1st August - "We Wouldn't Have Come if it Was Funny... Sunny"
Amazingly wake up all bright eyed and bushy-tailed - pass Tom's room on my way to the shower and he asks "When did you get in last night?". "Oh, about 4am". "Thought so...".Shower is one of those bizarre ones that has about a millimetre between freezing and scalding - keep having to fiddle with it and therefore take far too long in the shower.
We go out flyering - weather is lovely and sunny, so we get lots of happy punters. Hold up our lovely banner and get lots of people reading it, which is good. See Jane Bom-Bane going into the Fringe Office - I'm going to the show that she and Nick Pynn are doing tonight, but she gives me a copy of their CD to be going on with.
We meet a lady on the way to the venue who actually saw our show yesterday and is full of praise which makes us feel good - one funny moment is where we are talking about the weather and she says that rain is good for lunchtime shows, as people are looking for somewhere to shelter. She then utters the immortal line "We wouldn't have come if it was funny... sunny, I mean" and we all dissolve into fits of laughter!
The show goes well - slight hiccup for me being that one of the props, a ring, is in the pocket of a bit of costume that I am folding at the start of act 2. I don't know the ring is there and it comes out of the pocket, bounces and then rolls along the floor, very noisily, or so it seems to me! The ring is artfully retreived by one of the cast so it is only a minor problem. I also have a coughing fit in the show as well, and have to try and hold it in during the dialogue.
Show again goes well and we split up - Tom is going to try and get the passes sorted out, I go with Caroline, Russ and Jon to the Fringe Green Room to chill out for a bit and use the computers. I show off my new keyboard in the Green Room, typing my diary while chilling out to the Buena Vista Social Club and sitting on a sofa enjoying the view - I think this is going to become a favourite hangout!
Then again to Frankenstein's via the Fringe shop to get the obligatory t-shirt, and a very funky lighter which is one of those blowtorchy ones. It's also got a sort of perspex flip-top cover and a string to hang it round your neck which makes it perfect as I actually need it for the show, so if I can find it in the dark and not accidentally burn myself all the better! Don't smoke, you see, so I've been borrowing other people's lighters so far.
Leave Frankenstein's early as I'm going to see Nick Pynn and Jane Bom-Bane in their show at the Underbelly. I've promised to flyer for them, so I pick up my first pass of the festival and go and say hello. Nick comes from Brighton too, and he is one of the part-time Black Liars (see the website I do for them). Nick and Jane are doing a music show based around palindromes - things that are the same backwards and forwards, like 2002 for example. And I bet it's the only show you'll see featuring a harmonium, mandocello, Appalachian mountain dulcimer and theremin as well... Pick up some flyers from them. (I tend to flyer for people that don't have masses of publicity people to do it for them - they play music for me, I do admin for them. We all have our skills).
We sit and drink in the Underbelly for a while after the show (the Underbelly used to the be storage vaults for the Library I believe, and is therefore very cyberpunk - concrete walls, damp bits and very dusty, lots of ambience).
I then move on to my old haunt, the Cafe Royal. This used to be run by a comedy club promoting company called Screaming Blue Murder, but has now been taken over by the Nottingham-based Just the Tonic. More or less the same format though so I feel right at home. Darrell who runs it is someone I know quite well over the Internet only, so when we meet there is the usual blanking as one of the acts introduces me using my real name, but once I clarify that I am atually the High Priestess realisation dawns on his face and we have a good old natter. Also add Rohan Agalawatta to my list of new people, and tell all of them about the party I'm organising on the 13th. Stay to catch the Big Value late show.
Decide to have an early night and catch up on a bit of sleep - I believe Late n' Live starts tomorrow so I'll try and get down to that.
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2nd August - "Play That Funky Music White Boy"
Get up, flyer, do the show as usual. Bit of a quiet one - after the show we are told they enjoyed it, but they didn't seem to be laughing much. Maybe they were a bit self-conscious. Very heavy rain on the ceiling through part of the show also, which was a bit distracting.Am also doing some flyering and running work for Kev F who is doing two shows at the Gilded Balloon, the "Sitcom Trials" and "Kev F's Rude Health". A friend at a Gilded Balloon venue is a very nice thing to have - so now I have passes to the Underbelly, Pleasance and Gilded Balloon, which means I won't have to pay to see shows at those venues (as long as there is an unsold seat for me to sit in, so if it's a big name who is selling out I'd have to buy a ticket). This is very good as I couldn't afford to do this otherwise!
I've also managed to wangle my own Late and Live pass this year - a very covetous thing indeed which makes you very popular - it means you get in free to Late and Live (the most infamous of the late-night comedy shows) and you can get a guest in for a fiver. This was a bit of a priority as Christian and Damian of the Black Liars (who I do a website for, see above) are also in Novalounge, who are doing some of the house band slots this year, and I have wanted to see Novalounge play for ages...
Early evening sees me at the Underbelly again - sneak in a bit late to "Year of the Palindrome" as I've been out flyering it. Not many people in but they seemed to enjoy it and the majority of them bought the CD! Then go to another part of the Underbelly (a very post-apocalyptic venue indeed - more concrete and dust than spit and sawdust) to see Matt Blaize and Russell Howard do their two-man show, "Ebony and Irony". We go off en masse to the Pleasance Dome to go to the BBC Stand Up Show Live - good lineup including Daniel Kitson.
I go out to get some cash out before the show, and run into a bit of a problem - the cashpoint swallows my card totally unexpectedly. I'm sure there's money in my account, and after a few phonecalls to my own bank and the one whose machine it is, it seems the most likely explanation is that the card was in some way damaged and therefore retained.
So where does this leave me? Late at night in Edinburgh (fortunately walking distance from where I'm living) with about 25p, a rumbling stomach and no cash card until at least the middle of next week, when the new one will arrive at a branch in town. I'm sitting in the central courtyard of the Dome twitching with indignation - the others are about to go into the venue so I tell them I'll follow on, finish phonecalls to banks (who were very sorry they couldn't help me out very quickly), and then follow everyone else in - thankfully all these passes I've sorted myself, and a little stash of cash I've kept at the flat in case of emergencies, will tide me over.
And so on to Late and Live. It's in a different venue to usual - used to be at Cowgate but is now in Gilded Balloon Teviot, in the rather posh Debating Hall. This is the first Late and Live in the new venue and many people are somewhat dubious that it will succeed there. They are playing old videos of previous Late and Live shows in the box office, and a plethora of comics stand around getting all nostalgic watching these while we wait for the doors to open.
The lineup includes Men in Coats who I have been told I will find hysterically funny. They are indeed hysterically funny. I'll go to their show I think, even if I have to pay! We needn't have worried - before long the obligatory Late and Live mouthy drunk heckler starts up, and it's just like old times...
The compere forgets to mention that there is a band on, and it seems that most people think the show is ended after the comedy and leave. So there aren't that many people left to see Novalounge play - shame as they rock! They do covers, playing around with changing the musical styles of old favourites. We are treated to a lounge bossa nova "I Will Survive", a slightly grungy "Mamma Mia", a very grungy "How Deep is Your Love?" and lots of funk and hip-hoppy stuff including "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life", that "Can't Get You Out of My Head" one with the "la la la, la la la la la" chorusy bit, and "Play That Funky Music White Boy" - pretty soon most people are dancing (I'm not - I've been up and about for many hours now and don't feel up to it - besides I want to watch them play!). There's a bloke with a Gilded Balloon Staff shirt on who is a pretty good breakdancer going for it as well. Cracking end to a very long day.
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3rd August - 6 Hours Sleep in 48 Hours? - No Problem...
Get up at 9am, surprisingly chirpy considering how late I got to bed. Must be the exercise. Walk into town for usual routine of flyering then doing the show. This one goes much better.Check my voicemail after the show to find that Kev F has called - he needs an audience for the Sitcom Trials as he has no less than 3 reviewers in and wants it to be a good one. I get some of Spinning Jenny to come along, Iszi, Paul and Dave, and we have fun. The Sitcom Trials is a show where you see the start of three sitcoms, and then vote to see which one you would most like to see the end of.
I go down a bit early to Year of the Palindrome as Nick has got Damian (aka Damage aka Alvy Ronson) of the Black Liars/Nova Lounge to tinker with his sound desk as he's not sure the sound is right. Damian is a sound engineer as well as a bass player, and has offered to cast his expert ear over things. We have time for a brief chat while Nick is setting up his things. Turns out Damian has also written the music for Ross Noble's show, whicih I must see as Ross is a particular favourite act of mine.
The show features a theremin - an instrument you don't actually touch - just wave your hands at. Makes the wierd ooeeeeooo noises on 50's horror films and "Good Vibrations". The one Nick has was made during the recent Otis Lee Crenshaw tour, and is contained in an old bakelite radio. They're having some kind of problem with it - it got left overnight in the Underbelly, which as I have said previously is a very dusty and damp place. It didn't like it. I leave them twiddling knobs to the sound of very odd, loud, farty theremin noises, and go upstairs to another part of the Underbelly to see Dougie Dunlop and James Dowdeswell do their show.
Good fun - most of the audience, as is usual for the start of the festival, is made up mainly of mates of the acts. It's certainly strange when the acts address most of the audience by first name. The audience includes Dougie's Uncle Angus and an old friend of mine called Dave Bourn who I now find out is directing Phil Nichol's show. James, for some bizarre reason, while on stage rocks back on his heels, gets an odd look on his face as he realises he's about to overbalance, and falls flat on his arse.
The Palindrome how has finished by now and it's the Underbelly launch party this evening but we don't really want to get involved. So Nick and I hang around in the bar chatting about the tours he's done, how he got into the Otis show, what I've been up to this year and so forth.
Am writing this section a couple of days later (as I'm sure you have guessed, I didn't have time at the time!) and have forgotten exactly where in the timescale this picture comes. It's of Paul Kerensa backstage at the Underbelly at the Amused Moose Hot Starlets show, with a wire-frame woman who is the perfect size for him...
Fatigue is beginning to set in - I have been living on "Red Bull Time" for most of today. Have a bit of time to kill before Late and Live, and am beginning to think that I'll only stay awake long enough to go there to say hello to Christian (who I haven't had much chance to say hello to - just a very sweaty hug last night after the show. Never greet a friend who has just spent the previous hour singing and playing guitar in a band under some very hot lights.) He described feeling like he'd just been "thrown in a river".
Go to the Midnight Show (featuring Tom Price, Mark Felgate and Harriet Bowden, all old friends, and someone else whose name escapes me) and start dropping off. Fighting the urge to lie down and have a kip at this point. Eyelids starting to droop. Must.... stay.... awake.....
Cue a very loud klaxon noise from Mark who is on stage doing his act (features ventriloquism and silly noises). It's loud enough to make dust fall from the ceiling and to wake me right up.
The show finishes and we move on to Late and Live. They're having a hard time with a bunch of idiots at the front - Daniel Kitson is on, and has to surrender the mike to Brendon Burns (a very brash Australian comic) who is losing his rag and keeps coming on to tell the idiots exactly what he thinks of them, to much encouragement from the rest of the audience. He eventually asks for volunteers from the audience to throw them out, encouraging us to stop complaining and do something about them if we didn't like them - so, to the tune of the audience shouting "out! out! out!" in unison the idiots are "encouraged to leave". A proper Late and Live moment. A man is paraded on stage as a hero. Presumably he's the one that threw them out. I'm not sure.
The show finishes with Glenn Wool and less incident, apart from another heckler who has been trying to get all the acts to play the drums.
Novalounge return, and this time to a decent audience as Daniel has remembered to tell everyone they are going to be on. Again, they rock big time. Highlight of this evening is the big rock and roll moment at the end where Damage is playing his bass with it laid down on its side, heavy metal-style, and Christian does big guitar solo-type-stuff standing on top of the belly of the bass. Classic.
After the show I get a round of beers in for the now very thirsty band. Can't afford enough bottles with what I have on me, however - they'll have to share. We sit backstage for a while gossiping about stuff, and they are having all sorts of ideas about new songs to do. I get introduced to Fergus (drums), Shane (scratch DJ) and Charlie (keyboards), who has only been with the band for two days but seems to be enjoying himself mightily. Everyone's very impressed with my mobile web designing kit - including the folding keyboard which Christian reckons I have been practicing folding to show off doing it quickly!
We all move to the bar, where Damian already has his usual circle of admiring ladies. Christian gets a drink for me and the band, and goes back to get one for himself but doesn't manage it before last orders as now the girls have spotted him and he has a circle of admirers too - he's a distinctive chap, very stocky with spiked-up hair so they all spot him a mile off and flock to chat to him. They are a pair of charmers - Charlie and I chat while Christian and Damian meet their public. Turns out one of them wanted to meet Fergus, but he's gone home. Never mind...
I must be on my second wind as I'm feeling pretty perky again - it's getting light out so we're off home. We go out, and there is some discussion on the pavement outside about their heights - someone says she thinks Damian looks taller onstage and I agree with her. He seems slightly miffed that we think he's short, and we have to explain that it's not that, it's that we think he looks taller. Christian is about the same height as him (when you include the spiky hair!).
I sneak into the flat at 6am - a bit worried that I might get a ticking off for staying out all night the day before the Scotsman is due to review us, so try and keep the noise down so as not to wake anyone. I don't drink though, so I don't have a hangover to contend with. Mind you, a bit more sleep wouldn't have gone amiss!
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4th August - "Alright, Alright, I Promise..."
Get up, after my second night of only getting 3 hours' sleep. Feeling a bit "fluffy", but not too bad. Perfectly normal behaviour for Edinburgh. Flyering is a bit nippy as it's very misty.
The show is cracking - we get more laughs than ever. We are hopeful of a good review, and we also find out that the Guardian came to see us yesterday so we'll have to watch out for that one too.
Christian made me promise last night that I would get a decent amount's sleep today so I'm not planning on doing much.
I try and find the venue for my party, but can't find it at all on the street it's supposed to be on. It's a long walk too. I've had a few acts say they'd love to come but don't feel they can make it that far out of town between shows, so I think I'm going to have to find somewhere more central to have the party. I've got a few places in mind, so I'll have to sort that out pretty soon. Get the train back as it's quicker. Can't get the bus as that'd take even longer - it's the day of the festival cavalcade so half of the roads are blocked off and the streets are full of people. Weather is now very hot and sunny.
Buy a nice little jasper bracelet in the shop on Cockburn Street I always buy something from.
One show I do have to see today is "Death by Sketches" - my old friends from 1998 Noel James and Steve Best, plus Mark Felgate, Harriet Bowden and bits from Suzanne Fraser. It's in another damp underground venue, this time Gilded Balloon Caves 3.
They previewed it at my comedy club a couple of months ago and it's changed a bit since then - even funnier I think. As you'd imagine with silly, surreal acts such as these, the stream of consciousness they take you on is like a hallucination - they've never felt the need to encumber themselves with reality, thankfully! I suppose you could compare it to the Goons, or Fry and Laurie in places. Don't want to let too much away, but the Lulu sketch is great, and the whole exhibition theme is cool too.
Walk home via Alldays for milk and bread, and start typing up my diary as Mum, Dad and Bill have all been ringing up wondering where I've got to the last three days - so here it is (I know it's a bit of a cliche, but hello Mum!). I'm three very full days behind so it takes me until 2am to type it all up. Well, it's an earlier night I suppose.
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5th August - "Are You Warmed Up?"
I'm sure I don't need to tell you any more how I started my morning.Check the Guardian and Scotsman but nothing as yet. After the play is finished I go off to the Fringe Green Room as I have a PC booked - I want to send out a mailshot about the party next week, and type up some flyers about it. Also check how this diary looks on the "big screen", and am pleasantly surprised to find that someone has already used the PC there to look at the diary! Russ also tells me that someone he knows has seen his picture on here. Nice to know I have a readership!
Paul did no less than six gigs yesterday, and is exhausted and throaty so he's been tucked up in bed to try and save his voice. The rest of us are up for a late night so we book tickets for the Free Beer Show as the lineup is fab - Noel James, Men in Coats and Lucy Porter. Paul did this gig yesterday and warns us that it is very hot in there.
Off to the Palindrome again, and the usual chill out in the bar with Nick afterwards. Jane goes to drop her son off somewhere, and when she gets back the three of us go out for a meal, coincidentally where they went for their first "date" last year. Nice curry.
As we were told, the Free Beer Show is incredibly hot - they're handing out water to the audience, who are fanning themselves like it's a courtroom scene in a western, if you see what I mean! Because of this Men in Coats are not to appear - they're a very high-energy act and would probably collapse in that heat. Kiwi Ewan Gilmour replaces them. Despite the sauna atmosphere it is a cracking gig - Noel in particular has a stormer and I'm glad I dragged some of the Spinning Jenny posse along. Compere gets a huge laugh when he asks us "Are you warmed up yet?" Even I get a laugh - Lucy mentions that two blonde girls sitting next to me are very pretty, and I shout out "What, and I'm not?".
The others are now a bit too tired to go to Late and Live, but I go along there with Vicky Frango and Henrik Elmer, a couple of acts from the Hackney Empire show. We find out from compere Daniel Kitson that, the night previously, he had asked a man in the audience what his favourite building was and he said the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Kitson then has a whipround and raises over a hundred pounds from the audience to fly this bloke to Bilbao to see it! Turns out that this wasn't enough, but apparently an anonymous donor rang the Gilded Balloon this morning to donate the rest of the money, and this bloke is now in Bilbao. That's Late and Live... Daniel rings the guy on his mobile and gets the answering machine, so the guy in Bilbao now has a message on his voicemail of many hundreds of people shouting at him.
Lots of guests with Novalounge this evening - Deidre O'Kane and Rich Hall amongst them. Extremely cool...
Quick chat with Novalounge after the show but we don't have much time for chat as they aren't doing the show again until about the 21st so they are packing all their stuff away to take with them. The show also started and finished half an hour late, so by the time they're down to the bar we 're all being ushered out. Can't complain I suppose - spoke to Christian's girlfriend who had just arrived that day and she told me she's hardly seen him either...
Assist the boys with getting their stuff into two taxis. For some reason, a pale green taxi is considered to be a better size for the double bass - not sure why.
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6th August - Ouch
Show is the best yet, and as it's our day off tomorrow we all feel like celebrating! There's a lot of the cast's old friends from Nottingham in the audience, and we have some food with them in the Pleasance Dome's bar. One of the technical crew in the Dome also has exactly the same Buff as me on, which is cool, and we have a chat about how great Buffs are - see the Buff site.I buy myself a nice blouse for my birthday party next week - I'll have to take it in a bit as it's a bit too big. Pop back to the flat to start doing that - end up having a nap and wake up just in time to go to the Pleasance Dome - I've arranged to meet Christian Knowles who runs the So You Think You're Funny? comedy competition which another Nottingham friend, Christian Reilly, is in tonight. He of the kitten, if you have been reading earlier instalments. Christian (Knowles) has promised me some tickets, and I in turn have promised these to Nick Pynn who is a friend of Christian's also.
I'm halfway to the Dome when one of Edinburgh's torrential downpours start - I have not seen rain like this since the last time I was in a monsoon, and by the time I get to the Dome I'm soaked. On to the Underbelly to give Nick his tickets. Wring out my socks. At least the water in them is warming up.
Then to a restaurant on Nicholson Street to have a meal with the rest of the theatre group. For various convoluted reasons we don't actually sit down to eat until 9.45 and as I'd promised Christian (Reilly) I'd be at the show and had some tickets on me for his friends I only had time for the soup... never mind.
Arrive at Teviot for the show - big Black Liars reunion, only Rob the pedal steel player still to arrive in Edinburgh. Damian and I are a bit late in and can't find the others, so we sit right at the back up in the balcony, on the wall so we can see. I take my socks off and lay them out to dry.
Our boy is on last and does pretty well, but doesn't win. He's quite realistic about it though. We all go off to the Library Bar for a drink afterwards - I'm folloiwng Damian down a spiral staircase and manage to fumble the last step and go sprawling on the floor. Damian immediately goes into reverse to help me up, along with some other people around who saw me go flying. One of them tells me "I just did that!". Must be a dangerous set of stairs.
I'm a bit shaky by this point so I am sat down and Damian goes off to get me a drink of water bless him. Try to keep up with conversation and am also trying to keep a brave face on as my right ankle is now killing me and I'm a bit worried I've sprained it.
People drift off one by one, leaving me, Damian, and a couple of other people I don't know very well watching Late and Live on the screen in the bar. He's not on there for a change - Cat Empire the house band tonight. You also see him sometimes on the Late and Live previous years montage they show sometimes.
I'm supposed to be meeting the other people from the play in the Pleasance Dome as there's a party on there but I'm trying to wait until I'm sure my foot is OK as I don't want everyone to see me hobbling off and make a big fuss over me. About 2am I think it's OK and it hasn't swollen up so I say my goodbyes and go to the Dome, which is luckily just over the square. Meet up with Iszi who is leaving the party, whch is apparently not terribly exciting, so we get a taxi home together. We'll see how stiff this ankle is in the morning. At least we don't have a show tomorrow.
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7th August - Happy Birthday Mum!
Thankfully the foot doesn't seem too bad. Feels a bit clicky and ouchy when I bend it, but it feels much better than it did last night. Nothing some ibuprofen won't cure. Decide to rest up today just in case.So, spend most of the day reading a book. Not terribly interesting reading for you guys, but it was heaven for me. Surprise the rest of the flat at one point as they think I've been out all day as normal. I've just been very quietly in.
Give my Mum a ring as it's her birthday, and we have a little chat. Really want to finish my book as I'm getting very into it, but drop off to sleep again... really needed a good day's sleep it seems!
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