Bank Holiday Monday is usually a horrible anti-climax. Not least because it isn’t a Bank Holiday in Scotland – though gleeful traffic wardens are able to take advantage of any English car owners up here, who are not aware of this discrepancy. Given the fact that this wasn’t even a particularly busy weekend anyway I was not expecting much of my last show. I was thinking that maybe thirty or forty people might come and was preparing myself for the inevitable anti-climax.
So I was delighted to find out that over 80 people had booked tickets and I decided to relax and have some fun. I was playful with the material for the first time in ages and was finding new jokes and thoughts were coming to me. The show is much better when I am laughing along at points as well and when my glee at my own pathetic childishness is undisguised and genuine. I think it might actually have been my best performance of the Festival, which was an unexpected bonus.
Then it was over. My twentieth Edinburgh show and my 15th Fringe. Things have certainly changed up here since 1987 and this year sees the departure of Christopher Richardson at the Pleasance (where I have performed all but one of my non-student shows). I feel I would like to come again next year, which is unusual at this stage as it’s normal to feel fatigued and pissed off with the whole thing. Whilst there are things that I am a little aggrieved about – such as the escalating expense and the way that performers are being ripped off by everyone, especially the landlords who charge such high rent: wouldn’t it be nice if this city acknowledged the enormous economic boost that the Fringe brings to the city and didn’t try to rip us off at every juncture?- I think I have enjoyed this year more than any other.
Even though I havenÂ’t pleased all the people all of the time, I feel this has been one of my best and most interesting shows. I certainly am not tired of stand-up and didnÂ’t deliberately set out to bore or upset people. Claiming that laughter was anathema to me was (like quite a few things in the show) A JOKE! If I was truly fed up of this job then I would do something else. Hopefully I can tour this show and be able to have more fun with it, when I am not restricted to 60 minutes (though I usually managed to get away with doing 70 this year).
Thanks to all the people who came to see me, sorry if you didnÂ’t like it as much as my previous shows and hope you will at least appreciate that it is important for me creatively to keep experimenting and trying different things.
ItÂ’s time to go home now and hopefully amusing things will start to happen to me again so Warming Up just wonÂ’t be a description of endless similar gigs.
