Super Saturday

The first Saturday of the fringe is always a busy one and this one was no exception. By 11am I was out in Grassmarket, flyers in hand and with a laurel wreath on my head promoting Clash of the Tight Tens. Footfall was brisk, interest was high.

Come 12:15 the room was packed out and I made my introductions before a rendition of Selfie Stick and bringing the first act on. Everyone went down well but it was closing act, Jinx Yeo, that really got the place laughing. The bucket take was good and I had to use the card reader for a second time. At this rate it'll have paid for itself by this time next week...

A little lunch later and I was down on Cowgate flyering for First World Problems and pleasingly few people stared me down with my little bits of paper. It was almost as if people actually wanted to see shows! At 2.45 every seat in the room was taken and the audience were much more up for it than Friday's crowd - who were so reserved they resembled a peak-time Virgin Trains carriage. Come the end of the show the bucket was respectable and comments were very positive.

From here it was guest spot time. 

First stop was an anarchic effort called "Comedians Learning To Play Drums" hosted by Paul Richards at the remote resort-in-progress destination called Tolbooth Market right down the far end of the Royal Mile. Anna and I attempted to play drums whilst talking to the audience, answering their questions and attempting to keep a beat whilst people ran off with bits of the kit or tried to distract us in other ways. Nominally a competition, we lost to Josh Massen - whose efforts on an instrument he had never played before in his life were much appreciated by the crowd.

After some dinner we returned to Tolbooth for a second Paul Richard's show. A Short History of Pop involved us singing hits from the 40s through to the 00s as Paul narrated and did his best to get the audience involved. With no PA set up it was thoroughly acoustic and when the time came for us to perform a couple of own songs we ended up doing them in the style of a whispered bedtime story to match the puny speaker on my iPad. The somewhat baffled audience seemed to enjoy the whole thing though and flyers were duly handed out.

The final spot of the day was at Bar Bados for Comedy Shorts. Six comedians, a decently sized audience and a room that looked like a post-apocalyptic bunker was where we closed the show with Selfie Stick and Clicking Like. All in all a long tiring but rewarding day.