Its cobbles and rain time

So we are in Edinburgh. It took one big car move to do so; Ashley seems to have moved everything she owns to the mews house we rented.

The place is awesome I have to say, though it’s full of antiques and expensive art work and there are two Samurai swords on a table in the hallway, just in case one of us develops schizophrenia and goes mad on the Royal Mile and slashes a big troupe of amateur actors, which can happen.

Our first day here we got the flat organised, we got the flyers and posters in and we checked out the venue. My venue at the Pleasance Dome was all up and running, I couldn’t really see my posters anywhere but I always get paranoid about that. Meanwhile, there are GIGANTIC posters of some comics off the telly gracing the main area up at Bristo Square, I was sorely tempted to draw big moustaches and colour in teeth but refrained.

Edinburgh council now charge you per poster that goes up on their precious boards across the city, which makes me insane. I know they have to monitor the amount of posters that go up, but the charges are ludicrous. It means only the big named acts with a TV presence can afford to do this, therefore the smaller shows in smaller rooms will suffer.
Comedy is big business, there are now career comedians who decided on comedy as a chosen path, they get a technique, they get a big agent, they get some decent writers and they get on with job of being famous.

It isn’t an art anymore; it’s a ‘career’ its much like the way some pop bands are packaged and presented, it doesn’t come from the heart, it doesn’t come from treading the small rooms above a pub, it isn’t honing a deep need to voice your words, it’s all about the ability to be young, fresh and getting your face on telly. Good on them, but it does feel hollow at times, when you see clones and clones of skinny blokes in an interesting Trilby hat or with hair that looks raped running about the stage all saying much of the same thing! Then again we had a swathe of blokes in working class togs all being Billy Connolly for a decade, so its swings and roundabouts all round.

So, all that aside I am enjoying the festival, my first comedy show had a reviewer in which was scary for me as I hadn’t actually wrote or performed the show up till that point. That will teach me!

The kids show has been very eye opening for me, firstly babies love comedy shows, they like to crawl around the stage on their belly and small kids either LOVE singing or LOVE screaming…who knew?

Ashley and I have been on a steep learning curve with that situation, but she loves kids and it shows, though it is hard to entertain kids when a baby is choking on a wooden spoon you gave it to bang a drum with.

Ok Edinburgh BRING IT ON!