Edinburgh Festival - 17th August 2013

17th August 2013  Pleasance Court Yard 

16th show in the run

Length 55mins

There is something unique about a Pleasance Court Yard audience on a Saturday Night that is impossible to replicate anywhere else. That distinctive blend of bustle, excessive drunkeness and random choice of show exhibited by an audience, coupled, at times, to a show wholly incompatible with their taste. That mix of confusion, anger and indignation when they have chosen badly.  At times, playing a Saturday night crowd in Edinburgh, can feel like flushing a blocked toilet. There seems to be a blockage somewhere down the line and no matter how hard you try you cannot shift it. 

My venue is a small room. The doors are opened five minutes prior to show time and this is more than adequate for the audience to get in. I stand behind the curtain and listen to the audience as they come in. Whenever I hear the audience come in and then go out to get drinks/ use the toilet in the five minute period. Whenever they cannot even sit on their arse for five minutes, I know there will be problems. I can hear one group coming and going. I can hear them go out, come back in, become disorientated and shout at their friends to locate their party. I can hear their unsuitability for this gig.  Just as one person comes back so another seems to leave. Eventually the all seem to be briefly in the room. We start.

During Gig

A sell out audience. The audience reception is warm but there is definite back/front divide with the front being the warmer. I greet the audience “Hello, how are we?” There issue three separate complaints. 

“It is is hot” - it is hot, I can confirm that. It is already styfling at the start of the gig even with the air conditioning on.

A man complains “I am drunk”. - He is drunk I can confirm that, and not in a good way.  He complains in a pained way as though it isn’t his doing. 

“It is cramped.” - Aren’t all fringe shows? 

There is no lighthearted quality to these complaints. They are heartfelt and there is an edge of anger to them. They give the hint that they don’t expect me to be merely entertain, they expect me to fix their day. The group at the back, who I suspect were the people going in and out, start chatting amongst themselves. They are middle age and I can sense their drunkenness. It is a drunkenness which even as they speak, is mutating into something more ugly. In the intense heat, a malaise is setting in. They are becoming angry and ill simultaneously. It is not unrealistic to expect that one of them will vomit/faint/die of dehydration/start a fight.  Despite the stakes tonight, I feel very relaxed. More relaxed than I have at any point this run. This is my space now, it is my run and I will deal with whatever happens when it happens. I stamp on the talking right away. I tell them I won’t stand for it and that they should sit back and enjoy the show. I don’t do this too aggressively, I don’t want to put more aggression into the room, but they need to know the ground rules from the start. They shut up. I don’t think it has put tension into the room but the start struggles to catch alight. It is only when I do the lottery stuff that it catches. Maybe this will be OK. The “We are all lucky” goes down well but I have a feeling of walking on egg shells. I insert a new routine about Amanda Knox. I ran this in at a few late night shows last night and it starts strong but then wanes. I don’t really think the routine’s to blame. The audience are suspicious of me period. 

“Mirapex” really gets little and the “Just a number” section fails to elicit anything either humerous or dramatic. I think this is the first time it just hasn’t worked on any level. 

As I launch into all my sugar material, there is movement at the back. The middle aged group at the back start leaving. Just as I do the line “I am out of here” one of them goes “so are we” It reads funny on paper but it got nothing at the time. I joke around the idea that they were waiting for an appropriate line in order to leave. Just as I get things moving again so another two members of the group get up to go. I think in all seven leave. I comment on their delayed response to the others leaving. One of this second group shouts some insult in a thick scottish accent that even I cannot make out and then departs. What did he say? We will never know. I hope now having removed this malevolent presence the audience will now build but it is a futile hope. 

The “Dentist” and “Hairdresser” provides the strongest bit of the gig but they can’t inject the momentum. “Dad Embarrassment” doesn’t work. It is usually one of the more emotionally interesting points of the show but it doesn’t connect.  I have remained very relaxed throughout the gig but now I am aware of delivering the material a little too aggressively in a futile bid to lift things towards the end. I try going into “Tipping Point” in a more conversational way and although this engages the audience initially it doesn’t turn things around. 

I really am trying to play this gig for the minority of them who are enjoying it. If Edinburgh is about finding your audience, then I suppose you also have to loose other people’s. Tonight I am mainly shedding other people’s audiences. Everyone is very hot now. People have fashioned fans out of flyers and brochures 

I am still confident that despite the adverse audience reaction I can get them with the end. I believe in the end. Problem is no one has told the audience. 

“Probability” is the last time that I get any strong reaction from the audience. The whole end piece about “Nate Silver” falls flat and it is the the first time since I reworked it that it hasn’t worked. This ending has the ability to lift even a mediocre gig and thus its failure is a damning inditement of the audience’s lack of trust in me. The end is a rant and there is something inappropriate about a rant today. Perhaps they believe I am actually losing it? But I don’t feel angry, I just feel disappointed. I have to loose myself in the rant a bit and I have been trying to keep the gig personable up until now. Perhaps in losing myself in the rant, I loose the bond with the few of the audience who are on board?   I knew this gig would be a struggle but having got it through to end i thought i could lift it up. I reference the people walking out into my rant. This gets a laugh but perhaps also convinces them that I am seriously losing it. And that is it the end of the show. I almost don’t know what to say. “Dunnah” That was the big ending. You missed it folks because you don’t like my comedy.  The venue staff think I may be annoyed at the people who walked out but I am just disappointed I couldn’t turn it around for those who remained. 

After Gig

I tried to perform the shit out of this today. I feel it was my best performance despite the reaction of the crowd.  

The trouble is that as the festival goes on, so the show gets more honed, the material gets more slick and I get more confident in it. Thus my ability to force something down the throats of a reluctant audience increases. But with that ability comes the anger of those who are being force fed. Or is that not a positive thing? I don’t know.