Andrew J. Lederer

This is, I'm told, party week and I really hate that I don't know enough people -- or enough of the right people -- well enough to be "in the loop" when it comes to these festival affairs.

Like, yesterday, there was a Just for Laughs party, but my "source" withheld pivotal information, like the address and start time, apparently feeling I should work for my fun, a least a little.

I figured since Reg Hunter is being presented by Mick Perrin, who also co-presents with Just for Laughs, he would know the details, so I hustled over to the Udderbelly area at about the time his show would end so I could pump him. He didn't know nothin' about it, so i figured it wasn't that cool and went into the Dome to drink Guinness, eat crisps (made with healthy oil). and talk about silent comedy with filmmaker/flyer team leader (but not for me) Anna Black.

Then I went to the Loft Bar but heard music coming from the big space where they do Late 'n' Live and followed the sound into the staff area (ignoring the "staff only" sign on the door) in the balcony above the space, from which I watched Beergut 100, who were just great. (Everybody else probably knows this already but Bill Bailey was in the band, which is kind of impressive, kind of.)

Rich Hall did a number and was real "punk", which I liked but reluctantly 'cause he's been, I think, a dick to me this year.

I first met him when I was a teenager and he was always nice to me, but when I've met him at the Assembly Bar, he's always had that impassive mask of arrogant self-importance on and appears to be looking down at me, which pisses me off.

But when I thought "what the heck" and told him the song was great up at the Loft Bar after the the show, he was smiling a little and almost, dare I say it, friendly in tone.

Maybe it was getting away from the Assembly Rooms or maybe it was the rush from his performance. Whatever it was, he wins the benefit of the doubt for at least our next several encounters.

Ran into a lovely local girl at the Loft; a zaftig sweetheart I had met before. Spent much of the evening with her which was wonderful. But then I encountered the first person who has actually hurt my feelings this Fringe. (I had hoped I would escape that fate.)

There's a woman who works with/hangs with Kim Hope and there's something really substantial and compelling about her. She's always been friendly and I wanted to tell her how attractive I think she is, so I told her that, molecule for molecule, she was the most attractive woman at the festival.

Well she insisted I had simply used on her a line that I had used many times before and that I didn't mean it. Okay, maybe it wounded like a line, but it wasn't. I can't help it if I talk purty. She backed away in a manner that was genuinely hurtful and all I had wanted to do was say something nice.

Alright. Misunderstood. (And also, my feet hurt and itched from the cocktail of cobblestones and cheap shoes and I was moving haltingly, so maybe that added a subliminal element of creepiness -- as I was literally "creeping" -- that undermined me.)

But later, I learned from Janey Godley's daughter Ashley that this woman had told the story to a whole table of people, asserting as if it was fact that it was a "line" I had used 6 times before on different women (that's the number she cited to me, too -- interesting choice) and making it, according to Ashely, sound very sleazy.

When I told Ashely that it had not been a "line" and that I was just trying to say something nice (a task, by the way, that I have failed at many times; just not, as far as I know, at this year's festival), she offered to "kick her in the cunt" on my behalf -- a sweet gesture.

I put on a gruff, misogynistic voice and acknowledged that women need to be "kicked in the cunt" every so often.

Ashley laughed.

At around the same time, a beautiful blonde who seemed to dismiss me on sight at previous Fringes came over, talked to me sweetly and kissed me gently on the cheek to say goodnight.

Life can be unpredictable.

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Last edited by andrewjlederer on Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:54 pm; edited 1 time in total