Edinburgh Fringe Programme

Late night ping-pong and other things

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I was about to start typing when I buzzed by a bee, a bee very keen to hang around my writing corner. It took almost quarter of an hour of persuasive wafting to get it to leave, and now I’ve completely lost my opening, dammit. Ho hum, it was good, I came up with it whilst walking down the Pleasance towards home. One of the big posters? Don’t think so. Ermmm.

Maybe, this’ll be the year I go see A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves…16. Yes, this is the sixteenth time so the young man is not quite as young as he was, unless it’s a different young man than the one who started this nonsense, how would we know? Always one performance only, never listed in the same category two years in a row, this year it’s in Spoken Word, hahaha.

Almost a rival? I’ve spotted Stuart Laws as Michael Caine Saying Never for One Hour, it’s when Michael Caine as Alfred the butler says “never” to Batman. It’s listed under Comedy, but if it really is Laws just saying “never” for an hour, well, surely it should be in Spoken Word? Laws has two other shows, one involving puffin murder, yes it’s in my possibilities pile.

And while we’re on the weird stuff, there’s a table tennis tournament happening late-night over two Fridays, two hours each in Monkey Barrel 3. The blurb in the programme calls it iconic and that it features some of the best comedians. Hmm, best comedians doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be any good at table tennis; it will after midnight – just how sober will they be? But also, comedians can be wildly competitive. That’s Ray Badran: King of the Table if watching ping-pong is your thing.

The movies have been used and abused in Fringe shows over the years, this year’s sacrificial lamb is the John Wick franchise. The blurb says that the audience help create the most violent film ever made, so the show could depend on how psycho the crowd are, interesting. I have to admit that while I am aware of John Wick, I don’t recall seeing any of the movies, hmmm; but if you have, the show is Woody Fu: One Man John Wick.

It’s late (I paused for tea, and then a tad longer), just one more, one that I’m really looking forward to! Beetlejuice retold through songs of The Beatles, gets you Beatlesjuice, yay. It’s a WIP by Rob Kemp who previously gave us the ridiculously brilliant The Elvis Dead (along with other non-musical shows that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed). Mind, Kemp looked kinda like a young Bruce Campbell and has a cracking voice for Elvis songs, it’s like The Elvis Dead was just totally meant to be, will Beatlesjuice work as well? I’ll let you know.

G’night, sweet dreams!

A few definite possibilities

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I remember back when the Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme would come out, early to mid June and folk would rush to get a copy to scour through it picking out their must-sees, ready for when the box office opened about a week later. It was all quite exciting, the anticipation. Nowadays tickets are woozily released from the start of the year, okay so I may take the odd peek, but I still wait on the proper physical paper programme to book tickets (okay, so there’s been the odd rare occasion), I prefer to see everything that’s on before I start to plan.

Only now, there’s also plenty of shows announced after the programme is out. Has it always like this but I just wasn’t aware? Okay, so there was always the odd one here and there (the Sleeping Trees and The Chocolate Factory comes to mind, it was a known late add-on to watch out for!), usually they were free or late night shows, probably thought up over a few drinks and cobbled together! Back in 2007 Rhys Darby was over performing in a play, next thing he’d got a slot in the Pleasance Courtyard Attic and photocopied some handwritten flyers, it wasn’t his best but we didn’t care, it was great seeing him do his thing.

These days, of course, there’s social media to keep an eye on for late announcements, like Lord Christian Brighty‘s of a three night run at the Pleasance Courtyard, yay. There’s always an odd extra show or two that’s not in the paper programme at Monkey Barrel Comedy but I know to actually read their emails just in case; and huzzah, John-Luke Roberts is back in the final week with a WIP.

And extra joys, Aidan Pittman and Hudson Hughes, the co-creators of the bloody brilliant Dr Dolittle Kills a Man (one of my top favourites of last year’s Fringe) are back doing various bits and bobs as part of PBH’s Free Fringe in the middle week. Quick edit here: well, he did announce it late! Will BF is bringing back his sci-fi romp Moon Team IIIV to a late slot at the Underbelly, starting on Tuesday 12th. Considering how many changes he made to it within a month last year, it could be an entirely different show by now! Still bonkers and laugh out loud daft, of course.

But there’s always the odd show in the Fringe programme that doesn’t happen, and sadly it’s not happening for Crybabies: The Scaring, they’ve had to cancel their run due to an unforeseen health issue (wishing a full recovery for whoever it is). However, I just saw on Instagram a couple of days ago that Crybabies have a series of four one-off comedy adventures coming to Radio 4 through August! Excellent news!

Well, it’s very late, way past time I should be asleep. I shall leave you with a picture of my cut-out Comedy possibles. G’night!

Starting at the beginning

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Edinburgh is very, very warm, has been for a while now, it really can’t last much longer. I predict cooler, wetter weather in sixteen days time, certainly lots of sudden, torrential downpours; it’s just too nice now, I know how those weather gods think, lulling us into a false sense of summertime. Anyhoo, time to crack on with some Fringey moose musings.

I have fifty-odd possibles cut-outs from Theatre (only one accidentally cut for my mark-up programme so far! there’s always a few), but as I don’t have Hermione’s watch, many will end up screwed up and tossed aside. I thought I’d be way more back to my old usual this year, but it seems different yet again, my old urgency to create structure just hasn’t turned up this year, it’s mildly unsettling. I have them all in front of me now, challenging me. Okay, who’s first for closer scrutiny?

Pirates Carrying Beans sparked my curiosity, the bumpf bit in the programme just says, “Pirates and coffee. What more is there to say?”, erm, well, as they’ve classed it as New Writing, saying a comedy, a melodrama or an action-packed thriller, might have been helpful (I’m assuming comedy). Only four performances at the start of the Fringe, they’re away before the first week is over, aww, seems a shame, just as the party is really getting underway. I think I’ve just talked Pirates Carrying Beans into definites.

Oo, more pirates early doors, The Comedy of Err-ARRS! and err, the four performances are at four different times, did they book late and have to take the scraps of time that were left?! We’ve seen Shakespeare done many ways at the Edinburgh, this time it’s piratical. Continuing on a Shakespearean theme, there’s a short (and apparently slightly drunken) five date run through the first week of Rattlepole! Improv with live music, hmmm, we’ll see.

Then there’s the first week shows; the occasional one runs into the start of the middle week, possibly a tactic to take advantage of less competition, as many full run shows take that Monday or Tuesday off. There are, of course, new shows starting on the middle Monday, always check the dates of anything you fancy seeing!

I have eleven cut-outs clipped together from Theatre as final week possibles, but that’s a looong way off yet. Will my Fringe Fund last out? Next time, some very welcome returns.

Toodle pip!

The possibilities seem endless

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I did intend to post about all the possibles I’ve cut out of the Theatre section of this year’s Fringe programme. Instead I’ve taken an impromptu roadtrip! Well, you only live once, unless you’re a cat, and it seemed like a good idea, still is, apart from langostines I had for tea (tasty but a very messy affair). I should be back in Auld Reekie by Friday, mainly because there’s a band in at Stramash that I fancy seeing.

So, nothing really to say yet, but I did take this picture of all my theatre possibilities…

There are some groupings in there, lefthandside is the start of the Fringe, righthandside are all the last week of the Fringe, go figure what’s in the middle top! There’s clusters for the big venues. I couldn’t resist putting Pip Utton’s Lear at the bottom right, well, he is quite the last word in Fringe theatre.

Obviously, plenty will be whittled away for one reason or another. Some more may be added to the mix, and I’ve not a proper, thorough go through of Comedy yet!!

Anyhoo, it’s very late and i need my beauty sleep. Sweet dreams!

Fancy some Variety with your Cabaret?

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I’ve probably asked this before, Cabaret & Variety and Comedy – what’s the deciding factor which category a show is marketed in when there’s elements of both? And is a music show with traces of humour and pazzazz automatically in Cabaret & Variety? Then there’s magic, and boy, there’s a lot of magic at the Edinburgh Fringe these days! Magic shows are mainly in Cabaret & Variety even the really funny ones, which to my mind could be in Comedy. It wouldn’t surprise me if magic got it’s own category one year.

Yes, I’ve had time to have a look through the first category in the Fringe programme, well, it’s only seventeen pages. So what caught my eye? Which shows have already been snipped from my cut-outs programme?

Top of the second page there’s Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers back again at the slightly earlier time of 10pm; I’ll definitely be popping in there at some point. Also back again, a few pages along is David Alnwick with two shows this year, oh yeah, magic shows, he’s rather good at it! Both with PBH’s Free Fringe but one is comedic, the other horror; Alnwick is a skilled storyteller weaving his magic into his tales, Necromancer may not be for those with a nervous disposition.

Over the page and An Evening with Dame Granny Smith made me laugh out loud. Ah, ventriloquism, so not a magic talking apple, then? Have to say, the picture has managed to hook me, possibly a preview ticket. From the E’s I perused right throught to the S’s til another picture winked at me, that of Surreal: The Mind-Reading Show From Berlin! Intriguing blurb, but it does say, interactive, hmmm, and it’s pricey; maybe if there’s Half Price Hut tickets?

I’m thinking that fifty minutes of Tarting About with Blues and Burlesque one afternoon could be quite fun! Part of PBH’s Free Fringe in Uno Mas, a bar I’ve never visited. Even shorter, there’s a forty-five minute show by The Unluckiest Magician, who happens to be antipodean (I have a strange weakness for anything from down under). Umm, tempted!

The final entry in Cabaret & Variety is the wonderfully titled A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves… 15. Yes, this is the fifteenth time it’s been performed!! I say performed, erm, I’ve never actually seen it. It’s obviously very popular as it’s in the Liquid Room Annexe/Warehouse, that’s a big venue. This year may be the year!

And, saving the best ’til last? Well, certainly amongst the best for this moose, the star that is Aidan Sadler is bringing their self-penned show Melody back again, this time to the Ballroom at The Voodoo Rooms (a better venue than last year). Flamboyant, funny, sharp, mouthy, self-deprecating, I knew all that from bumping into them regularly the last three Fringes, then I went to see the show, and wow, what a voice! There’s a distinct possibility of me seeing Aidan Sadler: Melody a second time.

So there’s some that have grabbed my eyeballs so far; oh, the importance of that tiny pic and show title! Next time, a skip through Musicals and opera and Music. Not that I’m sure whether I’ll be here all August or partly down in Yorkshireland, the matriarch is still stuck in the woods and will need a lot of tlc when she gets out. But I’ll deal with that when it happens.

Toodle pip!

Another Friday evening….

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Were you one of those kids who liked having music playing loudly while doing their homework? Parents constantly questioning how such a thing could be done. I wasn’t, never had the option; now, on occasion, I find watching live bands quite conducive to making notes for blog posts. The music clears away anxieties and excess clutter, ok, so it doesn’t produce one long clear stream of consciousness, more like random pop-up thoughts. If you’ve read much of this blog you’ll know that’s how I roll anyway (and if you have read much of it, thank you!).

What now follows is pretty much what I wrote in my notepad yesterday evening in Stramash while (whilst?) watching the Willie Dug Band. Like the start of the previous Friday’s seven o’clock slot, the place was dead, at least I assume so from the few that were there when I went in at the back of eight. Methinks Stramash may change the band times if this keeps up.

In Stramash just after eight, the band’s not on, must have played closer to the time slot than the Rats did last week. I wonder how many were in? The cord that’s usually still across the stairs is already down, I don’t reckon the numbers really warrant it yet. Stewart’s Citra Blonde is off so I’ve had to go for the Holyrood Pale Ale instead, interestingly I’m not as keen on it as I was, I do prefer the Citra now.

So yesterday the Fringe programme finally came out in solid form, yay. I went quickly through the entire thing last night – yes, quite a feat! It’s going to be an interesting year, many differences again after last year’s covid-embattled Fringe. Certainly many ticket prices have are up by a couple of quid, not unexpected with everything that’s going on in the world, but a bit ouchy to see all at once.

No Half Price Hut on the Mound anymore!! What?! That’s right. Apparently there will be something in place for cheap last minute tickets from the Fringe Box Office itself, no details of how this’ll work at present. I’ll miss standing, watching the display board taking an age to get round to the times I want to see, getting hassled by flyerers, “Are you looking for something to see?”,”No, I’m looking to see whether what I want to see is up there”. With no huge display board or Fringe App, how easy will it be to navigate through whatever this year’s set-up to find the ticket offers?

《the band’s on with Come Together one of my particular favourites. The guitarist so looks like Guy Martin》

That’s right, no Fringe App this year! Never thought I’d get so use to the Fringe App that I’d miss it, yes it was easy and useful, not that I actually bought tickets on it but the Nearby Now feature was really handy. There’s a lot of unhappiness about it on Facebook.

《wow, an extended jam of Sunshine, nice》

I’ve also noticed that they haven’t shown in the programme which shows are doing Friends Of The Fringe tickets, why?!? I have to log-in on my phone and find the show to check, aargh, load of bloody faff for why? Okay, I haven’t made as much use of the Friends 241 tickets in the last number of years but not being able to see at a quick glance is a negative to me.

《didn’t recognise that last song but now they’re on 54 46 That’s My Number by Toots and the Maytals, a favourite of Willie Dug.》

Its all e-tickets now and like last year all tickets bought together are tied into the e-mail receipt. Fine, except when you have four or five e-mails to check through find the right one for the show you’re about to see (it’s never the first one you open). Heaven help anyone who loses their mobile, remember how we used to be fine without them?!

《the Willie Dug Band are now on their last number for the evening, Higher, this song requires an audience response in the chorus, we gave it our all. I think he usually finishes with it but tonight, umm, did I detect a slight bitter ironic tone? Certainly that was a timecheck when he looked at his phone, wanting to get the set over with? Can’t blame him, not many came in at all, probably because it was another very warm, balmy evening so folk would want to be outside until as late as possible; a real shame as the band were good, some great longer jams going on to really get into, I enjoyed the music tonight》

Pint finished I headed home, okay so I popped my head into Binkies but it was a rather dull covers band so I wasn’t gonna waste a drink on them. I did think of going bat watching later but much later I woke up from dozing on the sofa, damn!

And it’s that time again tonight. Toodle pip!

A is for Aidan, Alex and Arthur

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Just fourteen days to go before the solid-form, paper Edinburgh Fringe programme is finally released. Can’t bloody wait!! I’ve tried having a look around it online but it takes so long to get anywhere, and all that clicking back and forth for more information, can’t be doing with it. See, you can look in the paper version and there’s everything immediately in one glance, the blurb, the venue, the dates and all the varying prices, all there together, no messing. Checking online I’d still have to write all the details down, all that scribbling would take a long while and use paper anyway.

Yes, I took a peek yesterday, when I clicked on Browse What’s On it said there were 3196 results; I filtered out the Online shows and it came back with 3124 results; then I took out Children’s Shows, Events and Exhibitions (apparently there’s 199) leaving me with 2925 to browse through. And that’s another thing, I thought I’d just look through to the end of the A’s, then the next time I’d pick up with the B’s – there’s only previous and next choices of pages, no way of jumping straight to page 30 to the start of B (If there is a way it’s not obvious).

Actually the first shows listed are the ones with numerals at the start, about 30; one for the night owls is 2am at The Jazz Bar. The A’s always have a few beginning AAA to get the first listings, followed by a few Aaaaaaaaaargh…. shows (round about that number of a’s, I didn’t bother counting). I noticed Henry Naylor has a new show, Afghanistan Is Not Funny, this time he’s performing himself; and his one woman play Angel from 2016 is back again.

Joys, Mr Goatley is back with Aidan Goatley: Tenacious but not at the Sweet venue in the Grassmarket this year, he’s on at ZOO Playground at High School Yards instead. Also back is one of my finds from last year, Alex Farrow, still with Laughing Horse but in Cabaret Voltaire this time. Oo, I had a disagreement with a chap the other week who said that the Liquid Room was on the left-hand side near the bottom of Blair Street (it’s not, it’s on Victoria Street) he was obviously thinking of Cabaret Voltaire, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember it’s name at the time! Last year his solo show was Philosophy Pig, this year it’s Alex Farrow: Philosophy Machines, he may not be teaching philosophy any more but he’s not ready to give it up yet, and if there’s comedy to be mined from it, well.

Arthur Smith is back, of course. He must be in the running for longest-running Edinburgh Fringe act by now. Hmmm, I must check that out sometime but not right now as its way past my bedtime, so I’ll bid you good night.

Good night!

Heeeere’s August!

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July did seem awfully short but at least it was toasty. Now as the first of the new month ebbs away, I’m wondering how the Fringe got so close without me organising any tickets?! Maybe its the complete lack of large posters everywhere? No programmes lying around the place to be marked up, cut up, saved for best? The town is busying up now but it feels more like a June rather than nearly Fringe time.

I have been looking at the In Person shows on the Fringe website and some ideas jotted down. Interestingly I noticed this evening that Barry Ferns isn’t down as doing the whole Fringe run now, but from the 20th until the end. Did he have second thoughts about his knees handling a full run? I really wouldn’t blame him. And John-Luke Roberts in the programme with another show than the one at the Monkey Barrel, he’s bringing back his Terrible Wonderful Adaptations for two nights at the Assembly Roxy. He’s more like an MC, ringmaster of the bizarre and absurd, in TWA so I’ll pass as I’m seeing him elsewhere, and it is £12 a ticket. That money may be spent instead seeing Watson: The Final Case, also on at the Assembly Roxy.

I have to be very wise with my money this year, what with no three days of cheap previews, no Assembly locals’ ticket offer, no Half Price Hut (ok, I am just assuming there won’t be an equivalent this year). My Fringe fund has never seemed so finite before! Do enough staring at screens these days, so I’m determined to see mainly live shows, there may be a few tantalising nuggets online, but as I’ve always said, “If the rest of the world wants to turn on my doorstep to entertain me – who am I to say no?!” Ergo, the shows on my doorstep get first dibs over flat screen offerings.

So far theSpace venues have a number of shows that interest me and as most shows are just doing short runs this year I’d best get on and book some tickets. Oh, and there’s booking fees to add in, £1.25 per ticket, up to £5 per transaction; I need to book enough at a time to make it worth it.

Ho hum. Maybe I should buff up my ukulele playing and try busking for some extra pennies – most likely thrown to make me stop! I must bid you all good night, it’s rather late now.

Good night, dear hearts 💛

I need some beauty sleep!

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Crikey, it’s way past bedtime, I’ve got work in the morning, oh and the neighbours have just started arguing, joys! Here’s me needing my bed and Will Seaward will have just begun his midnight show, Spooky Midnight Ghost Stories VI once again in the Dining Room at the Gilded Balloon Teviot. Yes, there’s more spooky shenanigans going on, and yay, there’s the return of Louloulou and her boyfriend (whose name escapes me just now) in one of the stories. This is definitely not a show for everyone, but if you like bonkers, daft, eloquently told yarns then it may just suit!

Oo yeah, last Friday night at 22.55 I saw The Slinks in Dexter at the Underbelly Bristo Square; a show sure to divide opinion and bewilder – I’m not what I witnessed but it was whimsical, disturbing, mesmerising, kooky. Hugo Hamlet’s voice was sublime, very much reminding me of early Lou Reed. I have a friend who would so totally love this show, alas I doubt she could ever manage to stay up so late, pity.

Also a pity was the lack of audience, there was myself, two others and a couple of staff sat in. I guess the late time slot and the fact that they’re not listed in the paper-form Fringe Programme, just on the online version, may be contributing factors. If you fancy a trip to another realm one night The Slinks can take you there!

Toodle pip!

 

So a phoenix, a bear and a monster walk into a bar….

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Actually it’ll be myself going to the bar between shows 😊 Yes, the full Fringe programme is out! An intense first check through over three days, eighty two cuttings, several G&Ts and some of teeth gnashing later, I have bought my first batch of tickets: twelve previews and the Sleeping Trees’ Christmas Special. Yay!

First preview night this year will be Nick Helm: Phoenix From The Flames, Ben Pope: Dancing Bear, and Alice Snedden: Absolute Monster. Nicely spaced over the evening and not too late to bed afterwards. Nick Helm, just because! Ben Pope, umm, is it the bear thing? I have seen previous good reviews for him (and who didn’t smirk on seeing the  words pope and bear so close together?!).  Alice Snedden I know nothing about apart from the blurb in the programme but she’s a kiwi and that’s enough in my book to warrant a preview ticket.

20180825_171401And on kiwis, I’m off to the Modern Maori Quartet’s Garage Party on the Thursday night, looking forward to seeing them again (that’s yours truly with three quarters of them last year)

I don’t have a ticket yet for the wonderful Sarah Kendall, but as her previews are £8 I’m holding off in the hope that Assembly will do the locals’ tickets for a fiver thing again (just up to the end of the first weekend I think). There’s another five or six shows in that particular queue; if Assembly don’t come through for me they’ll all go into my Half Price Hut hopefuls pile.

The Sleeping Trees: Christmas Special is just on for one night so I had to, had to, had to get a ticket! Well, actually I got two, the show has the Fringe Friends’ 241 offer on it, so at £15 for one ticket (yikes), it made sense to get the second ticket – I’ll sort out a chum to chum me later.

Oo, I’m starting to get a bit excited now. Only fifty days to go!

Sweet dreams!