Choose Death". This is the darkest comic material I have seen performed at Fringe and it included a disappointed father on his death-bed, a suicidal "bubble-gun" salesman and a more traditional tragi-comic clown taken to extremes...all very dark stuff done really well by six very talented young blokes, accompanied by a very talented pianist. The clown, while a tragic comic figure that represents the dark heart with a comic exterior, was played so well that women in the audience were actually crying. Fantastic! My favourite was the criminal "Jimmy Bad-legs", an armless mad-man, played with menacing brilliance. Not everyone's cup of tea, but awesome if you like your comedy with a tea-spoon of arsenic.

Daily Show Count : 2
Total Shows Seen: 40

Aug 21 (Day 19) Magic, Tim Key: Masterslut and Successful Flyering for Gemma Goggin

After a big day yesterday I got out of bed late and thought I would have a quiet one and why do I feel like I have to explain myself to you anyway? Mind your own business. I only had one show planned for today, called "Masterslut" by Tim Key. I knew nothing about this show and hadn't even heard of Key but bought a ticket anyway. While I was waiting for the show to start I got a drink at the Speigeltent and went in to a tent called the Mess to see a 15 minute magic/comedy show that was really pretty awesome by this guy named Paul Zenon. Then it was time for Tim Key. 

I really like going to see something with no expectations because I think its the only true way to be impartial about what you're looking at. This show was awesome and quirky, not quite as left field as Sam Simmons or Caroline Mabey but still had loads of quirkiness that appealed to me. The show is really well thought out and well delivered especially the integration between live action and the clever film clips...he uses the bath for this and you would have to see it to fully understand. Brilliant!

After this I was walking around looking for somewhere to get a drink with a couple of friends and we ran into Gemma Goggin (she has two shows at the Fringe) who was doing some flyering to get people into her next show "Gemma Goggin's Celebrity Sleepover". We had a chat and a laugh with her and so on the spur of the moment, we decided to help her hand out some last minute flyers to get crowd into her show. This was great fun and we got rid of them all for her, so she gave us free tickets to her show! Woo! My 2nd random "Fringe Moment"! (My 1st random Fringe Moment was one night when walking home and this guy was drumming on a metal bollard, which I then joined in on the next bollard and then one of the guys riding those cycle-taxi things jumped off his bike and joined in on another bollard! This went on in a mini rhythm-storm for the next minute or so until the first guy sort of led a finish and we all just went our separate ways, not a word spoken between the three of us)

Anyway, my two companions and I went into Gemma's show and it was a cracker! Basically she is sitting in bed and then brings up a few different comedians for a chat. In the bed...then more join, then more until the bed is literally bursting with comedians. Apart from some fairly inane questions that Gemma uses to prompt her guests, its all ad-libbed and on this night was particularly hilarious. Guests included two guys from a sketch show called "The Dregs" who were really funny and who I will now go and see, a woman from a show called "How to be Awesome: An Introduction" who was really the one who kept the gags rolling and who I will also buy a ticket for, someone named Alfie, another guy playing a German Hasselhoff impersonator whose bit was scripted and felt laboured and then a guy from a cabaret act whose name and show I have forgotten but who was also very funny. One of those really awesome unplanned Fringe moments turned into something even more awesome...this is why you really just have to "do" the Fringe.

Daily Show Count : 3
Total Shows Seen: 38

Aug 20 (Day 18) Sport to bring me back to reality and Spencer Maybe to take me away from it again.

I hadn't planned to see any shows today because there was another World Cup warm-up match at Murrayfield on in the afternoon and before that I knew I would be occupied watching the Magpies vs Lions game at the Oz Bar. Plus lots and lots of beer. Afternoon sorted. And by the time the rugby had finished, I should be well and truly smashed anyway, so not much point planning anything. As usual though, the "planning phase" of my plan was the only thing that went according to plan. Well not really, but this time, after the rugby was done I was still up and about and so decided to go see something. After walking back into the city after a good win from the Scots over Italy in which a lot of scoring happened at both ends (Magpies had also earlier beaten the Lions) I found myself just looking around for the right show to finish my night. As I sat there between strangers eating over-priced, sobering-up, late-night pizza (the BEST kind) I was offered a free ticket to go and see the whole show (I had seen ten minutes the night before in Kitty Cointreau's show) of a guy named Spencer Maybe, called "The Last Trilogy". This is like watching a cross between a political rally and a burlesque show if you can imagine that. Maybe plays three characters in the show, one a singer trying to make a difference, the next as The Devil and lastly as God. The show revolves around his music and Maybe's stage presence is pretty full-on and totally commanding as he presents himself in various costumes and various stages of undress throughout the hour of burlesque/musical/comedy-with-a-message. Seriously, this guy has some ridiculous sex appeal and if INXS are ever looking for a Micheal Hutchence replacement (again) ...this is the guy. Its also the reason the show works. I don't always appreciate "sexy dudes" or "stuff with a message" type shows but this one is a trip!

Daily Show Count : 1
Total Shows Seen: 35

International Rugby Games Tally: 2

Aug 19 (Day 17) The Free Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, When Being Early Goes Horribly Wrong and Mae Martin.

Let me explain the fantastic idea that is the Free Fringe. I believe the Free Fringe (FF) is the essence of the fringe. It starts with venues that are prepared to let performers use their spaces for free in order to put their show on that will in turn bring people in to their venue and increase revenue through sales of food and drinks. The artists also have a bucket by the door so that if you liked their show you can put a few quid in and they get something out of entertaining you as well. Its kind of like indoor busking (which is very necessary in Edinburgh). But it really works. One of the main complaints that performers have mentioned to me is that the Fringe is now a massive money making machine for everyone except the artists themselves...which sounds to me like a rort. If the artists weren't there, the revenue wouldn't be coming in either and aside from MAYBE getting some recognition, the artists who aren't very well known (so 95% of them) are mostly working at a loss. I have now spoken to quite a few artists who had rented a space and whose tickets haven't sold well and who wish they had been part of the free fringe. One comedienne who had 7 people in the crowd said that with Free Fringe, people are enticed to come in because they know it might not cost them anything at all, so the crowds can be really good - she would have made more money from the same gig being FF because whatever is in the bucket at the end is hers. With a Paid Venue, she has to pay both venue hire AND a % of her ticket sales, not to mention that she already loses 1.90 on every ticket which the box office takes for the service. It was only an 8 pound ticket! Apparently the FF grew 40% YOY and that is evidence of an artist backlash against greedy venues. From the artists I have spoken to, I can tell you that this will grow again next year.
ANYWAY! Today the Adelaide Fringe people put on a seminar to let any international performers know what the deal is when they want to perform in Adelaide. This was worth going to because it answered a bunch of questions I had for me as I would like to perform a show a friend and I have written there. Handy. One of the things that I didn't quite agree with was that they were quite adamant that a "Free Fringe" type thing would work there but I think there is room for it too. Maybe in a limited capacity or for special circumstances but it is worth a try. One thing they did mention was that they are quite aware of the type of rent artists in Edinburgh are paying and that the venue hire is minimal by comparison in Adelaide. A performer in the crowd called it "negligible" by comparison, which is good to hear. Things are looking positive for Adelaide and if there is any way I could do Edinburgh next year as a performer, I would only aim at doing the Free Fringe.
Going to the Adelaide Fringe seminar was all I had planned to do today as it is kind of nice to have a day off from seeing shows when you see ten million in a week, but then I remembered a show I had planned to see and it was on the way home so I jumped off the bus (bus wanker!) and headed into the venue to get a drink before it started. I was unfortunately a lot earlier than I would have liked and I walked in to a performance that had already begun. Being far too polite to turn around and walk out, I took a seat. Now, I know that context is vital and that it is usually set up in the opening minutes of any show but in this show I don't honestly think that any amount of context would have made any difference. I had already seen some shows that were...unusual, but this one officially took unusual to a new level. And that level was deep beneath the earths crust where nothing is funny. I think that, as a wannabe comedian, it would be quite hypocritical of me to say that anyone else's effort at being funny was total shit, so I wont say that. What I will say is that I have an extremely open mind and find a lot of things funny where others don't and that I can usually find something of value in almost any situation. In other shows here at Fringe I have walked out grinning only to have someone else say "yeah that was utter rubbish, wasn't it?", mis-construing my smirk for a bemused look of horror, when really I was actually laughing at something from the show, either thinking that the performer was good or that I at least found the premise of a gag funny even if they didn't quite hit the mark. In this situation I found nothing funny and even thought the premise was a dud, thats all I'm saying. I'm not going to name the show or the performer. Just don't be early for Mae Martin. If you are, just grin and bear it and then wait for Mae Martin, because she is worth sticking around for.

I'm not the biggest fan of saying that someone's act is "like someone else's act" but in this case the similarities are quite noticeable. Just so you get an idea of what Mae Martin's act is like, think of Deanne Smith's act. Or if you haven't seen Deanne Smith, think of a cute, androgynous Canadian person with short hair who plays guitar and sings cute, funny songs on stage and refers to themself as Justin Bieber. More to that, they are both really funny, have slick shows and are warm and curious and engaging. But thats where the similarities end. In some cases Mae's material may have gone over the heads of the older crowd who might not have seen Jumanji or read Harry Potter, know who Ke$ha is (I WISH I didn't, please PLEASE let me get some special kind of Acquired Brain Injury that only causes memory loss of garbage music) or have listened much to Alannis Morrisette (because most of Mae's songs are based on Morrisette songs) however they did seem to enjoy the show and so did I. The only thing I wish she did more was her whiny parody of Ke$ha which would be awesome if she fleshed it out. Funny and cute and worth a look.
Then! When I got home Channel 4 were showing the Season 3 of The In-Betweeners back to back. So I watched it all. Again.

Aug 18 (Day 16) In which I tell jokes for the BBC, look at doodles and get showered in glitter.

The other day I dropped into this BBC booth thing to tell a joke and hopefully get it approved as "funny" and put up on the BBC website. I told two jokes for their "Funny in Fifteen" thing and one of them got through! I told this joke twice since getting to the UK and in both cases I had to explain what "carrion" is and why this is a clever word-play. I have since cut it from my set. What is disconcerting is that I have also watched the other "Funny" clips and well...didn't find them funny. I'm leaving it out of my set, but you can make your own mind up here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jwr0x.

After every day at Fringe, while I sit naked in the garden contemplating my day, I always think that I have now probably seen the best thing I will see and that nothing I see tomorrow could surprise me. Every day I have been proven wrong. Don't worry, I will still continue to sit in the garden naked, I will just contemplate other issues.

Again, I started out with almost no plan. And that plan turned out to be rubbish anyway because what I was going to see wasn't on til the next day anyway. So I ended up going to gigs I might never had been to because someone else recommended them. I saw 3 shows in the space of 10 hours today and they turned out to be some of the most rewarding shows I have seen. 

The first was basically a PowerPoint presentation (but so much more) called "The Truth (explained in doodles!)" by a guy named Gareth Morinan. This is a slick, inventive and unique show in which Morinan uses animated characters (such as the Suggestion Squirrel and the Morality Moose), pie charts, diagrams, logic and stand-up to get you to understand The Truth. Its clever and its quirky and if you like something out of left-field, you should love this show like I did. (He had a guy do a 5 minute warm up bit that was good too but I cant remember his name). 

The next show was the most thought-provoking show I have seen a stand-up do in a very long time. Quite often I think that comics are angry about an issue but really just take the jokes out of it rather than try to say anything that may have an influence. That is not the case with Alex Marion in his show "Applied Optimism". This show is very honest from the start and Marion has no qualms telling us about his former drug habit or his failed attempt at dealing LSD or what that has helped him to become. And while he has a message, he makes no attempt to preach it to you, he simply presents it in a thought-provoking and extremely funny way that is far more polished than any other debut show Ive ever seen. This show is in the top five shows I have seen at Fringe.

Later on, after going to the pub to watch Hearts get their arses handed to them by Spurs and trying "HAGGIS, Neeps and Tatties" for the first time (its like Savoury Mince everyone, gtf over it. Neeps and Tatties are mashed Turnips and Potatoes) I went to the only show I had paid for in advance the whole day - Kitty Cointreau's "BraHaHa". This was a great day for different things as this show features some very good Burlesque acts, some cabaret AND comedians. Comedy, semi-naked women and a beer in hand, the only way I could have been happier was if there was a TV with some football on in the background. The burlesque acts were varied but were all excellent and featured a fire-eater, a very funny "poodle" act and a shower of glitter that I will be cleaning from my boots for weeks. The comedians - Stuart Goldsmith and Tom Price were also great and it must be said that burlesque is a hard act to follow (imagine coming on after a fire-eater with tassles on her nipples). The other act, the "cabaret" bit, really has to be seen to be believed or understood - Spencer Maybe was introduced as "God" and does a provocative burlesque/strip-tease of his own that I will not ruin here, except to say that it is a 5 minute piece of genius. A brilliant day.

Tomorrow - In which I will find out about putting on a show at the Adelaide Fringe.

Aug 17 (Day 15) Smashed it.

MASSIVE day. Seriously, my biggest day of stuff here yet. Smashed FOUR shows which included 10 acts altogether, was in the audience for a show filmed for the BBC, chatted and had a drink with some cool people, told some jokes for BBC3 and was given a badge!

I started with a show called "Dicking a Great Big Hole" by Jodie Dick. A different type of show in which Dick plays a scatterbrained comedian on the phone to her manager Bren who has failed to show up to manage the performance. There were only about 7 people in the crowd and I don't think it was everyone's cup of tea but I got a lot from it. I could see shades of Jennifer Saunders in Dick's performance and I personally found her to be very funny. 

Next up was a sweet little show called "You For Coffee?" (I was told to say it quickly and with a Scottish accent and it sounds like "You! Fuck off eh!") which had two stand-ups do about a 20 minute set each. The first guy was very likable and had some funny things but some stuff didn't have a point or a punchline, it felt padded out and he resorted to party tricks which weren't great so it didn't all work. The second performer was the winner of something called BBC Upstaged, named Elise Harris. Her material was funny, honest and had the room laughing straight away with her persona of forced enthusiasm. She had some really funny stuff going on. She brought a ukelele on stage with her but didn't really use it much which seemed a shame because the song she did near the end was good.

After this I went to a BBC showcase called BBC Comedy Presents - Early & Late. This was being filmed for the Tele and it was both long and had some really big names, one of which is a personal favourite (Kristen Schaal from "Flight of the Conchords" and "Bob's Burgers") so it was an awesome surprise. I had already seen Ahir Shah perform and they also had a guy I saw yesterday, Adam Belbin perform along with a couple of others whose names have escaped me (a Welsh guy and an English woman with a guitar...that helps doesn't it?). All were really, really good. 

When I left the BBC theatre I found this interesting stand they have set up which is a recording booth called "Funny in Fifteen Seconds" in which you record yourself telling a gag in front of a camera. AWESOME. Now, before you say "WANKER", this is probably not the kind of thing I would normally do in Australia because everyone would call me a wanker. But I'm not in Melbs right now, so its none of your concern. Anyway, I had two gags I liked from my hefty arsenal of "A" material so I selected two of my personal favourites and did them both. All I'm saying is I will remember you when I have been discovered by the BBC.

Earlier in the day I met a performer from a duo called the Silky Pair who gave me a flyer for their show "Jealous People", which started immediately after the BBC Show, so I went down to see that too. This was a good sketch show in a terrible room but the two girls pulled it all off despite the awkwardness. This had some really great stuff in it, both girls are great performers. My favourite sketch was one that parodied those very British property shows and their very British presenters (like "Escape to the Country"). Good stuff. Also, they gave me a badge.

A cracking day.

Daily Show Count: 4
Total Show Count: 29

Aug 16 (Day 14) BBC Comedy Writers workshop and another showcase

Today I went along to a Comedy Writers Course for aspiring writers being run by the BBC. Honestly, I wish the ABC were even remotely as pro-active as the BBC in getting new programs made that are edgy, from unknown writers and may quite easily fail but which they will still try because there is a chance they MAY be awesome IF given the chance. We don't have anything like that in Australia so I can understand why our writers get frustrated and leave for the UK. And overall the vibe from the panel (which included some serious BBC people) was that they actually do read every sketch, every email, every proposal sent to them just in case it IS good and they can use it. In fact, one of the guys on the panel did that very thing and is now a full-time freelance comedy writer. Their advice was to write stuff that suits your style. Aim it at the shows it suits. You wont hear anything back if they don't select it, but when they read between 700 - 1000 emails each week that's fair enough...it doesn't mean they hated it either, just that it didn't fit what they needed for the show at that time. And for writers, to keep going as you only get better the more you write. Then they opened the floor to Q and A and unfortunately there were a large number of STUPID questions asked that just showed that a lot of people there weren't writers and were likely never to be writers either. One guy asked what material was "good" and what the content should be about...ya know? DUH. Other than that I got a lot out of it and one of those things is that if I ever want my stuff looked at, its the UK or nothing. 

After that I found another Free Fringe showcase in a cellar/nightclub/dive called "Espionage", which could suitably be renamed "Friztl's" and no-one would think it was inappropriate. This showcase was called "Pick of the Fringe" and showcased 4 comedians and the host, each getting a ten-minute slot. I think ten minutes is a better "set" length for showcases, I wish more would do it like this. "Pick" was hosted by a comedian named Mike Belgrave who seemed slightly unprepared and struggled to bring up the vibe of the crowd, but admittedly it wasn't an easy room. Luckily he was followed by an excellent young comedian named Matt Green, a sharp and confident young bloke with clever material and I wanted him to keep going which is always a good sign. He is on the list. Next up was a bloke named Nick Sun, who was brought up in Australia but has since left there and now has an accent that I couldn't place. His material was hit and miss but the crowd were warming up to him with a few more laughs just as his 10 minutes were up. After that came a bloke named Richard Rycroft whose show reflects that he is turning 50 and the crowd of Gen Ys in the room missed most of his material as the references were often from things that were around before their time. The material was actually quite clever but I could see various young girls looking at each other as though it was their dad up on stage and they just weren't interested. Adam Belbin was up last and he was a good way to round out the hour. When he first got on stage, his delivery and material made him seem like his Dad ran the venue and had let him have a go...which was all part of the act as he soon turns it around with some clever stuff. He too, is on the list of acts to go and see the full hour's worth. A productive day - a good workshop that largely made me feel good about stuff and two more acts on the "want to see" list.

Daily Show Count : 2
Total Shows Seen: 25

Later in the week - Olivia Lee

Aug 15 (Day 13) Funny Women are rocking my festival. And Richard Herring.

Today was Day 2 of a 4 Day Comedy Course I am taking so that took up the larger part of the day. Straight after this I went up the road to see a show called "An Englishwoman, A Scotswoman and an Irishwoman". This entailed 3 women, as the name suggests, An Englishwoman, A Scotswoman and an Irishwoman all getting up to perform about a 20 minute set of stand-up. And it was hilarious, they were all really good. And FILTHY. Filthy, funny and smart. One of my favourite things is women doing edgy humour well and all three of these ones did that particularly well. 

Then last night I saw a guy named Richard Herring. Never heard of him before but apparently he has been to Fringe every year for the last 20 years. He is a popular bloke and his show was a sell-out in a big venue. His show is slick, clever, thoughtful, charming, and very funny. Women in the crowd seriously teared up at him describing his grandma's alzheimers and how his family are dealing with it. It was all very honest and open and while it touched on some raw stuff, he wasn't playing it for sympathy and kept up the laughs and that really made me like him. 

Daily Show Count : 2
Total Shows Seen: 21

Aug 13 & 14 (Day 11 &12) Touristy stuff and comedy til my ears bled.

Saturday was the day after the night before, in which I believe I initiated the first Edinburgh Drinks Festival. So I was feeling slightly wrung out and did nothing. What I need from you is less judgement, more love. Lets not get into who may or may not have a drinking problem, because I know things about you that don't need to be dredged up from the past too. Do you want me to blog about them? Well DO YOU?
Sunday made up for any lack of whatever you all seem to think I should have been doing yesterday. Lets just say I taught Edinburgh a thing or two about stuff. Started by visiting a craft market that was pretty much strictly for chicks, which I should have known considering it was called a 'craft market'. But then I went to Edinburgh Castle and after looking at guns and stuff I regained the feeling in my testicles. The castle was awesome, I spent about 3 hours there - I specially liked the war memorial bit (even though its not a shade on the Australian one) because that's what I'm into. Awesome place.
Then I started on the comedy, firstly heading to a free fringe show called "Smut" which was a "showcase" where a few comics do a short set to get you interested in their full show. This was a bit hit-and-miss for me, good laughs from Desiree Burch (the host) and an American guy (whose name I missed, sorry!) but otherwise a bit of a washout. An interesting thing happened here - I met the guy who invented "Viz" magazine! Remember that puerile teen smut magazine you probably read in high school? Yeah...it was odd. But at least I told someone about my love for "Fat Slags" who would finally know what I was talking about and understand.

Then I was waiting for my "Mixed Game" stew (again in a cup! WTF Edinburgh?) and a bloke approached me with an offer of a two for one ticket to his show. I explained that I was on my own and he just looked at me, reached into his bag and gave me a free one! BAM. The show wasnt on for a fair while though, so while I ate random cup-meat I checked what was on next and got a ticket to see Brown & Corley: Born in the 80s. I knew nothing about this show but it was on next and would be finished in time for me to get to the freebie show I just scored a ticket to. Both shows turned out to be sketch shows and both were very good, although very different.
Born in the 80s is randomly awesome. After being welcomed in with after-dinner mints and a polite chat, Brown & Corley smash straight into their sketches, launching into character after mental character without skipping a beat. The sketches themselves are character studies, not relying on punchline driven gags, meaning that you just don't know what's coming next and this extremely talented pair commit 100%. I got the feeling that sometimes they may have ended a sketch when they felt like it had run out of legs, which if true, I think is the smartest thing I've seen the whole festival. My favourite was a repressed chambermaid and her manipulative lord but there is plenty to like throughout (although some local references went straight over my head). I loved this show.

The next show was called Moonfish Rhumba: The Chronicles of Moonfish. This show mixed a bit of musical comedy, a bit of puppetry, a revolutionary yet low-tech hair-transplant system, some audience participation involving wigs and overall it was generally really funny. They had a big enough stage to have a screen set up which they could duck behind for costume changes and whatever else and it meant that they could be a bit more elaborate with their material, which worked well and gave them a more professional-looking edge. Unfortunately I think they tried too hard for a big finale and it felt forced meaning it ended on a bit of a dud note. Still a good show and definitely worth a look.
This was the fourth sketch show Ive seen since the festival began and every one of them has been different in its own way. I really love how different comics see a stage and how they all use it so differently. Clever stuff.

Daily Show Count : 3
Total Shows Seen: 18

Tomorrow - Fringe veteran Richard Herring

Aug 12 (Day 10) Priorities, Fosters and Funny Women

I should have been doing my washing today but priorities, people. Priorities. And those priorities are 1. Comedy. 2. Free Stuff. 3. Hot Women. So when you join Comedy WITH Free Stuff AND Hot Women, I would push an old person down by the face to get me some of that action. Unfortunately there were no old people hindering my access to get into "Rom Com Con", so I cant prove to you just how serious I am about sticking with those priorities. Instead, I will tell you about the show. 

So Lizzy Mace and Juliette Burton - two young, attractive, intelligent women struggle to meet men, so they go to Romantic Comedies for ideas. Ideas such as how they should look, how they should act, where they are likely to meet men...all that stuff that we see Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts, Katherine Heigl et al go through half a dozen times a year in cinemas. Only these two decide to put the theory of these films into real life situations. What they go through is a series of events with varying results, all of which they have catalogued and are prepared to (regardless of how embarrassing the results might have been) share with us. This premise is hilarious and Mace and Burton are totally honest about their successes or lack thereof. They take us on a journey through make-overs, first impressions and "fake" dates and come to some realisations of their own that the Rom Coms they have tried to emulate seem to be lacking. You can make your own mind up about what the girls have learned by the end of the show but on the way you will have had some seriously good laughs. And probably learned something about women.

After this I went to a place called Oz Bar and got to watch some cricket where the Poms smashed India (mixed emotions about this obviously) and then saw an AFL game and felt right at home. Except that I was drinking Fosters, which I wouldn't be able to do in Australia because nobody even sells it.

I also downloaded the free Fringe App which has a couple of really handy features, including being able to see whats on next whatever time of day it is and a GPS based map which helps you find exactly where you are going. I have now formulated a plan to use this App to spend a whole day seeing Free Fringe shows end-to-end. Should be awesome.

Daily Show Count : 1
Total Shows Seen: 16

Weekend Super Edition (this means I only have to blog once) - Touristing at the Edinburgh Castle, National War Museum and more funny stuff

Aug 11 (Day 9) No Shows :( but had a stirling time in Stirling

Actually got up in time for breakfast today and got chatting with two Turkish girls who were planning to visit Stirling and they invited me to join them. I was planning on a visit next week but without any solid plans for the day I went along. It was nice to have some company. Its only a 50 min bus ride so we were there in no time (well, 50 mins, duh). Stirling is famous for its castle and for being where the battle of Stirling Bridge took place. This is all William Wallace territory where fights for Scottish independence were fought and there are monuments dotted all over the place.

First up we went to Stirling Castle. This is a beautiful castle set at the highest point in Stirling town and views from everywhere are beautiful. You can see for miles and its all very green and Scottish-looking. The castle is brilliant, inside and out and is very interactive, especially for kids. From the castle, the most intriguing point on the horizon is a tower in the short distance that looks A LOT like the tower with the eye on it from the Lord of the Rings movies without the eye on it. This is the William Wallace Monument - of course I wanted to go there so we stopped and had some lunch in Baker Street and then wandered off in the vague direction of the monument. This has been the touristy highlight of the trip so far. The tower is 246 steps to the top but there are a couple of rooms on the way up that have displays in them about William Wallace and other important Scottish people. Its also where they house the ACTUAL sword of William Wallace, which is incredible. When you get to the top of the tower, you can see forever. The view from up there is spectacular and fittingly it is a bit like looking out over middle earth from LOTR, but with more cars and houses.

Then we stopped and had a nice pint at The William Wallace pub, just to top it all off.

Tomorrow - Ambitious day of ONLY seeing Free Fringe events. Get Ready.

Aug 10 (Day 8) No Shows :(

Needed a rest day and it was pissing down all day, so I stayed in, had cups of tea willy-nilly and slept. It was awesome for me but fairly boring to read about.

Aug 9 (Day 7) Boat-spotting in Leith and Sanderson Jones

Today I went to Leith, which is a port town only a fifteen minute bus ride from the city. I should have done some research before leaving because I thought I would be able to go touristing for at least three or four hours and have a nice look around before my main reason for going there in the first place which was to dine at "The Kitchin". While noted for a couple of great restaurants, there is not that much else to do in Leith, except that this is where the Queen's old boat the "Royal Yacht Brittania" is now permanently parked and open for inspection. So with a few hours still to spend before my dinner reservation, I wandered through it and I'm glad I did because it was very impressive.

Then I had just enough time to squeeze in a cider and I was off to dinner. You know those places that you are impressed by as soon as you walk in? This was one of them for me because they actually had a phone charger to energise my dead phone. They have it just in case guests need it! Well played, The Kitchin, well played. 

Now, I'm not going to go into it here (I need a food blog), but the experience was brilliant. The food was fantastic, the wines amazing, the service and all that was incredible. If you're ever in Edinburgh, just go.

After dinner I then had to get back into town to see Sanderson Jones's show "ComedySale.com/Fringe". I jumped on the wrong bus, which turned out to be the exact right bus to get me to the show even quicker (did I mention stuff like that happens to me all the time?) because I was running late, jumped off the bus, pretty much turned the corner and walked straight into the show, sat down and the show began. And its an awesome show. Jones explains that he has a love for the internet, he bends on-line language cleverly, shows clips of disturbing things from YouTube as well as diagrams and words and short videos on the projector, tells a tale of falling in <3 with an Australian woman only to find out she didn't quite feel the same, but he still sets about winning her back. He covers a lot of ground in an hour and has the ability to be shocking and clever and self-deprecating and yet still endearing and hilarious. This show is genuinely original and I highly recommend it. You have to meet Sanderson to buy a ticket off him because he is selling them all himself and when you do, he will ask you some questions and take a photo with you and don't be put off by this, but that pic will be on the screen at some point (only for a split second) during the show. If you have an interesting enough name or he finds something interesting about you, he may also look into you on Facebook. Which is funny, and it means that his show will be different every day. Clever.

Daily Show Count : 1

Total Shows Seen: 15

Royal Stuff Seen: 1 fuck-off awesome "yacht"

Michelin Starred Restaurants Eaten At: 1

 

Tomorrow - No Plans As Yet (this is not the name of a show, I really don't have any plans)

Aug 8 (Day 6) Big Value Comedy

Today was a busy day for different reasons. Because of my phone network in Australia, my mobile is locked to their lacklustre network and even though the same company operates in the UK, apparently the phone is locked because of "technical jargon blah de blah", which means that I cant use it here unless I want to pay international roaming etc, no good reason for this other than they will make stacks of money out of it. So fuck 'em. I went and bought a traded, unlocked phone and then got a PAYG sim and now have a UK number. (Message me if you want it.)

I only went to see one show today because I had spent the day at the first day of a comedy course that I decided to take while here. I don't know if it will lead anywhere but I'm interested to know if actual comedians think I'm funny, or if its just my mates. It was awesome - there was only one other person taking the course so we basically had private tuition. Fantastic value for money. The comedienne taking us for today was Viv Gee and she was instantly hilarious, so I automatically liked her. She has been doing comedy and acting and stuff for 20 years so I trusted that she would know what she was talking about. The other participant is the same age as me and although she may not realise it, is one of those people who is just naturally funny, so she has the advantage. I think that we both got heaps out of the workshops we did throughout the day, and maybe learned more about each other than we expected to. This made it a good day already.

After this I went to the venue for the show I was about to see. I ordered some Bangers and Mash and sat down at a communal table to drink my cider and look through the festival guides while I waited for the show to start. Sitting opposite me was a Japanese woman who was just looking confused. We got chatting (sort of) and she told me that she went to a comedy show and couldn't understand anything at all! Hahaha...wouldn't that be an odd experience! Imagine sitting in a room full of people laughing for an hour with no clue what they were laughing at. She was only in Edinburgh for the day, so she wanted to make sure she saw some shows and asked me if I knew of anything that she might understand. I just said "dance"...maybe something interpretive would be able to be interpreted into whatever language you happen to speak? Maybe, how the fuck would I know? But it was better than nothing I suppose. Then I got my bangers and mash....in a cup. Odd, but delicious.

Then it came around to Six PM and I made my way to the room for the show, called "Big Value Comedy". This was like 4 shows in one - yep, another "sampler" full of comedians flogging their wares with a taster of their own full-length shows. All of todays comics were really good. Either that or Viv Gee opened my mind up enough to appreciate anything? Maybe, but I think they were all good. The show was hosted by a bloke named Lloyd Griffith, who was very good. He outed a couple of people in the crowd who were referred to by all the comedians who followed, and not without reason. Firstly, he found a Priest (an Aussie from WA) in the front row and then a 9-year-old girl (her mother was there with her) who may now need therapy.

The comics that performed were Sean McLoughlin, Mike Newall and Sanderson Jones, who I remembered seeing in Melbourne. They were all great in their own ways, different delivery, styles and material but all really funny. I had a chat with Sanderson Jones after the show and I now have a ticket to see him tomorrow night, so that should be good.

Daily Show Count : 1

Total Shows Seen: 14

Tomorrow - Visiting Leith and dining at "The Kitchin" restaurant, then Sanderson Jones.