I managed to get to the gym for the first time in six days. I have been too busy or exhausted this week, but I have got a second wind and went for a shortish swim. I was delighted to discover that since I've been in Edinburgh I have lost over 3kg (about half a stone), which has to be mainly down to walking everywhere as I've not been expressly dieting. Will I manage to overturn all historical precedence and get to the gym in the final week of the Fringe? I hope so.
Tonight's show sold out in good time, but I was bracing myself for a tough Saturday crowd, but it turned out to be one of the best gigs of the run. I am actually surprised to realise that there are only 8 more of these to go (there are 9 more podcasts). I am in remarkably good spirits and shape and am enjoying improving the show now that I know it better. I was able to give a proper performance tonight and got a lot more out of the big set pieces.
I even felt energised enough to go and see a show after my own one, popping over to Pleasance 2 to see the much-vaunted Claudia O' Doherty. She is a mesmerising performer and she has an almost futuristic multi-media element to her show, which is really impressive. Perhaps my expectations were too high after all the raves I've heard about her, but I thought the show started very strongly, but then got a little bit samey and wasn't quite as funny in the last third. It was still fascinating to watch and smart and I am absolutely certain that O'Doherty will be a massive star (and deservedly so), but I would have preferred a few more jokes and a few less anti-jokes and the show was in danger of being swamped by the technology (and especially the running jokes of the sponsorship and the fact she was "auditioning" to show off her talents). It's well worth seeing and I sensed that I was part of a less responsive crowd that she was used to. Perhaps she had got the Saturday night audience that I had dreaded. And maybe with my high expectations and feeling that this was my big Saturday night treat so she'd better be brilliant I had taken on the very aspects that I have had to face in similar circumstances.
I would still say go and see it if you get the chance, but it didn't quite fulful it's potential for me.
I came home to enjoy a bottle of wine with my wife. I counted up some of the Scope collection money first and made a surprising discovery. There will often be foreign coins in the collection that people have "accidentally" got rid of (which is fine as I can give them to Scope who can exchange them for UK currency) and occasionally there might be an old shilling or big 50p piece or other obsolete coinage. But today there was a 1939 penny in the collection. How strange that someone had had this in their pocket and casually or genuinely accidentally given it to the collection. I think it's most likely that they had unknowingly received this coin in their change, masquerading as a 2 pence piece and donated it without realising (or to get rid of it). But it's hard to think you'd chuck it out on purpose. It might not be worth very much financially (on Twitter estimates ranged from 1p to £10 - I suspect it's the former), but it's still an interesting thing to have and an odd thing to give away. Someone suggested it might be someone's lucky penny, but if that was the case then surely it would be kept in a pocket away from the rest of your regular money just to avoid such a mishap.
I am tempted to keep it and use it as my own lucky penny, but like the other odds and sods it will go to Scope and they will get what they can for it. But it's weird to come across something that might have nestled in someone's pocket, all shiny and new, before the outbreak of World War II. Has it been in circulation ever since? Somehow always being mistaken for a 2p and never been looked at. Unlikely, but a nice idea. Or had I been visited by a time traveller tonight (maybe Gary Sparrow himself) who still wanted to donate to Scope but without any modern day currency? Thanks to whoever donated it. Every penny counts. Even 74 year old ones.
Fun chats with Colt Cabana and Fred MacAuley today. Listen here.
