Edinburgh Festival 31 July 2013

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2013

31 JULY 2013  Preview Pleasance Court Yard 

1st show in the run

Length 55 minutes.

Age range mostly young and female.  Handful of middle aged people: couples and men on their own. One couple Australian and one woman Polish. (I don’t search out this information but this audience just volunteer it) I think I accidentally give off the impression I am friendly? 

Before Show

An air of unreality grips me. This isn’t going to start is it? The festival hasn’t started yet. How can it have started, it is July? The festival is August. Everybody know that. I have been to the venue, I have met the Tech staff. It still isn’t happening. I have walked past my poster, I have seen people flyering my show and it still isn’t happening. I have watched people  queuing up to see my show and it still isn’t happening. I’ll see you next month in August when it is happening. 

Three themes will emerge tonight. 1. I haven’t fully learned the show. 2. I will slot in brand new bits some of which will work and some of which are never destined to see the light of day again. 3. I will need the toilet (an on going issue with getting hydration levels right - this is as scientific as this job gets).  

It is happening now. I am about to start.  Even now as I do an off stage announcement it doesn’t seem real.  The offstage mic is turned up really loud and as I do the announcement it shrieks with massive feedback. 

During Show. 

My intention is to start the show without any preamble but I have to address the feedback. It seems to break the ice. 

I am very pleased with the start “we all gamble”  (missed opportunity to work in the dodgy off stage mic though).  It goes better than in any previews. I do a new bit about getting a tip off a stranger and this goes well. (pleased) it has driving rhythm to it.

I am not happy about a section on “Bookies Shop” though, this bit is a rambling shambles. It feels like a routine written by a committee. It will have to shape up or fuck off. 

There are two women in the front row. A taller blond women who doesn’t appear to be enjoying it and a smaller red (dyed) haired woman who claims to be Polish but has a hybrid Scottish accent. Every time I mention anything remotely contentious autism, dyslexia, debts, relationship breakups, scratchcards, dentists, the issue seems to have disproportionately touched the life of the blond woman. The Polish woman comforts the blond  woman and says “oh never mind” as though I have touched yet another raw nerve. There are interruptions a plenty from this pair. There interruptions are both welcome and not welcome. It helps break the ice but it also breaks my tenuous grip on the running order. Things really go awry at the end of the “ Compulsion” Section which I call unofficially “Airport” section. This is about 30 minutes in. I should go onto “Scrapyard” which starts a whole section about kids and their attitude to risk, responsibility and work, but I don’t go into that I skip straight to "Tipping Point". This has one of the brand new bits which is about Hugh Grant and it works and I am happy about this. It will be built upon in the coming days. 

I get to the end of the show quicker than I expect ( I have no idea that I have missed out about three main routines).  I even put the microphone back in the stand that is how near I am to the close. I am running through a checklist of punchlines in my head as I near the end of the show. There is one on Steve Irwin. Why have I have missed that out? Ah because I missed out the whole routine. Right. Shit.  Why did I miss out that routine? Because I missed out the whole section.   What to do? End the show without them or go back and try and work them into the end? I don’t know what time it is. It may have come up way short (not as it happens. I could have ended on a respectable 50 minutes then and there). I decide to do them. It is a mistake they don’t really work there. Instead of a developing train of thought they seem a total non sequitur. It is like having a DVD extra section at the end: Here is the stuff we cut out earlier.  

At the applause at the end a bald  man on the front row shouts “No, Thank You” in response to my “thank you for coming” unorthodox and pleasing. 

After Show

Shouldn’t have gone back and done the missed parts. It ruined the narrative arc and made next to no sense at the end. The audience don’t know but on a deeper level they do of course know. Audience wisdom is largely a subconscious one. 

Reason for missing out essential parts of show. 

Not knowing it well enough.( mainly this)

Excitement at new bit about Hugh Grant

Odd dynamic in front row between two women. 

Highlights of show

Trying to Understand Addiction.

Compulsion 

Dentist (in particular Hairdresser bit).