I seem to leave everything to the last minute in Edinburgh - almost willfully heading out a little bit late for appointments or gigs so I have to rush or hope to flag down a cab. I don't know why this is.
But I found myself leaving the house at about 1.30 trying to get to the Gilded Balloon to see
The Gently Progressive Behemoth which was on in 15 minutes, a good 20 minute walk away. I still needed to get my ticket and if there were queues at the box office I might well miss everything.
As I had been getting dressed to go, the shoelace on my expensive new trainers snapped in my hand. I hadn't been pulling it hard and this was only the third day I had worn them and I thought that that was a bit shoddy. I attempted to tie them with one small and one long bit, but as I ran up the hill hoping to catch a cab they came undone again. I stopped to tie them up again and this time the longer of the two bits also broke. I was pretty pissed off with this. It was clearly a design flaw, making sense of the assistant telling me that there were spare laces in the box as I made my purchase. But even if they give you spare laces, if each lace only lasts 3 days then that isn't really satisfactory.
I got to a cab rank which usually has taxis waiting, but typically there was none this time and a bloke ahead of me who said he'd been waiting for a while. With about five minutes to go before the gig I finally got a cab, fairly convinced that I would be too late, but somehow I got there with a minute or so to spare and there wasn't much of a queue (and as it happened the show started a little late). Two men in front of me were also going to the show and it amused me that when they bought their tickets they both said "Can I have one to the Gently Progressive..." and then trailed off, rather than attempting to pronounce Behemoth. This made me laugh a bit, but I confidently ordered my ticket, having a pop and pronouncing it Bay-a-moth. The embarrassment of the men at not knowing how to say the word was funny though, especially when the opening announcement to the show had a joke about not knowing how to pronounce the word. So that was a good start.
The show stars Nadia Kamil and Luke Roberts, two annoyingly talented young performers who are bound to be big stars, so catch them now when they are playing what might well be the tiniest official venue at the Fringe (it's called the Wee room and seems to be have constructed from an annexe in the corridor and might also serve as a small urinal the rest of the year). I saw
their show last year and that was a more theatrical piece about a man trying to get back with his old girlfriend - and as the two had dated previously I presume that there was some autobiography in there. Lovers of romance and persistence will be glad to hear that Luke and Nadia are now back together, though this year was less of a theatre piece and more of a combination of comedic conceits. There were some really funny ideas and cracking lines in it and though on balance I think I preferred last year's show, this one is still really good.
I also caught
Bridget Christie this afternoon. It is silly and slightly crazy, but ultimately an enjoyable hour encompassing Bridget's passing resemblance to Charles II, a rubber-handed Guy Fawkes, a morosely puritanical Oliver Cromwell, trying (and hilariously, for the rest of us) to make a rather serious member of the audience laugh with drawings of cocks and a fart machine, the Great Fire of London personified and a very endearing story of Bridget's recent honeymoon on the Shetland Isles. The latter piece felt like it maybe belonged in a different show, or was possibly a show in itself, as ending up on honeymoon on some barren islands with no attractions and little in the way of living things in December is a somewhat interesting and unusual tale. Bridget's glee at seeing a chicken half way through the holiday was hilarious.
It's only now looking back at it that I realise how much there was in there and for what is only a first or second full length show it is a real achievement and very original.
So after that I went back to the shop where I'd got the trainers and the assistant shame-facedly admitted that they had had problems with the laces to these shoes. He gave me some more and said if these broke that he would give me a credit note so that I could go and buy some replacement laces elsewhere. I will keep you updated on how long the laces last. I imagine it won't be long. But if they break any time after the next week then it will be hard to return them.
Not only had tonight's show sold out, but Saturday's is already sold out too. It's a good and rare feeling to be sold out a day ahead of time and I don't think it's happened for me since Talking Cock. So do book ahead if you are coming up this week, or want to see the show in London. Maybe all the years of graft are beginning to pay off!
