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.
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