11/06/08
Edinburgh looms -
Categories: Please note: Not a post about weaving tools in Scotland.
I've just returned home after a top night at Fat Tuesday watching Michael Fabbri and Jon Richardson's ace Edinburgh previews (both of which I highly recommend!) , and the Edinburgh excitement has finally started kicking in. This is also heightened by the first Tea and Cake preview show that we did last night, which was the first step in cementing August's major happening for the comedy world, and the arrival of the Fringe Brochure last week. Ah, the Fringe Brochure. A landmark moment in every year where I open it up and go 'wow, I spent several gigs wages just to put that tiny blurb just there'. Priceless. Or actually, pricey.
Knowing its approaching gives me that odd feeling. Somehow its a combination of sheer fear, knowing that day in day out I'll be doing two shows and worrying about the pressures and critiquing that the festival brings. At the same time, I'm damn excited knowing that I get to spend a whole month doing what I enjoy and drinking with people I like. Its almost like uni again, in that there is this close knit community of comedians and comedy types who all actually socialise for once, and not just in a car on the way back from Wales where talking and service stations are the only way to pass the time. At the same time, its not like uni, because you don't have to do any essays. Therefore, its much better than uni. Although you don't get a grant/loan for it. Well you can get a loan. Oh god this is another metaphor that really doesn't work.
Our sketch preview on Monday went well-ish. The audience were 99.9% friends and family which was nice and helpful as they are the most likely to be brutally honest. There's nothing quite like the verbal cold shower of your relatives telling you it sucks. Thankfully they didn't. Mainly because they weren't there. But everyone that was enjoyed it. There's still loads to change and work on and that for me, is the sort of exciting bit that will keep the show fresh until Edinburgh. Once it gets there of course it will stagnate and I'll be sick of it, but until then its all fun.
And what will this year's fringe hold? Well I hope it will bring some forward motion in the career lobby, but mostly I hope its gonna be loads of fun. I'm prepping my liver with small starting amounts of booze, and trying to lessen my sleep just so I can survive as long as possible up there without any. Two shows a day this year, so that'll be more of a slog than last year, but I'm feeling on the ball. Bring it on fringe, I'm ready. Even if my shows aren't.
On a different note, I had a moment that cheered me up tonight. On Saturday, I MC'd the late show at the Komedia. I love that gig, but I was knackered and the audience were too. They were also drunk. Very very drunk. The combination of both of these things made it all a bit of a slog for me. The worst moment being when I got them all to give their last burst of energy for the headliner, the brilliant Danny Bhoy, and the applause ran out of steam before he made it on stage at 00.15am. That's not a great crowd, but also I felt I had failed in the main purpose of MCing, which was to keep them all going.
However tonight, a couple that popped along to Fat Tuesday confronted me in the interval by asking if I was gigging in Brighton on Saturday. They then proceeded to tell me that I had had them in tears of laughter and it was their best night out in ages. Instantly, a grateful grin appeared on my face that hasn't gone away since. Yey for the audience!
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