I’ve been going to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s biggest arts festival, since 2010. It’s so big and yet the scariest bits are the small intimate moments with the frequently tiny ‘crowd’, for want of a better word [like audience], at the shows us new-ish/up-and-coming/still-up-and-coming acts do.
The first show I ever did in Edinburgh was at 11.30am in a barely converted hotel room to an audience of two, who were both reviewing the show for major magazines. I got four stars! In total.
This year I’m only doing a week of shows, and I’m splitting the hour with my good buddy Alison ‘Ginger Beer’ Spittle, instead of doing a full show for a month like usual. The reasons for this are complicated and boring but more-or-less amount to our venue getting hijacked because of a disagreement about toilets, and whether or not venues should have them.
It’s gonna be fun! Our show is at 2pm so we’ve got lotsa time to dick around after the shows and play tiny, tiny games of backgammon. I got a tiny, tiny backgammon set recently. The dice feel like rolling air!
I’m in the airport at the moment, I’m really hoping they let me bring my bag on the plane. It’s a little big, but not due to over packing; it’s just got big steel braces running up the back. I’ve attempted to crush the cloth down the make it look smaller, but the steel is uncrushable, at least with the tools I was able to get through security.
I’m flying on Aer Lingus Regional, which used to be operated by Aer Arran [RIP] and is now run by Stobart Air, the shipping dudes. I’m not jazzed about that idea, as I’ve heard from truckers that Eddie Stobart is a bit of a shyster [is that a slur on Jews? It sounds like it might be, apologies if it is, apologies for bringing it up if it isn’t.]. But I don’t care! They have propeller planes and that’s all that matters to me. Vroom vroom! They’re like sideways helicopters!
Man, I’m hitting these mints hard in gate 333. I’m gonna be buzzing on the plane. I was hoping to get a few hours sleep on the flight, but unfortunately it only lasts eighty minutes.
I had a nice walk around the Botanical Gardens with my Da before he dropped me to the airport. More on that as I have it.
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I’m doing a show in the Tiger Dublin Fringe in September, look at it and consider coming on www.fringefest.com!