Last day already...
Writing this up in the wrong order, but today we took a chance on more shows including Afternoon Delight were we saw a sampler of several shows at The Caves, all good. I'll have to check my flyers to see who we saw, but it was snippets of eight shows I think. Really I went along hoping that LetLuce would be performing a bit of their show, but they were not.
The friends scheme that we subscribed to really came into its own today with our Afternoon Delight tickets. We wanted to go, and thought we could probably get half price tickets as we were friends of the Fringe (a thirty quid fee up front before the fest). Not only did this get us the half price tix, but we avoided a mile long queue by having our own special box office. Without this we'd not even have got the tickets in time for the show. Definitely going to do this again next time.
Today we also booked for Get Your Own Back live with Dave Benson Philips. Another friends scheme two for one, so a bargain. This was a fun show, though not really aimed at me. Nostalgia for a thing that I missed first time round, we were both aware of it but too old to be watching. Probably we were too old to be at this show. Still fun, you would like it, though if we'd not already got tickets I would have gone back to see LetLuce again. It was meant that people could apply to be in the gameshow, like back when it was on TV, but they had no children apply at all. Not sure they had anyone apply. It was one of the kickstarter rewards that were on offer before the fringe, but I don't think it met its target. The contestants today were two stand up comedians vs two improvs, and the improvs won by a mile. One of the stand-ups was our compere from the Afternoon Delight show at the caves. He's a teacher by day.
We had the Gilded Balloon 30th anniversary gala this day, which unsurprisingly turned out to be AMAZING, so many comics at one show, some big and known to us, some less so. Corky And The Juice Pigs (part of them anyway Sean Cullen and Phil Nichol) were particularly fantastic with songs Eskimo (aka The Only Gay Eskimo. Other performers included AT LEAST Adam Hills and Fred MacAulay (who both compered), Arthur Smith, Johnny Vegas, Alan Davies, Daniel Kitson, Aisling Bea, Luisa Omielan, Tommy Tiernan, Greg McHugh, Stephen K Amos, Sean Hughes, David O'Doherty, The Boy With Tape On His Face, Barry Cryer, Ronnie Golden, and Jason Byrne. There must have been more, I think there were thirty comedians there.
Greg McHugh was an odd one, returning for one night only with a cult comic creation, camping it up as Gary Tank Commander. I didn't get it at all, we only know him off Fresh Meat on the TV.
Adam Hills and Fred MacAulay were great hosts, not quite sure why they introduced some of the acts from off stage though. I thought at the time they might have pre-recorded some of it so they could head off, but as they kept coming back on this must not be the case.
David O'Doherty was a joy, I'd only seen him on Eight Out Of Ten Cats and didn't think much, but his song was fantastic. Probably very similar stuff to what's been on TV but just came across as magical live.
The Boy With Tape On His Face is not my cup of tea. He was all over the fringe last time we were there in 2012, saw him them too and didn't like it then either. It's sort of mime.
Johnny Vegas and Daniel Kitson were both chaotic. Vegas was great though, seems like he's having a breakdown, hope that is the act and it's not real. We had more opportunities to see him, he played in The Caves the previous two nights and it was announced while we were there, but we had plans. Kitson was super indulgent. I've seen him as a compere quite a few times, but this was not good. He dismantled the stage and threw a camera into the crowd but it still seemed a bit weak.
Luisa Omielan was good, did a song, had not heard of her before.
Nearly all of them came back on at the end for a song called Edinburgh. Clare missed this as she thought the show had ended and went to the loo and then out. Lots of people were leaving just before this point as the show did seem to have ended, only Jason Byrne, Fred MacAuley and Adam Hills were left, in front of the safety curtain. It looked to be the ended, but the band were setting up behind the curtain and it was all a clever distraction. Confusingly after this ended they then showed a video on the big screen of seemingly most of the same performers doing the same song live at what must have been the 15th birthday of the venue. The Gilded Balloon is a fantastic institution, particularly Late And Live where most of these stars had started out. Can't believe I still didn't make it to Late and Live. I swore I would last time we went, and again this time, but after a hard day of wandering about it just got too late.
I'll be back with more from this day later.
💬 At least one of the shows we went to is up for an award
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe in Kent. Wed + father to two, I'm a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, python, php etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy stuff, history, tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.