So, today kicked off the first show of the second half of this year’s Fringe; day 12.

I had started the day with another appearance on Chris O’Neill’s ‘AComedyTapas’ over at Opium. Even though it’s just a four-minute spot, I was super charged up for this one today. I went up and delivered a quick-fire ‘greatest hits’, all of which was brilliantly received by a fantastic lunchtime crowd (great work as ever by Chris).

After popping back home to walk the dogs, I arrived at the venue today around 16.40 and in time to exit-flyer the ‘Brown Guys” show.

Flyering seemed to be hard work today… I had hoped that I’d have more people in the room but plough on with a half-full room I must (a crowd that included our favourite Icelandic duo, whose show finished up yesterday).

A nice audience who (mostly) laughed in the right parts! Not the most generous when it came to the bucket though… but that’s the nature of the beast!

After my show we had made space in the venue for my great friend LadyShona to perform the first of two solo spots due to our schedule being empty at 19.45 for a couple of nights. This was Shona’s first ever solo show and on the evidence of this, it won’t be her last (mainly because she’s back again tomorrow night).

The fact that the idea of doing a solo show only came about last night is quite incredible and a superb effort for Shona to be able to produce such an amazing turnaround! This is the kinda stuff that makes the Fringe!

Show number 13 tomorrow… unlucky for some, of you believe any of that nonsense, that is!

Day 11 and also the mid-point of this year’s Fringe run!

I decided to take it easy today and spend some quality time with the (fluffy) kids… this meant that I didn’t make it out to the venue until just after 5pm.

The rain had stopped by this point, although I was secretly hoping for a downpour in the run up to my show, all in the hope of getting folk indoors.

Alas, minor intermittent spitting was all that I got, so the sell turned out to be trickier today.

In the end, I managed 18 – a bit of a comedown from yesterday’s full house! It was a mixed crowd but there were some great people in who were all up for a good laugh (I’m looking at you China, Łódź, Essex and Kent)! The couple from Buxton though had decided that half an hour was enough for them before they bailed (I think the hairy fat poof was maybe too scary for them!).

After the show it was nice to get a catch up with the ‘Funny Lassies’ trio (Lubna, Natalie and Shona). It’s nice just to hear how everyone else’s Fringe is going and also see if we can share knowledge and resources.

I headed back to the venue with Shona afterwards and even ended up doing some impromptu flyering for the ‘Church of Phil’ guys! Well, helping others is what the Free Fringe is all about and it was nice to get across the new flyering techniques that I’ve managed to pick up during this year’s run!

On to the home straight now and day 12 tomorrow!

Day ten of the Fringe turned out to be much less of a challenge than I was expecting.

The Fringe day actually started in the afternoon by catching Bylgja and Sola’s ‘Something Icelandic’ show in our venue! Not only are they both awesome ladies but they’re also brilliantly funny! It’ll be sad once their run finishes tomorrow.

Okay, so I had anticipated today being a difficult sell, a mixture of the weather and it also being the day most acts take off… with this in mind, I had hired the services of Josh McAuley, comedian and flyer-extraordinaire! And my did it turn out to be a great decision!

Josh was busy working on the crowd on the side of the Mile closest to the venue, myself on the opposite. The pissing rain was actually working in our favour – instead of scaring people away, we were able to engage and entice people into our dry venue for some top stand up!

It worked, it actually bloody worked! The room was absolutely packed, standing room only!!! This on a Monday and also the third time I had been in this situation in the last four days!!!

And the show? This was one of my best of the run! A fabulous audience and a room filled with warm laughter and engaged faces. This was the kind of show that leaves you with that warm feeling and a buzz that stays with you long after the show has finished!

I often hear people describe those who perform stand up as brave but the reality is that almost all of us are attention seekers. The attention we seek comes in the form of laughter and when that happens I don’t think there is a better feeling in the world.

Today I love my job. Who knows what day 11 will bring!

Day nine of the Fringe and the weather really did put a dampener on things for everyone, it seems.

Despite the rain having stopped a couple of hours before my show, the lack of activity on the Mile (the stages were all cancelled today due to the downpour) meant that this one was a hard sell today.

One guy had approached me when flyering to tell me that he was here for my show and had been following my blog (so “hello” if you’re reading, feel free to comment below!). …but it was really slow going.

I stayed out flyering a few minutes past the start time in the hope of grabbing a few extra bodies… I think it helped a wee bit…

I had a dozen-strong audience, a bit of a comedown from the dizzy heights of Friday and Saturday evenings but there was definitely a nice quality to those who made the effort. People laughed in the right places and I was able to perform the show in 54 minutes, meaning I finished on time.

It was nice getting to know the duo behind the “Church of Phil” show (starting in our venue tonight) after I’d finished my own one. It does seem that we’ve been blessed with a venue full of top folk.

So, on we go to day 10, the Monday most acts take off, but for me it will be just another working day! Hopefully the narrowed selection of shows will help me and a big crowd might appear! We shall see…

Oh what a day…

I headed up to the venue around 4pm, the football had left me in a somewhat jubilant mood…

Today is renowned as the easiest day to fill a Free Fringe venue and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Thanks to a big group of my football friends turning up, the venue was packed full 15-minutes before the how start time. Even with added seats and standing only room, we had to turn people away!

The room was rowdy, this became even more evident during the warm up. The noise level had the potential here to become an issue but a couple of stern words seemed to have done the trick. The big issue seemed to be a Glaswegian guy and his two friends at the back.

After one of the opening jokes, based on my long standing membership of the Liberal Democrats and my being gay, he had shouted out to the room “I don’t know which one’s worse”. He was quickly reminded that it was 2018 and that if he had an issue with either then he was more than welcome to leave (well, that’s a politer version of what I actually said).

Slowly it seemed we were getting back into some kind of rhythm until once again it was spoilt by our guest at the back of the room. Eventually he was asked to leave – people in the room were growing as impatient as I with his heckling, which maybe would have cut the mustard in the 1970s.

Finally the show could begin. It’s just a shame that it had taken half an hour for this to happen. I’ve got to admit that I had pretty much lost the plot during that time.

Once I had a room full of people up for comedy, suddenly that old stand up instinct returned. The second half of the show was great fun – it was the kind of show that I had hoped it would all be tonight!

The Fringe certainly does have its challenges, especially during free shows. For some reason some people think that because they haven’t paid to get in that they somehow have the right to take the piss. Not on my watch…

I really did need a big drink tonight!! On to day nine tomorrow!

You heard it here first, folks: standing room only!

So… show number seven and one that I’ve been really looking forward to. The show’s 6.30pm start time means it sits at a great time for the Friday evening crowd.

I anticipated there being a big crowd tonight… a combination of the start time and also the interchangeable weather should draw people indoors.

I was out flyering the Mile beforehand – my patter is getting much better, even sharing jokes with the passers by! I was then ably assisted for the final fifteen minutes by my partner, his bestie and his work colleague… it seems that teamwork paid off…

As I wandered down to the venue I was delighted to see it was busy… when I walked into the room I could see it was more than busy: it was standing room only!!! We had to bring in extra chairs and even then five people had to stand!

And the audience? Superb! Everyone in the room was clearly up for a night of comedy and I was more than happy to deliver them just that! The lovely mother and daughter from India (not so impressive now, eh, Portsmouth and Sheffield!), even a couple of Poles (okay, they came with me!!!)… and a really good dose of locals!

Despite having performed stand up for years, I think tonight’s show is right up there with my best ever (it might even be the best). It just seems to be so easy when you have a big audience in front of you, especially one who has turned up looking to be entertained!

It’s 23.25 when I’m writing this and the smile still hasn’t disappeared from my face! Even after all these years, comedy is still the best drug I know.

Day eight tomorrow – more of the same, [pretty] please!

And so onto day six of my Fringe run and a pretty nice day in Edinburgh really.

We’ve now managed to get together a daily schedule for our venue, so now when people wander into our venue they can see everything that’s coming up!

Before my show this evening, I was a guest at Matt Duwell’s ‘Stand Up: Edinburgh’ show – showcasing comics with a local connection. I did a ten minute set, mostly of old material, that got a few laughs from the handful of people who made it along.

I’ve given up on the idea of having a flyerer, they seem to be a pain in the arse and have issues with turning up! So flyering by myself again… it started a bit slowly but I managed to pull a decent sized crowd in by the time the show was about to kick off.

The show? Well… it actually started really well… the warm up was great fun as I got to know the 20 strong audience. Over half of the attendees were locals – finally! The remainder of the room made up of English (they get everywhere, yeah!?), a lone Frenchman from Avignon (try not singing “Avalon” when you hear that), a two Canadians and a couple of Americans.

I could tell early on that the Americans were going to be a potential problem: they interrupted me twice whilst trying to explain the UK version of Boston to them…

The show was going alright but our American friends were struggling to keep quiet… it was getting distracting… then the Canadians decided to open a packet of crackers (loudly, sorry, LOUDLY) during one of the tricker stories to deliver: momentum now officially lost.

It didn’t get any better, the Americans were getting louder and even interrupting me mid-story… I’d had enough: the Americans were asked to leave – I’m amazed that I managed to remain polite throughout.

I felt like I limped over the line today – I made a decent start and looked on course for a great finale but ultimately I fell short in the end. I over-ran by two-minutes too.

Sod it, day seven tomorrow and we go again…

Okay, I think the title of this post is slightly misleading. ‘Wonderful Wednesday’, as I have so declared, was just that in regards of bums on seat. The problem was: they were far too quiet!

Due to the day job and heavier traffic than usual, I only made it to the venue a little over an hour before the show began. My new flyerer was meant to meet me there but she too had had a dose of whatever it was that made the previous one disappear…

So, fly(er)ing solo I was again. It started a bit slowly but picked up. I felt like I’d have an okay crowd (to be honest, I panicked at one point thinking I’d be performing to my bestie only)… turns out I was wrong. Today my room was not too far off being full!!

The crowd itself were warm but not the most responsive. There were also a few people who were clearly enjoying themselves but almost seemed scared to really let it all go! I ended up doing just over 50 minutes – the lack of response at the warm up assisting this.

Not a bad bucket collection – I might yet break even!!

I ended the night with some postering around Cowgate area – the posters adorned with customers’ reviews from the Fringe website (who needs official reviewers – the opinion of the punters is what really counts)! I made sure I got one next to Daphna (without asking, I know she approves of such placement!!).

Home now for a sleep and then it’ll be on to day 6…

So here we are, day four of my Fringe run and the day dubbed by many as “Tricky Tuesday”. So named due to it being the second of the two 2-4-1 days…

I started the day performing at Chris O’Neill’s ‘AComedyTapas’ show over at Opium. The premise is that a whole bunch of comedians (up to 12) get 4-minutes to perform and plug their show. A great line up today, including the fabulous Mandy Knight – I performed a gig with her years ago… sadly, she didn’t remember me (cries in the corner…).

It was a lovely wee room with people all up for a laugh… managed to perform and sell my show within 3.30 minutes! I’ll aim for the full four next time!

Added bonus was the fabulous caricature drawn for me by “Van Gogh Find Yourself” (even if he did spell my name wrong!!)

After a bit of flying on the Mile I took a wee break to nip home and walk the dogs. When I returned I discovered that my flyerer hadn’t shown up. Nice of him to communicate this to me… turns out he’s as shit at communicating as he is flyering!

That meant I was there to go solo and flyer all on my lonesome… I’ll be honest, I actually [finally] started to have some fun with it. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the numbers today: easily double yesterday’s ten!

And the show? It was great fun! I enjoyed performing it immensely! A really responsive (and generous) audience! We had people from the States, Iceland, Wales and England (from Leicester and “near Oldham”!).

I left again today with that buzz. It’s the buzz that makes me continue to perform stand up comedy… To be honest, I don’t know anything else that can give me that buzz…

Let’s hope for a ‘wonderful Wednesday’ as I roll into day five!

Ahhhh, day three of my run and the anticipated quiet day turned out to be just that…

The first Monday and Tuesday are notoriously quiet on the free side of the Fringe due to the 2-4-1’s being offered on the paid shows. Today lived up to that notoriety.

Still, at least double figures were (just) managed! Two Austrians, two pairs of Americans and two pairs of locals all joined me for ‘Heroic Failure’ take three.

A pretty quiet audience overall – not that they looked to not be enjoying themselves, although I think the heat of the room does seem to be sapping the life out of the punters.

Admittedly, it can really be a bit of a chore in such circumstances. It’s hard to be funny when your audience is giving you nothing to work off – evident by the show’s running time, clocking in seven minutes shorter than the scheduled hour (something a paying audience would care more about, but every expense seemed to be spared from this crowd, noted by the pennies that made it to the bucket).

Pah, it’s just one of those things. The Free Fringe is always gonna have its ups and downs.

I managed to print off some proper signs for the venue, now people should hopefully be able to locate venue 545 without hiring the services of Sherlock Holmes!

I cheered myself up immensely by making the annual trip to see Stephen K Amos at The Stand 3 with my partner in crime! Top marks for Mr Amos, who gave us an extra 30-minutes for the money.

Time to sleep off the ‘misery Monday’ blues and look ahead to ‘tricky Tuesday’, when I’ll be making a guest appearance at ‘AComedyTapas’ at 13.15 and back for round 4 at 18.30!