6089/19018
Five shows in now and almost a quarter of the way through this whole shebang. Today I arrived in my dressing room before the show to find it full of people: men in suits and a clown putting on make-up. The men were the team behind John McDonnell, who had just been interviewed on my stage, in my chairs, by someone else. The clown was making use of the light in this dressing room and possibly making some heavy-handed satirical point about the nature of modern politics. If this was an awful political cartoon.
Once again I found myself in punching distance of a controversial politician and again I failed to punch. I will never make the history books at this rate.
McDonnell was a lot smaller than I’d imagined, but I reckon he could still take me in a fight, especially with his team of whispering spin doctors around him. I sat next to the clown trying to work out something worthy of mentioning in my opening routine, whilst they whispered in the corner of the room, trying to work out what to say about another Scottish referendum, but cautious that someone in the room might be listening and then write the whole thing down a blog and blow their whole clown-circus apart. But it worked out for them cos they were whispering quietly and I am quite death. And the clown was talking to me explaining why she was there and apologising for interrupting my pre-show peace and quiet.
On the way home I stopped to write the blurbs for the shows in a coffee shop.
Here’s what I remembered - RHLSTP Ed Fringe 2019 #5 Jayde Adams and David O’ Doherty - Mr Adjective - Richard is still thinking about his penis, but has just had an encounter with another major politician and failed to get himself into the history books. His guests are the extraordinary lovely Jayde Adams and David O’Doherty. Jayde and Rich discuss the secret truth of the Asda Bristol hotplate, why Rich couldn’t cut it as a mushroom picker, the (Im)possibility of Rich being Jayde’s fathe and how Jayde missed out on meeting Adele, but scored big with Dawn French. David and Richard talk about how to get into the Irish top 30, the best seat in a bedsit gig, what happens when you win the Comedy Award and are doing more than one show, how David is not 98% mouse and how RHLSTP got his oven fixed.
Fortunately the stop meant I missed getting caught up in the worst of a Biblical thunder and lightning storm that passed over and drenched the city ( on my way to the gig people had been sunbathing and this is why Edinburgh is the best city in the world). I had to go out into the latter stages of the deluge to tag team my wife and take over the child care. I crossed the meadows with my umbrella providing minimal resistance to the elements. As I got to the other side I saw a phone box with an advert for an upcoming album by Wet Wet Wet. During the Fringe, even largely redundant communication cuboids are comedians.
