17/08/07
-
Categories: My girlfriend left today. On the one hand this means I get more time to promote and all other stuff etc, but on the other it now means I have no one to chat to and hang out with when in between doing all this other stuff. Its always bizarre how despite being so goddamn busy in Edinburgh, there is also always hours to kill.
The last few days with my girlfriend and brother (who also left today) were spent submerging ourselves in non-comedy culture. Well apart from Arthur Smith's ARTURART which is comedy, but art, and also ace. Definitely should be a 'Spirit Of The Fringe' Award although I'm not sure he'd want it.
The other stuff we did was definitely not comedy. First up on Wednesday night was Fuerzabruta. Now this show has had a hell of a lot of hype and lots of clever quotes before it even arrived at the festival. It is also a truly unique type of show with some very impressive performances, incredible effects and action all around you. Despite this, it ultimately means nothing and that bothers me. There is no storyline, no purpose, nothing to actually make you leave and get you thinking. There is just a man who runs through walls and some nice ladies who get all wet in a swimming pool above you. Yes that may be enough for most blokey blokes - 'what? Smashing walls and tits? Wahey!' - but I left just thinking that it was nice but ultimately a waste of a an hour of my life I will never get back. It reminded me of much lost time at University when the 'devised piece' drama students would prance around in the forests because its 'what they felt', but again ultimately just wasted good pint drinking time.
Then last night we saw Kanye West. I'm a fairy big hip-hop fan and my brother produces UK Hip Hop (shameless plug, buy his new album here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Broken-Window-Verb-T/dp/B000UDQRMW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-7442402-7479035?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1187373209&sr=8-1)
so we were really looking forward to this. It started badly with two of the worst support acts I've ever seen. Yes support acts get a hard time, but these guys deserved it. A truly sh*te Scottish rapper called JP and then a DJ who looked bizarrely like Idi Amin. Although I'd like to believe the 'King Of Scotland' was a better DJ, practising his doubles between mass genocide attempts. Then the man himself appeared and in proper show style. A DJ, a man on three keyboards, backing singers and a full string section with harp. String sections are always the sign of a good show. And boy did they perform. Every track you would've wanted with amazing energy and professionalism. This Sadly however the venue was so hot, that when it reached the point of encore possibilities, everyone just gave up and left in need for air. It seems that ventilation is a problem for most venues in Edinburgh. I can only assume that this is because the rest of the year round its so so cold that it doesn't even cross their minds to make somewhere cooler for fear of hypothermia.
So it was good to get a little change from our show, even though all is still going well. We had a couple of kids in the audience yesterday which was tough. Lauren got Neil (our superb techie) to tell them that it was offensive and the parents assured him it was OK. However it turns out that parents and their children aren't huge fans of viking rape gags. Who'd have thought eh? Unfortunately everyone else in the audience felt shocked for them and the atmosphere died a death. F*cking kids.
We've had three reviews this week. All three stars. Two of them read like four stars. Check them here:
http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/reviews.cfm?id=1293692007
Hooray for the Scotsman! Although I'd like to point out that in our show I am merely the 'small bearded twat'. The Scotsman have added 'fat' all by themselves. Not that it hurts or anything. Sniff sniff.
http://national-student.co.uk/magazine/comedy/fringe07/tea_and_cake.htm
Hooray for the Student Review! The comparison to Chris Morris made me happy for days. I'm not sure it would make Chris happy but it does only say 'the same breed' which might mean we are his third cousin that he never sees or something.
And then there was the Chortle review as you can see on this website. Its kinda how I predicted it would be after my Chortle review that I received in 2003 for stand-up on a new material night where I tried out new material I've never done since. Hey ho. This review really doesn't highlight what the show is about which is always nice. Anyway at least he gave us three when in fact it reads like a two.
We had the Metro in today and it was a great run so fingers crossed they don't hate it much.
Other than that we did sketches on the top of a bus, two 17 year old Scottish boys shouted at me for being English, the children's show is dying on its arse, and I've decided that next week is purely for drinking.....
RSS Feed