Sooo fringe

Music to soothe the soul

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I had no tickets booked for yesterday, just as well, seeing as the night before I was in Whistlebinkies right until the bouncers started herding everyone towards the exits. The Louis Crosland Trio were playing from midnight, three sets, I couldn’t bring myself to leave! Yeah, Friday morning didn’t happen much apart from the absolutely necessary stuff. Some washing up was done, well I needed a few clean mugs and a clean wok for another stir-fry tea. It really wasn’t a fringey sort of day….

Late afternoon I spotted the marvellous Carl Marah playing in the latest incarnation under George IV Bridge so, naturally, I had to pop in. It’s back to being called the Cow Shed and I must say I like what they’ve done, and there’s a couple of Stewart’s ales on tap (a tad pricey, but hey). Surprisingly Carl didn’t have another gig to get to until much later in the evening, so we caught up a while, and saw a wonderful wee band Andrea Carlson & the Love Police, like wow, gorgeous sounds! Sitting there in a pop-up bar, good company and a band playing retro swing tunes, mmm, a pure Fringe moment. I stayed for their full set (I’ll definitely be paying more attention to the board listing the acts, as I go past) then headed out on to Cowgate.

Bless my cotton socks! What in the Fringe did I see? That master of spooky storytelling, Will Seaward, yays! Big hugs! One of the loveliest humans who ever played the Fringe (we first met twelve years ago when he flyered me and my friends on the last night of the Fringe for a midnight show – we went!) What a lovely catch-up, Will always did have a highly infectious joie de vivre! Then, not two minutes later below South Bridge was Will BF putting up posters for Moon Team IIIV (just recently started, on until Sunday 24th). Another catch-up with another of my Fringe favourites, a mighty fine day. It was well after nine before I started on my stir fry (then crashed asleep on the couch).

A mention back to the marvellously talented Carl Marah, he’s playing a set of his own tunes at the St James Quarter Sessions on Monday 18th afternoon. It’s free but ticketed, tickets can be got through the St James Quarter app, I’ve got mine! It says he’s playing at the Everyman cinema, so that’ll be me in there for the first time. Oh, and this evening I’m going to check out a free Fringe act that Carl really likes, unlike his friends who he’s taken along in past Fringes! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Must pop out to buy some nice bread, nice bread because I bought some scallops at the Farmers Market this morning, only nice bread goes with scallops.

Toodle-oo, for now!

A little bit of bonkers!

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Today is the day that many Fringe shows with full runs take off, and it’s not bad at all out there. It is rather cloudy but the winds have abated down to breezes, and it’s a nice 20°ish. Pretty good for a scottish summer! I did a proper big shop earlier, think I’m still buoyed up from last night at the Jazz Bar. I had a grand time enjoying some quality blues and rock’n’roll from The Blueswater, always a blast! A little sad though, as it reminded me how much I miss seeing Nicole and the Back-up Crew and The Buccaneers playing in Stramash, ah well, times move on. But back to the present, and the near future, there’s just two more chances to catch The Blueswater this Fringe, that’s on Thursday 14th and Sunday 24th (see the Fringe out with a bang, why not?) at eleven o’clock in the Jazz Bar.

One chap who’s not resting up at all this Fringe is the lovely Alex Farrow (in fact in the absence of Mr Goatley, Alex may be the loveliest person on the Fringe now, hmmm, I’ll have to recalibrate). He’s back with a new show Alex Farrow: New Order, as well as his two usual, hosting Stand-up Philosophy and featuring in Stand-up Science; he’s also directing a play at the Pleasance Courtyard! Busy, busy! He did tell me it’s name when I ran into him last week, but no, it’s gone (there’ll probably be an edit here later!).

Oops, just popped out a while there! I noticed one of my post-it notes had a mention of a free Fringe show starting very shortly, so I legged it up to Carbon on the Cowgate to see God’s Longest, I didn’t actually remember anything about it, but I’d written it down, so I obviously wanted to see it. Ah ha, it’s Aidan Pittman and Hudson Hughes (Dr Dolittle Kills a Man) along with Anand Sankar and Alex Berr doing improv, very surreal improv; this is improv that runs down rabbit holes with manic glee. They’re all very funny and watching them bouncing off each other, wow, pure joy, the situations and characters they conjured up were brilliantly bonkers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And on bonkers, (hmm, does that need re-wording?! nope, it stays) I tootled along to see Will & Noah: Too Much Time on Their Phones at the Underbelly, Bristo Square. Oh, they had me at the opening sketch of skimming stones; as someone who cannot pass by any stretch of water without looking down to find a flat stone, this was hilarious (and please can I borrow that sound effect to make myself feel better about my own attempts?). Will BF has a silly streak a mile long, and sharing a stage with Noah Geelan, well, the pair take silly to new levels, I would give the finding things on the floor of a nightclub sketch as prime evidence, it went there and beyond! Audience participation is plentiful and the day I went the audience were very game. The Where’s Wally sketch was an absolute hoot; and when they started on the final furlong, it was like a mad dash of the callbacks to reach the finish line. Just bonkers! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Toodle pip!

A is for Antipodeans

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Well, that’s the Fringe well and truly underway! The brilliant sunshine brought everyone and their Aunty Maude out into town this afternoon; no doubt Whistlebinkies will be packed all night. Oh, I intend to head there sometime after midnight as the Harry Higgs Trio are playing, with a few others no doubt. Last night it was the Louis Crosland Trio on, well, it started like that, then Harry joined in, and the missing Moanin’ Bone from last Sunday was in, so he got up to sing a couple of numbers. It was a fine time for all!

I have been busy enjoying myself, haven’t even written up my own personal Fringe diary, nevermind any blog posts, and I used to be so diligent with my diary. Mind, my two favourite spots to write it got kinda spoilt and then closed for renovation (most likely destroying any ambiance that Teviot had). I haven’t found anywhere else that feels right, yes, I’m fussy, I’ll know the place when I’m in it, okay?! Tomorrow morning isn’t forecast as good and my first show isn’t until early afternoon, so I’ll write more then, promise. For now, the antipodeans….

After not the best start to last year’s Fringe, this year I choose two definitely brilliant shows to buck me up. First off Laser Kiwi – Everybody Knows, I’ve seen Laser Kiwi’s previous two Fringe shows, they have incredible acrobatic skills along with a wonderfully playful, surreal, mischievously deadpan sense of humour. They’re back in the Assembly George Square Gardens in Piccolo, where I saw them for the first time, it’s a venue that really suits them with it’s tinge of other worldly charm (well, that’s how I feel it). Everyone Knows has so much to delight and amaze it’s audience; the bicycle bit was nail-biting stuff, Imogen’s acrobatics are incredible, the charades sketch was howlingly funny, and remember “gotcha nose” as a little kid? (oh, I loved the gotcha nose bit 💛). Loved it all, walked out with the biggest grin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Hmm, turns out this is the third year in a row that I’ve been to John Robertson’s The Dark Room on the first night of Fringe previews, a fine tradition to continue, methinks (well, for as long as he brings it back, but it’s such a success and Robertson clearly enjoys doing it, I don’t see it disappearing off). Most of the audience are returning fans, looking forward to the games ahead. Robertson plays dungeon master with such manic, shouty glee, how does his voice hold out for almost a month? He is magnificent, holding court, yelling, “Ya die, ya die, ya die!” at some poor Darren. Yup, I’ll be back next year ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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 finishing scenes

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So, how did I finish my Fringe, with a bang or a resigned sigh? Did I make it to the Farmers Market early doors? Ha, best intentions but I wasn’t there until about one, I’d been to a show late morning, hmmm. I’m not saying it was a turkey, maybe a lame duck! The curry I made with the chicken thighs from Brewsters had more meat in it than that play; but as the Fringe is over I won’t give name to the offenders.

The show I took a chance on that evening more than made up for the morning’s disappointment, phew. An Evening with Mere Mortals was a blast, well two blasts, two short plays in fifty-five minutes, not a second was wasted, both packed with crazy full-on plotlines and great characters delivering deliciously sharp dialogue.

Stjälkar was like an early 70s espionage movie (okay, so the eyeball bit may have been a bit excessive?!) Inbound is more of an action movie, and special mention to the Tech here, wow, the effects really added big time to the energy of this section, impressive. The three actors were all very versatile and highly entertaining to watch. Good to know my Fringe-dar was still working fine! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

No time for a proper tea, so I had yet another vegetarian pizza slice from the Tony Macaroni pizza stand at Hunters Square (they are very tasty) on my way to the Voodoo Rooms. Aidan Sadler was performing their show Melody for the last time, only they, and we the audience, decided to go off piste for the last night, so instead, it was chat with the songs from Melody. And it was utterly delightful! Aidan is one of my favourite humans on the Fringe, warm, funny, smart, and a hugger! 💛

Sunday wasn’t a time for risks, I needed happy. Plus I was very tired from being out ’til after four in the morning dancing to The Scat Rats in Whistlebinkies. First up, brilliant and bonkers Will BF: The Last Gun, for one last time that antipodean whirlwind John Robertson with his fuzzed up uke, finishing with the ever delightful Accordion Ryan in what felt like a sauna (he gave a “it gets toasty”warning and handed out some mist spray bottles at the start!) My soul was soaring after that, a shame my body needed a lie down, so no ACMS for me (truly I couldn’t).

And on to the final day, the fizzle out. Absolutely definitely I was going to see Will BF: Moon Team IIIV again; three weeks since I first saw it and boy, there’s been some tweaking going on! (I was aware there’d been a few changes through the run, one of the reasons I wanted to see it again, yeah, a few plus a few more) Unfortunately the multimedia tech acted up a bit, but no mind, it just seemed to add to the surreal silliness of it all. Indeed, a fine note to finish on if I chose to, or?

I was vaguely meandering over to the university area, just flicking mentally through my Fringe as I walked; I remember realising I had only seen Thom Tuck in passing on the street this year (he seems to have developed guerilla Fringe tactics), oh well. Next thing, there’s Mr Tuck in the fenced off chill area by the Pleasance Dome, well, think of the devil and…! He noticed me walking up, probably looking a tad bemused, “Oh hello, are you here for the unrehearsed reading of the screenplay of The Princess Bride?” Er no, but hell, why not?

So I found myself listening to Thom Tuck acting as narrator reading all the directions, with a motley crew reading and vaguely acting out the roles. They got as far as Fezzik falling down dead, it seemed like a good place to stop after possibly one of the best scenes in the film (“never get involved in a land war in Asia”). What a most enjoyable, delightful Fringey way to end the Fringe! Sure, I could have gone on to another show, but my soul felt nicely sated.

A big thanks to all who kept my spirits up through this Fringe, you crazy, brilliant, sweet fools. Missing you already! Toodle pip!

《More analysis on my Fringe this year will follow, and maybe a few Brucies, but I’m shortly back off to Yorkshireland, I shall be a tad busy》

Deep in the Belly….

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This Fringe I’ve been rediscovering my love of Green & Black’s Organic Intense Dark 70% cocoa chocolate. Oh, it’s a tad too intense to start, but then it oozes in and canoodles your senses; I don’t leave the moose cave now without a piece slowly melting in my mouth. A very pleasurable sensation!

And a pleasure it was to see those men of the cloth again and with a new show, Bishops: Farewell Bruce Porcelain. Another very funny show, this time sketches with a narrative running through (well, loosely skipping through). I was utterly delighted that they revisited one of my favourite bits from last year, but I can’t believe how long it took me to twig it was that again!! No, I won’t say which bit, to say anything would give it away, but boy, it killed me, twice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Staying in the Underbelly in the Cowgate, I went to see My Last Two Brain Cells in the Iron Belly, which reminds me, I was rushing to the show, tore up the stairwell unsure which floor it was on (note to Underbelly, it would help to put signs on the stairwell doors through to each floor), gasping I asked an Underbelly employee sat in the stairwell which floor Iron Belly was on – I got a vacant look and shrug back! Jeez, not a lot of brain activity there.

Anyhoo, My Last Two Brain Cells starts with Brain Cell 64,928,460,783 (with clipboard in hand) welcoming us to the first tour of Gary’s brain; then Brain Cell 12 turns up wanting to liven things up a little. Hmm, a brain cell buddy show?! Indeed, 64,928…. is the efficient but dull worker (useful but you wouldn’t go for drinks after work with him, and from here on in known as Clive), while 12 is fun, fun, fun (but you’re glad you don’t work in the same team as him). Oh, and of course these two have a history together…

MLTBC is very silly and surreal; Joe Pike and Tom Hazelden are such a talented pair, the energy of these two is full-on but oddly charming. They seem to pack a helluva lot into an hour, did all that happen in one hour? A crazy exhilarating hour ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Ah, I seem to have inadvertently stayed in the Underbelly in this post. I’ve also stayed with the theme of absurd silliness, it must be something in the air there. Dr Dolittle Kills a Man (and Reads Extracts From His New Book) was recommended to me, oh, such a sweet call! My god, another brilliantly bonkers show – what a great Fringe it’s been for me!

Dr Dolittle Kills a Man just ticked so many boxes: comedy that’s silly but sharp too, a ridiculous plot reminiscent of an 80’s movie or two, a pitch perfect performance, a great baddie, a surprise cameo, oh and great incidental music and visuals (loved all the maps). If this is what Aidan Pittman can do for a debut solo show, well, just, wow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Must fly, another show to see. Toodle pip!

Fancy a mockumentary or two?

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Hey! How’s your Fringe going? Got any shows planned for this weekend? Huh? Can I recommend any? Oo, that’s a loaded question, see I can tell you what I’ve enjoyed, but as I’ve said in the past, even giving recommendations to your closest friends, who you think you know so well, can end in disappointment (and you thinking, who is this person? how could you not love that?!). So here’s a few notes on a couple of shows that I have thoroughly enjoyed, made me laugh my socks off and left me with a warm fuzzy glow afterwards.

Love the small print at the bottom!

I saw it last year, I saw it again this year, it’s brilliant, bonkers and totally Fringe, it’s The Last Gun by Will BF. I had a look back on what I wrote about it last year and I stand by everything I said, so well, I’ll just paste it here….

So, silliness incorporated, The Last Gun starring, in many many roles, Will BF and a couple of sock puppets – what’s the Fringe without a sock puppet or two?. Right from the off when an audience member was urged to put a video in a video player (he was young, not sure he had much clue what he was doing!) the tone was set, daft, a tad retro, with audience participation.

The Last Gun was a film made in 1975, it sunk with barely a trace, never finding it’s audience, this show is a documentary looking back at “the garlic of films – very stinky”. The laughs come fast and frequently in all forms, impressive wordplay and sharp, funny dialogue, the characters in the talking heads documentary sections, visual gags (an easter egg, loved it!). The audience participation bits are excellent, there’s playdough and video-gaming (Will has written operating instructions on the back of his shirt to help the other player along), Will is equally quick and hilarious on and off script. The film is well realised, in fact I’d swear I got it out of Blockbusters in the late 80’s for one of my infamous movie marathons! ☆☆☆☆½

And if you enjoy that mockumentary, he’s done another one! This year’s new offering is Moon Team IIIV on DVD, bless, the young’un didn’t even know to take the DVD out of the case before inserting it into the machine. This looks at the prequel sequel of a blockbuster sci-fi movie made twenty years after the original (are you still with me?) Again there’s plenty of talking heads recounting memories, giving opinions, all very funny and well-realised.

The film itself plays out through the show with Will BF jumping between all the characters, so much energy! Like The Last Gun Will knows his subject well, so many sci-fi references to spot and chortle at through a film with a plot to make George Lucas jealous. A big shout out for Swimothy, he was awesome! This sci-fi like it used to be, funny, action-packed, strangely compulsive, great fun with a bucket of popcorn ☆☆☆☆½

If you’ve read any of my stuff, you may have realised I rarely write anything about plots or twists, personally I don’t like sitting knowing certain points are coming up or that there’s a big, shocking reveal (kinda takes the shock out of it).

Toodle pip!

I know my onions, yes I do

bruceonthefringe 2023, a rant, Comedy, Edinburgh Fringe 2023, Fringe Awards, Sooo fringe, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Have you seen the price of onions lately? Okay, so I don’t pay much attention to the price of staples usually, but when a bag of three, yes, three is £1.10 in the local Tesco’s!! In a bag too (why?), I prefer to pick my own, especially at that price (bagged vegetables have a nasty habit of having the odd dodgy one, don’t you find?) No, I didn’t buy any onions there. And breathe.

I missed the anniversary of the first Bruce On The Fringe Fringe Awards yesterday. I say I missed, hmm, missed or procrastinated the entire day?! The double Fringe there was deliberate, by the way, in case of any non-Fringe Awards I choose to bestow in the future, you never know. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook (and why not??) you may have noticed the latest pic on my storyline featuring flyers and cut-outs, and so, without further ado,

Mesdames et monsieurs, ceux entre et ceux au-delà, welcome to the Bruce on The Fringe Fringe Awards 2023!

Best Epic Fantasy Adventure: Shadow Kingdom

Best Double Feature: Voloz Collective with The Man Who and The Life Sporadic

The Pugwash Trophy: Max Norman: A Pirate’s Life For Me

As the Actress Said: to the Bishops

Best Flounce: Yippee Ki Yay

Best Bedcaps: Finlay and Joe: Past Our Bedtime

Best Blood and Gore: How to Eat a Bear

Best Game of Jenga (ever): Laser Kiwi: Rise of the Olive

Best Docucomedy: The Last Gun

Loveliest Fringe Thing: Mark Twain’s The Stolen White Elephant

Best Fringe Follow-up: Grubby Little Mitts: Hello, Hi

Most Beguiling Poster: Ginzel’s Little Cordoba: A Double Bill

Best Aidan on the Fringe: joint winners, Aidan Goatley and Aidan Sadler

Yes, maybe a couple pictured didn’t make the final cut but they were so so close. And what? No Best Musical Moment nominees this year?! Nope, my favourite, hands down winner will be on Instagram shortly. That’s it from me, and thank you to everyone who brought shows to Edinburgh this August, I may not be real, but for a few weeks there you made me feel alive ❤️

Passionfruit buns and other highlights

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There’s a mutton tagine and pork cheeks slow cooking in my oven. No, not in the same dish, that would be too weird. I prepared the pork cheeks first and put them in for an hour on a low heat (long and low for melt-in-the-mouth tenderness). In that hour I started my mutton tagine on the hob, and had time to make some bun mixture for my latest experiment in baking….

Buns with passionfruit pulp inside! A good dollop of bun mixture slightly hollowed out, some passionfruit innards dropped in, another dollop of bun mix on top. Popped in the oven along with the tagine (cheeks taken out, temperature raised), once the buns were nicely baked they came out, temperature lowered and the cheeks went back in. I tried one immediately, well, I had to be sure they were cooked right through, it was and bloody yummy too – a success!

Oo, that’s reminded me, literally just this second, the pear sponges I made last summer, they were so good! But where did I find the passionfruit and mango coulis to drizzle on top? The combination was quite a highlight of my culinary year, and speaking of highlights – any more from 2022? Well, The Scat Rats as mentioned in my last blog post; rewatching all my vid clips as I attempted to prune my collection recently, my god, the lads are sooo brilliant now, a recorded live set would be awesome!

Just the amount of time spent seeing great local bands last year was amazing, late nights in Stramash and Whistlebinkies, sunny afternoons watching The Kennedy’s Project playing on Waverley Bridge; the Miracle Glass Company in the Old Royal High. Of course, a particular highlight of 2022 for me was seeing local favourites Logan’s Close a few hundred miles away in Nottingham! The whole day was such fun trawling round some great little boozers with an old friend before heading to the Running Horse and seeing the new line-up for the first time (yeah, and the rest of it!)

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was back almost to old normalcy, shame how they screwed up with the Half Price Hut and no app, but apart from those hiccups it was rather good. I did write about my highlights shortly afterwards, but now with some months gone by, what are the bits that still really stand out in my head?

Crybabies: Bagbeard immediately springs to mind (err, possibly assisted by the fact I follow them on Instagram), clever, fun, stylish and utterly charming; Mr Sullivan Brown in red shirt and shorts in Grubby Little Mitts a darkly bonkers sketch show with partner-in-comedy Rosie Nicholls (and lots of eyeballs); The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, sharp, stylish physical theatre and a wide-brimmed red hat; Blueswater playing The Wizard by Black Sabbath, truly astounding!! A rat-arsed Rat performing in Binkies after two in the morning; and lastly, but by no means least, a guy with show that is so much what the Fringe is all about, Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers.

Back with Elsie, there was the triumphant gig at the Voodoo Rooms on their return from southern parts in March. Like, wow, brilliant, but, for me, then topped by two awesome gigs in Sneaky Pete’s in December, the perfect way for Logan’s Close to end such a great year! But, still not my top highlight….

That plaudit goes to the CD of 2021’s top highlight, Logan’s Close on LimbicTV (Live from Aluhpasonics), an hour of raw, exuberant energy in the time of Covid. I’ve been listening to it for just over a year now, still love it to bits. And you too can grab a copy of Logan’s Close Live at LimbicTV by going to their website, just £10 GBP (+postage). No doubt their album Heart-shaped Jacuzzi will be a highlight this year.

It’s late, yes, I remembered to turn the oven off. I may edit in a couple of pics later, I need my bed just now but if you check out my Instagram I’ll put up a lovely, sweet moment from Stramash in August, the two dancing are the other two original members of the Close 🧡

A Fringe Flyerers Battle Royale

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Afternoon all! I’ve just stuffed myself with a very tasty late lunch of lambs liver, onions, garlic, plenty oregano, a generous splash of red wine, a splot out of a tin of tomatoes with an egg fried on top and a base of basmati rice, totally yummy. Ah, I know what I forgot – the paprika! It happens a lot, that or I have no red wine to splash in it. Just having a quick very strong coffee before heading out to a show at Greenside at Infirmary Street, I had a quick chat with the ladies in Guilty! on the Royal Mile earlier on, I was up having a browse at flyers after I failed to get in to see The Delightful Sausage: Nowt But Sea at lunchtime. Ah, but it’s so popular, the Sausage is being Delightful again at 9:15pm tonight, I have my ticket bought ready.

See, I reckoned I’d be able to pop along to Infirmary Street and get a ticket just before Guilty! started – they’ve only gone and got a full house on their first day! Good for them! Is this the Prima Facie effect or was a legal musical comedy always going to do well? Hmm. Like I said after seeing Prima Facie it’s a hard act to follow I wish them well. It’s a drizzly day so I’m happy to stay in and tap away; at least it’s a very light drizzle and its fairly warm out, the flyerers won’t have it too bad and the new bunch up this week are very eager so easily spotable.

Some flyerers like to position themselves at the pedestrian entry points on to the High Street part of the Royal Mile (for a number of years now the High Street has barriers in place across the road at either end for most of the day, pedestrians are corralled through four small archways at each end) where they can thrust a flyer at everyone passing through, Out Of The Blue are particularly notorious for this. There are a lot of Out Of The Blue flyerers about all day it seems, likewise The Improv Musical, loads of them, everywhere. Imagine a rumble going down outside St Giles between them?! It would be hilarious and so ineffectual (well, in my head, anyway).

Out Of The Blue v. The Improv Musical has a West Side Story vibe thing (being song based), let’s Anchorman that vibe up and have the Spontaneous Potter:The Unofficial Improvised Parody and Baby Wants Candy flyerers turn up. Let’s not forget the corporate whore flyerers who haven’t actually seen the shows they’re flyering but will tell you how great they are; will some of the solo show self-flyerers band together in small hit-and-run gangs? All the clowns, absurdists and surrealists will form an Ultra Fringe Resistance, oh wow, this is epic, a Fringe Battle Royale. Obviously John Hastings would be commentating from a high vantage point, and afterwards, everyone will need the barristers from Guilty! to get them off from public affray charges.

THE END.

In other real news, I read this morning that the nominees for The Amused Moose Awards have been announced – yes, another moose, there’s a number of us around. I’m delighted to see that Christian Brighty and Grubby Little Mitts are in there, yay. I bumped into Sullivan Brown (one of the Grubby Little Mitts) this morning and congratulated him , apparently there’s more than just one award to be won, so everything’s crossed for my favourites to win something.

It’s looking dry outside now, I’ll put a few bits n pieces on Instagram then pop out.

Toodle pip!