AliceFraser
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Edinblog Day 17. Disaster Day.
🕑 Added 2018-08-16 14:58:22 +0000 UTC Yesterday (Wednesday) was a terrifying rollercoaster of emotions.After Monday’s Trilogy, my first show back of ETHOS on Tuesday was really lovely, so after a day of lots of running around, writing jokes for Wednesday night’s Bugle and figuring out the logistics of getting to New Town Theatre by 9.10pm, when my show goes from 7.55 til 8.55, and I have to pack up a robot.
About midway through the day someone sent me a very “meh” review of my show and I felt annoyed and disappointed in myself, because it was a fair review of the (below average version of) the show I had done that night, and it’s bad when you let yourself down, compounded when you let an audience down, and worse when that’s then recorded for eternity.
This is the game we play, though. Any night is up for grabs as the sample night for a given audience or reviewer, and the job is to provide a consistently good show. You don’t get off the hook for having an off day if you’re a hairdresser (I said to myself, trying to drag my rational brain back from not enough sleep, early morning radio and mid-Fringe vulnerability).
I had a shower, and then wrote some Bugle jokes and headed in to set up ETHOS. I set up the visuals. I checked the speakers, the lighting state and the little closed loop speaker I have as ETHOS’ “mouth”. The techs came in to give me the 5 minutes to curtain call. I adjusted all the wiring for maximum aesthetic mad-science appeal (it’s the little touches), checked the voice responsive graphics, checked my mic, then ran one test cue to check that ETHOS’ mic was working.
And then disaster struck.
What happened?
NOTHING HAPPENED
My program; the “robot” of the show; the 150-voice-cue options that form the backbone of the show? Just didn’t work. Like. It looked like it was there but every file path told me it was unreadable.
7.52pm. 3 minutes to curtain.
I can’t start late, I have to leave bang on 9pm and jump in a cab to stand a chance of getting to The Bugle by 9.10.
I turn everything off and on again.
7.54
It doesn’t work.
I open a new blank file and manually transfer 105 files in approximate order from memory and set up enough of the triggers that it should work.
8.05.
Let them in.
The show went fine. The Bugle went fine.
I have no adrenaline left in my system. I have been up since 6am. I get to bed about 1am.
Big day yesterday. I hope I’ve run out all possible bad decisions and bad lucks for this show.
But then, today is a new day!
Comments
Richard Dunn
Can we update the old saying to never work with children, animals or robots?
Dean
Ahh. Dammit. It's always the nice ones.
Thankyou, this is a lovely piece of perspective inducing story.
I hope they're happy with their new parents wherever in the ether they are.
A nice person innocently sent it to me in sympathetic outrage.
Nigel Bell
In 2008 (god, 10 years ago), I headlined a Fawlty Towers tribute show at the Fringe. It was the first time the show did Edinburgh and my 5th year in the role - for Tony Nixon (a bloody decent fellow and terrific actor) it was his 10th as Manuel. We were an Australian company and the woman who owned it, and who played Sybil on the tour (and every tour that there might be a paparazzo), was *very* keen to get as much possible promotion done in the time there. We did 2 (2hr) shows a day Mon-Fri, and 3 shows on a Sunday. Saturday was promo-promo-promo. You know how it goes. On the Wednesday of our 3rd week, 'Sybil' decided that we needed to go to a pub near Gretna Green (90 miles away) to promote the 2 nights we were doing there the following week. We got up early, we drove, we had photos taken for the local paper, we drove back - almost on the start time of the lunchtime show. That show went off without a hitch. After that show, there were radio interviews. For Tony and I, the show was very physical and, in that 2 hours, about 12-14 minutes was scripted, everything else was improv based on reactions/interactions with the other cast members, the waitstaff of the venue (always done in/on/around/under a real pub/restaurant/etc), and the punters - and for me, the aliveness required for that improvisation of the character in-the-moment every moment I was on the floor was just fantastic... electric... transcendental... exhausting, every show. The Wednesday lunch show went fine. In the show, to the cue of "you're fired", Manuel races off and comes back with a fire extinguisher. I wrestle it off him. I deny anything just happened to Sybil - much hilarity. One other thing was happening, quietly, increasingly, every day - the restaurant was putting down more tables and more chairs. 'Sybil' didn't mind because she was getting a 50/50 cut of the take. 'Sybil' also didn't do the physical (or the f#cking improv... a separate topic). But Tony and I did, and nearly every successive performance was preceded by a refiguring of our set pieces and the new performance spaces. But, that Wednesday lunchtime show was fine... actually, it was pretty good. But the newspaper critic didn't come to the lunchtime show. Her free ticket was to the dinner show. The newspaper critic came to the show where Tony and I were running on fumes, and running hard because both of us understood the importance of giving our all to people who had paid with money that they had earned. Value back for value paid. During the dinner show, and right in front of the critic, in wrestling the extinguisher from Tony, I hit him in the mouth with it and split his lip. Blood straight down his chin. God, Tony is good. He took the measure of the moment, played it as Manuel, got the laughs, and raced off. Of course the critic mentioned it. She had stuffed her face with free food, laughed as hard as anyone else, and then drafted a wry account of her evening with the mildly enjoyable Australian show. And 'Sybil' proceded to whip us with the review the next morning... but that's a separate topic. Alice, your head's on straight. As long as you're not causing someone's face to bloodily explode and you're treating the punters with a respect that comes from a good show well played (and you do), you'll be fine... after a nice lie down... and maybe a cup of tea... and a TimTam or, or possibly a lamington. Fly high. Be well. - Nigel (ex-Actor).
antzpantz
Do you know what happened to the files in the end?
Dean
I held my breath for most of this post. Knowing how intricate the exchanges are between you and ETHOS - that you were able to pull it together at the last minute, takes some sort of magic. As for the review, well...reviews are reviews. I thought you didn't read them anymore?
