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As I arrived at Stand 3 for today's show there seemed to be a big crowd waiting to get in. The show had sold out, but it was 45 minutes before the show, so these people were very keen.
As it got closer it looked more like a protest. Were the public outraged that my baked potato had been taken away from me and were showing their anger? If so why were they outside my venue and not outside the Tempting Tattie?
As a sidenote some people have said they will boycott the Tempting Tattie for their decision. But don't do that. We have to make them pay. Go to the Tempting Tattie as much as you can and order a Richard Herring. It's the only way for them to learn. If they sell a million Richard Herrings they will rue the day they crossed me.
Anyway there was also a lot of police outside the Stand.
Had my crimes finally been caught up with? I've been stealing pick n mix and bragging about it for years and more recently taunting the authorities about their inability to catch me travelling in first class on a standard ticket.
Were the police cleverer than I assumed? Had they worked out that I kept on announcing locations of where I was going to be on my website, so they just had to wait and pick me up?
Of course not. The police are all stupid. Hence my continued freedom. They will never catch me. The protestors were carrying Palestinian flags - though I was struggling to see why they were outside the Stand, a very right-on venue that is showcasing Palestinian comedians this year.
I told the policeman at the entrance that I needed to go down to the venue and he directed me to the manager of the hotel that the venue is in the basement of.
So I was allowed in, but there was some confusion about what was going on.
Apparently the show before me had had the leader of the SNP on as a guest and I presume he's said something controversial and people had bought tickets to the show in order to stage protests during it. It's a bit like my Tempting Tattie idea. If people want to buy tickets to protest my show, then Monday and Tuesday are a bit quiet. That'll show me.
The politician was hiding in the green room and police were milling around and men in suits who were bodyguards or secret service or whatever. Would my show go up at all?
I am not a fan of shows at the Fringe being picketed or cancelled, regardless of the views of the person doing them. I didn't like it when Jerry Sadowitz was forced to cancel a gig and I don't like it that two Jewish comedians have been told they can't perform by their venue this year and I am not sure what this protest achieved, other than shaking up a lot of the young staff who work at the venue and inconveniencing a venue that seems to be doing its bit for the cause of the protestors.
But it was an exciting way to start the day and I only went up ten minutes late. Great to have a Saturday sell-out and thanks to the way the Stand works there is a chance of actually making a bit of money (even taking into account the cost of our flat) which takes that pressure away.
Phoebe was doing the dance at the end of Catie's show tonight (and tomorrow) so I took both kids along to her venue so we'd be ready to appear at the end. Most days Catie is doing a dance from her school days with a school friend (or comic) but it was cool to see her do it with a tiny version of herself today. It's Phoebe's Edinburgh debut and she was fantastic, not even a little bit nervous and ready to meet her public after the show, because now she was famous. Ernie was annoyed that he didn't get to do a show and so I have agreed that he can do some jokes at the start of my podcast tomorrow. I have created two showbiz kid nightmares, but they are both excellent and nothing bad has ever happened to kids who became stars.
We are, it seems bound to become the Herring family players. And I am here for it.
