A happy 70th birthday to my old dad, TK Herring. I am so sorry I couldnÂ’t make it down for the party and hope you had as wonderful time as it seemed you were going to.
A good solid show. Numbers slightly depleted due to it being full price today, but back to 2 for 1 tomorrow, but still around 80 in which is enough to do a good show. So it was slightly harder work, but I think probably my best actual performance so far. Reviewers in. Do I care what they say? I am trying to convince myself I won’t this year, but now I start to get some confidence and belief in the show it would be disappointing if it didn’t get good reviews. I did two extra gigs last night and it was too much. I was tired and a little drunk for the second one and decided to give my very arrogant and angrier persona an airing and although it was all right on the whole I walked home feeling a bit dirty and slightly depressed for the first time. The rest of the day (hangover aside) had been great and I had had a fun time drinking with Stewart and my friend Tim and joking around with a friendly drunk guy from Aberdeen called Derek. But doing three gigs in a night is too much and there are bound to be emotional swings if you’re putting yourself through it in this way. I am having such a nice time up here so far it would be a shame if the bottom fell out of my world. Hopefully I will keep it together. Things will be more fun when I have finished the script (promised to do that tomorrow – hopefully will manage it despite the late night), though I do also have to get working on the TWTTIN scripts.
The funniest thing I have seen so far in Edinburgh is a billboard poster. It’s down outside where the Gilded Balloon was before it burnt down. There are two posters there, one big one for Danny Bhoy’s show and then another, almost twice the length with a gaudy photo of pun-smith Tim Vine holding out his arms imploringly to everyone who passes. The words “Tim” and “Vine” are emblazoned across the image and his delighted face is hilarious in itself. Then you notice that in the right hand corner it says, “Is not appearing at this year’s Festival.”
ItÂ’s a brilliant and ostentatious joke and makes all publicity look ridiculous and cheap. It can not fail to make you laugh, through its cheek and audacity. It accidentally has the effect of making Danny Bhoy look slightly foolish. Danny has paid a fair whack of money to get this big poster put up in a prominent position, doubtless thinking this would make him look like a comedy heavyweight and then Tim has trumped him, not only by purchasing the bigger advertising space, but by using it to publicise nothing. If it wasnÂ’t next to a genuine poster then it wouldnÂ’t be half as funny, but the sharp relief of the genuine attempt at selling tickets against the frivolous desire to get a laugh is what makes it work. Of course you might argue there are good PR reasons for Tim Vine to do this, not least because everyone will still be talking about him in a year when he isnÂ’t doing the Festival (and overall the cost of putting up a big billboard is a lot less than the amount I will probably lose and will probably get more plaudits and laughs without any real effort), but I genuinely think itÂ’s up there in a spirit of fun and frivolity. And it is genuinely one of the funniest things you will ever see. And Danny Bhoy just acts as a symbol for the rest of us. HeÂ’s the unfortunate victim of this hilarious prank (not that it will do him any real harm), but the face of any of the publicity hungry performers at the Fringe could easily be substituted for his.
Tim Vine for the Perrier Spirit of the Fringe Award!
