I finally got to meet the Canadian comedian Baconface today. He has been championed by Stewart Lee, who has a habit of enjoying obscure and rubbish stuff for the sake of appearing cool, so I assumed that he might be a bit of an idiot. But I really liked him and we seemed to have a rapport that was unusual for strangers. I hadn't been ready for the amount of bacon that was on his head (hardly on his face at all) and apparently after five days on his mask it has hit optimum stickiness. He knows a lot about bacon.
And he had a much more positive opinion of the Foster's Comedy Awards than I expected. And it was hard to know what he made of my ham hand T shirt.
You can listen to it here.
I was using up leftovers for my lunch/dinner and made a pasta sauce which included bacon. It was odd cooking it after seeing it used for its primary function of being on someone's head.
Then it was up the hill to the Pleasance for the final WAGTD of the run. My main surprise of the Fringe has been the fact that Prince Phillip and Nelson Mandela have both survived this long, allowing me to carry on doing my joke about which of them will die first. I mean, it's good that they're still alive, obviously and their help in keeping a bit going is not the best thing about that. Can they both make it through til October for my London run? Fingers crossed.
There were a couple of hundred people in to see the last show, which was more than I was expecting. It's been a good run for me, with a 4.2 star review average (annoying both the List and the Scotsman chose to wait until the last few days to give me good reviews - the Scotsman coming out yesterday) and a show that is challenging to perform, but which I have really enjoyed. Sales were not quite as good as I hoped, but it sold out a few times and even if I lose money on this (the free DVDs and set proved quite expensive), I will have made it up on the podcast thanks to the more favourable deal at the Stand. So I think it counts as a successful Fringe. And it has flown by for me.
Afterwards I went for a drink in Brooks bar (one of the performers bars), but there weren't many people around initially and I realised that I had a Metro article to sort out so sat drinking a pint and making notes, looking like I had started work on next year's show. And who knows, if next year's show turns out to be about people who pee on toilet seats then I might have. It summed up a year which has been more about work than about play. Hopefully I can get the balance right in future Fringes.
Eventually others drifted in to the bar and I drank some more and had some fun, but with half an eye on the clock, because I was feeling drained and tired and of course my Fringe is not yet over - there's one final podcast to go.
And if you've enjoyed the free podcasts and don't wish to recompense me directly by buying a DVD or book or RHLSTP download, then why not sponsor me for the half marathon that I have foolishly agreed to do next month? I haven't done much training and have a bit of a dodgy ankle at the moment, but that won't stop me. If you can spare a couple of quid (or more) Please visit my virgin money page. As usual I am collecting for Scope.
