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This morning I worked out how to make a cappuccino with the coffee machine in the house and now everything is going to be OK. Seriously. It just takes 4 of 5 espressos to make the world perfectly fine, regardless of the endless shit that it’s spewing out.
And I went to my first show of the 2019 Fringe this morning, “Don’t Mess With The Dummies”, a geniunely fantastic romp with three very talented Australian performers with a whole host of acrobatic, juggling and skipping skills. The kids loved it. Ernest Herring has never sat still for more than 3 minutes in his life and he stayed focused on this right up to the end and it was a delight to see him applauding and then looking at us to see if we were applauding too, with the biggest smile on his face. Phoebe got a lot out of it too> it was just a fucking delight. Go and see it. You probably need to take a kid with you or you’ll look weird. But they have spare kids wandering around in playgrounds in Edinburgh, so just borrow one of those. One of the performers apologised for being heavily jet-lagged, but Jesus, you wouldn’t have known. That’s a high energy show, full of wit and imagination, which we’d just chanced across because it was on at the right time for us. My own show went fine too. There were 224 in (and the numbers will be up again on Tuesday when it’s two for one - let’s not think about Wednesday yet) and I had two top flight guests, Jena Friedman and Phil Wang. Jena seemed reluctant to talk politics, but I pushed on with it anyway - the news from America had to be addressed really, but we got into some interesting chat about whether comedy can actually achieve anything politically speaking. I also talked to her about her incredible interview with John McAfee, where she was not only ice cool (it seemed) in the face of a drunk man waving a gun two feet away from her, but also conducted a brilliant interview, using the mildest flirtation to reduce one of the most influential men in the world to jelly. It was pathetic for him and mankind, but amazing to see unfolding. Watch it here. I’d also hugely enjoyed the audio of her show American Cunt which is on iTunes. You should go and
see her show if you’re in town of it comes to you on tour. She’s an extraordinary presence, though luckily I am immune to her flirtation due to old age having eroded my libido to nothing. Hooray for that.
He’s very funny, and his show is already sold out, as is his extra show, but you can still catch him in an extra extra show.
Details here.He's also on a national tour in the New Year.
And some great guests
coming up - Spencer Jones and Snjolaug Ludviksdottir added to the guests coming up this week.
My mother-in-law is leaving Edinburgh tomorrow and I am not sure how we will cope without her. We’ve been a bit too poorly to take advantage of having her here to babysit, so I took some Day Nurse and made the most of this final opportunity and went to see Drunk Women Solving Crime (and ended up being roped into it to give a listener crime). It was a cracking show and they had loads of people in. Given this entity didn’t exist a year ago it’s an incredible rise and demonstrates the power of a good podcast. They’re only on until the 11th, but it’s a different show every day.
Book here.
Then I went out with one of the drunk women (I think it was the one I am married to, but it’s hard to tell) for dinner and we found a really brilliant Thai restaurant that we’d never been to before. It’s called Thai Laos and the Sea Bass thing my wife ordered was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten. And after a slightly tough week it was cool just to be people out having non-child and non-Fringe based fun again.
But people are coming to our shows (until Wednesday anyway) and I feel in a very positive frame of mind. I’ve dipped into the Fringe and enjoyed it, but equally been happy to be at home with my dumb ass kids. Let’s see if we can balance them and the shows without any help and not go insane.
