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Edinblog Final Week
🕑 Added 2017-08-28 12:29:53 +0000 UTC Oh god - it's the final day of the Fringe. This one happened to me very fast, although this is the first year I'm not doing multiple full length shows.Friday and Saturday night were lovely - Saturday night especially so because sold out and the excellent Phill Jupitus was in the front row, and then took me out to dinner and put me on his poetry show the next day. So that's a thrill. It's really really lovely when other acts come watch you - of whatever level. It's a deep and satisfying compliment, particularly for someone like me who isn't very good or skilled at the finger-guns/late-night-friend-making/social aspect of this career.
So I was pretty thrilled most of the Sunday day, and after going to Phil's show and reading some poetry (heaps more nervewracking than standup) and then watching the Bugle with Tom Ballard and Al Murray ricocheting off Andy Zaltzman's structured chaos on increasingly hilarious angular trajectories, I headed home for pre show naps.
Sunday night put a bit of a dent in my joy - it was pretty full, which was lovely and most of the show was pretty nice, if a little on the overheated room, slightly wilted side - but the person who volunteered to be sung to decided to use the course of the song to make rude gestures and faces of disgust and dislike at me.
It wasn't done with a cheeky twinkle either. It was a weird resentful vibe and it made me feel very strange. That song is a moment of silliness and lightness in the show, (particularly the first half of the song before it obeys the internal rule of the show and bogs itself down in complicated overthinking) and it sets me up to deal with the tricky and delicate last ten minutes.
It feels like a nice little gift I get to give the audience, and there's something about taking a gift with a sneering distaste that takes the joy of giving away from the giver.
All gifts are reciprocal to a certain extent, in that giving something is a joyful thing to do.
Of course, this show is tricky to do - I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think it would be slippery and delicate enough to keep me on my toes for a month of repetition. It's just never been tricky in quite that way before. A bit of a shock to the system. I'm hoping tonight as the final edfringe show will be somewhat more fun, though Monday night closers tend to be a bit anticlimactic. I'm glad I didn't finish it up last night though. That would have left a bit of a sour taste.
Anyway, then I went and sang Dolly Parton's 9-5 at Massaoke and ate crepes on the stairs with Laura Davis and James Nokise like grubby students and felt a lot better. Let's see how tonight goes.
Comments
"A show so good you'll shit yourself!" is perhaps not the best tagline for Empire.
That's an amazing story, Michael! I hope you recovered quickly from your tummy upset!
My own Alice story from the Fringe ... "M'Companion and I were sat in the holding pen downstairs at the Gilded Balloon. I was tense as always as I HAVE to get to the front. Not because I have to be in front, just so I negatively impact the fewest number of people and can actually fit in a seat. M'Companion had been to the loo and reported she had bumped into Alice Fraser, who was getting changed for the show we were about to see. "Cool" I say, and then she only bloody walks in and sits down behind us. In full show gear. Now, if you haven't been to the Fringe before, this is not an uncommon sight - performers and punters milling around; the turnaround between venues is very quick and it happens. Heck, I've bumped into Ryan, Tiff, Clive Anderson, Jupitus and all manner of other comedy folks when queuing. Hell, I bought David O'Doherty a drink ... he never bought me one back. Anyway ... Alice is sitting literally behind me in full show gear. M'Companion keeps saying to me "You want a photo with her! I'll ask her! We bonded in the loos! We'll get a shot ..." and all I could say was, "No, she's prepping for a show and doesn't need fanboys hassling her." The staff gave her the nod as the previous show let out, and in she went. It was a great show, a truly wonderful show. And yes, I did get to the front. Sadly I also got diarrhea, fortunately well-timed with the end of the show. But it did mean I was sat in one of the conveniences at the Gilded Balloon, only then realising there was no loo paper. That's a story in itself. M'Companion was patiently sitting outside waiting for me when Alice walked up, de-costumed and de-madeup. They sat and chatted for a while and m'Companion told her how much I wanted a photo. "Oh, you should just have asked me!". She had to go and so the opportunity was missed as I was being violently ill and finally got myself out of the toilet. Maybe in Melbourne."
