The good news for continuity fans is that the Tempting Tattie is still up and running. As most of you will know it's the baked potato shop that has sustained me through nearly all of my 21 Fringes and the location of a very satisfying flashmob prank (another where the "victim" got something nice rather than nasty out of it) where Collings and Herrin fans swamped the place one lunchtime in an attempt to make them run out of potatoes. Was that really 2009?
Read about it here.
Last year the enjoyably grumpy man who ran the shop finally admitted defeat and moved on to other non-potato based fields. I thought the shop would die with him, but someone else has taken it over. It took me years of work to get the last man to work out that I was the person who kept mentioning the shop in all newspaper reviews and even then he was still unclear what the "Richard Herring" potato was - he kept putting pineapple in it, the idiot - it's medium potato with cheese and mango chutney, even a foetus knows that.
So now I have a new person to educate and confuse. I passed the shop today, but it was too early in the Fringe to go in. I was planning on going for a swim before the podcast and I didn't want to sink to the bottom of the pool. I can only manage one or two Richard Herrings during the course of a Fringe now and it's very much week 2 comfort food, not week 0 when I am trying to be healthy.
I was also worried about whether the shop might have changed under new management. What if I got service with a smile, rather than a dour grimmace? After the flashmob incident I thought the last guy was going to punch me (for bringing him so much business) - would I be treated with the same disdain now? And what if they've changed ingredients.
I noticed one worrying (literal) sign of change. Whoever is running the shop has paid for someone to fix the sign. It has read "TEMPT NG TATTIE" for years and I always like to imagine that the shop has been set up in order to lure a Japanese man in to eat potatoes. There was a student on my staircase at college whose nameplate read K.O. Ng, which always amused me because I was childish back then. But I love having a chemical symbol for a surname too. What do you mean you've never heard of Norwegium?
As a brief aside I wonder if this is because in Middle School there were two Richards in my class, me and Richard Hewlett and as both of our surnames started He, Mr Smith our teacher referred to me as Richard Hg and Hewlett as Richard Ht. When I found out about chemical symbols I realised that Hg was the symbol for Mercury and for a while (at University) I tried to get people to call me Richard Mercury, which would have been much cooler than Herring. I had totally forgotten about that until this moment.
Anyway the new proprietor has fixed the sign so it reads "TEMPTING TATTIE" which to be honest has taken 80% of the fun of the shop away from me already. I am not sure he or she is fit to run the place with terrible business decisions like that. And if they can add back the "I" then what other changes have they wrought. I didn't cross the street for fear of having my heart broken. I am all for change at the Fringe in nearly every respect. Unlike Stewart Lee I do not hark back to a mythical world of the 1980s where all was good and honest and uncommercial (I think in most respects the Fringe is a better place than it was and that comedy is much funnier and more inventive and less constricted than it was then - today's Fringe has a much more broader comedy palette at least), but I am concerned about any change in the process of selling baked potatoes. Baked potatoes must stay the same.
I attempted to instigate a backlash against Lee in today's first Edinburgh Fringe Podcast, though unsettled the audience who clearly weren't sure who serious I was being (and to some extent nor was I) - I mainly just thought it would be amusing to have a pop at someone who is so universally loved, but I suppose it is fuelled a little bit by mild annoyance at his recent (at least partially justified) pronouncements on the state of the Fringe. There is so much choice for performers and audiences nowadays and I don't think the supposed "Big 4" comedy venues are as evil an influence as he does, nor that any member of the public thinks for a second that the joint brochure they put out is "The Official Comedy programme". People know there is an official Fringe programme. I think the Stand is a bigger force in comedy than the Gilded Balloon for example and even though it is a better force also, championing many of the best and less commercial acts and paying us fairly, you could be perverse and argue that it is fine for those comedians lucky enough to be invited to perform there, but it's a difficult world for others to break into. I was interviewed at length by Sky News this afternoon where I expressed these ideas much better than I did in the podcast. I do think it's a bit weird that Michael Mcintyre is performing a work in progress gig at the Fringe and charging people £30 to see it. But that's up to him and to the people who want to go and see that. I don't think he's really stealing an audience from anyone else as I suspect most of those people would be seeing nothing at the Fringe if he was not there. If anything he might pique their interest. Personally I would say that in the current climate new comics should see the overcrowded Fringe marketplace as a five year plan. Which would be better for them as acts. There are a few acts that come up, are heavily promoted in the hope of getting a TV deal (but is that really that much different than Lee and Herring in the early 90s? There was less high pressure tactics then and less competition, but there are still similarities) but most comedians up here just want to build an audience and get better at what they do. So rather than barge straight in with a show at one of the "Big 4" and a massive PR budget, they should learn their craft on the Free Fringe and maybe find alternate ways to publicise themselves and work their way up. But there's nothing wrong with wanting to get an audience and for newer people (and even people who've been coming up fro 25 years - I am very far from selling out my venues) maybe that's more important than making money and PR is a necessary unpleasantness.
The kind of punter who wants avant garde or niche comedy will surely find it, the kind of punter who doesn't won't be arsed and most comedians would be pleased that they're not turning up by accident and that Michael Mcintyre (who is incidentally brilliant at what he does) is there to distract them. The Fringe has a fringe, but it always did but it's not up to anyone to say what the Fringe (or its fringe) should be. It is what it is. The wonder of this Festival is that anyone can come and use it whatever way they want.
To eliminate doubt I obviously love Stewart both personally and professionally, much as he can occasionally push my buttons (which is his comedic role- he is the left wing Jeremy Clarkson after all) and he is indeed an inspiration to any comedian trying to do something interesting, that there is a path through all of this where you can hold on to integrity and do something interesting and also profitable. But it's by necessity a path that can only be trod by a few people, even though many will try and many are trying. The Fringe shifts and changes over the years and the acts and the public are more in control of those shifts than the promoters or the venue owners. The magic is still there to be found and the deserved success of both Stewart Lee and the Stand show that the public get this as well. I hope I can demonstrate in the podcasts the wide and bewildering talent that is on display at the Fringe - it's a very competitive market place and many fantastic acts do not end up with the recognition and following that they deserve. We should be applauding them for taking a punt both personally and financially in the hope of emulating the big Fringe stars. Ultimately the way they do that is their choice. No one can force them to do anything. And I would seriously recommend taking a step back as a new comic and trying to progress more slowly. It will be better for you as a comedian, but also financially.
And how lovely that even though we're not a double act any more, Stewart and I still take opposing views - him eulogising the past and hating change and me blinkeredly claiming everything new is better (except in the vital jacket potato industry).
The first podcast was fun with both Sarah Kendall and Iszi Lawrence on good form - though I was annoyingly tired out after being woken early by building work nearby. All the info on who is coming up and how to download from the British Comedy Guide or iTunes can be found
here.
There were a few more people in to see Talking Cock tonight, but I am a bit worried that there aren't enough. Sales are looking better for tomorrow and particularly for the two for one days on Monday and Tuesday (book now to take advantage of that offer as I think they will sell out). Tiredness and the spectre of having over estimated my popularity added a dull glow of background misery to the day, but I mainly stayed on top of it all.
It's going to take me another 25 years to crack this festival, but I suspect I will keep rolling with the punches and make it eventually. Or die drunk in a gutter as Stewart Lee drives past in his diamond car.
