Edinburgh 2013

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Fourteen

Today has been a very quiet day. It has consisted of three hours of Flyering out on the mile, which has been, as ever, ruthlessly methodical. I can now spot a telegraph reader at thirty paces. Writing this now I realise that I have failed to mention one person who really deserves a note or two.

 When I’ve been flyering I’ve always used the same spot. Just behind one of the Virgin Money stages just infront of Games Workshop. At the same time and place, a short woman has also been flyering some sort of mind reading show. She has been a paid flyerer and we have eeked out the boredom together, making fun of the acapella groups who take to the stage on the mile and buoying each other through an otherwise tedious task. Wahts strange is the I don’t know her name. We were just two people in the same place at the same time. I only realised this after wasn’t going to see her again so I can’t facebook her. Even so I think this reflects the fringe spirit quite well: Two people entertaining and supporting each other to get through a dull chore; Be it flyering or life in general.

 After flyering I did front of house for Pistols. As expected for the weekend It was packed. It helps that the act immediately after the show wone best newcomer so lots of people are hanging around the venue. There really is nothing like sharing a bill with the big leagues to boost sales. I sat through Pistols which has only gotten stronger. 

 Immediately afterwards James had to dash off, He was guesting in an improv show across town as a monologist. I went with him to see what the group was like. I’m not gong to name the show but it was without doubt the worst improv I have ever seen. NOTHING happened, absolutely nothing. I repeat it a third time, nothing. There were no convincing characters, no atmosphere; at one point they did a scene about how bored they were.

 I left the show and made my way to Sainsburys with Anushka, one of my flatmates. I wanted a quiet night in with a jacket potato. I dashed around and picked up a bottle of cider and some chocolate too (what is life without whimsy?). I got to the self checkout machines scanned all the items and put my card in. I typed in my PIN and my card was declined. I tried this two more times. Suffice to say I was nervous. I went round the corner to an atm to find that I was over 600 pounds overdrawn on my bank account. Suffice to say I was not happy. I printed of a ministatement to see that my rent had come out early and my wages apparently not paid.

 I was panicking. I rushed back to the flat to find my laptop. I logged onto online banking to find out what was wrong. I briefly remember worrying about whether I had miscapitalised part of my password. I hadn’t but it seemed relevant to share that information. I found that my wages had been paid, but paid into my savings, not my current account. I transferred the money and crisis was averted.

 I spent the evening asp reviously planned chilling at the flat. I didn’t want ot see a show after all of that drama. I played a few games on my laptop, which were commentated over by one of my flatmates. It was a bizzare experiment and in the process I think I helped him discover his one man show next year. Later on I went back out and brought my potato, safe in the knowledge I could afford it. I also brought cider and Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream; after all it had been a very traumatic experience.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Thirteen

 I am going to presume you know the basics about my day by now. Meeting flyering yada yada, so I will jump straight into the shows I’ve seen today.

 The Maydays – one of Brighton Premier improv groups brought their Confessions show up with them again this year. Today featured special guest ‘Lloydie’ James Lloyd from Nottingham – The man who taught me improv. The show revolves around taking audience confessions and fashioning them into scenes and songs. The musical numbers were especially impressive, improvising rhyimg songs is a very difficult thing to master and this group does it very well. In spite of their talent their was only a small audience and the atmosphere never built up properly. It’s a shame because it never really peaked. 

 The next show I went to see was Who Ya Gonna Call? , again, I appreciated it even more the second time around and I went with Lloydie which was nice because I haven’t had the chance to hang out with him in a few months. He loved the show, I think everyone did. After seeing it yesterday I watched the film on Netflix, I picked up on so much more this time around It really is such a well crafted show.

Finally I saw Baby Wants Candy again, Once more with Lloydie. Todays show was “The baker who couldn’t stop doing Jazz Hands” The tale of a pair of bakers who leavd their life of baking behind them to put on a show at the Edinburgh fringe. It was a really good show once again. When I have previously watched Baby Wants Candy, I have often felt that the narrative could suffer at the hands of the songs, (Although I would much rather have brilliant songs than narrative) Today the two married up perfectly and the end result was very satisfying.

I think this is the shortest blog post I’ve written but if truth be told I am terribly tired now and I want to rest. This festival has put a lot of thoughts into my head and I think I need some time to process them.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Twelve

Another day another heap of flyers distributed.  C’est la vie. By now you know the morning routine so I’ll get straight onto shows I’ve seen today.

 I saw Men with Coconuts, a shortform improvised group whose gimmick is that they use various props to make sound effects etc, sort of like Foley artists. The concept was fantastic, I would really love to see them apply it to longform, but the shortform was a bit sloppy to be honest. Characters were weak and scenework slipped. It is a real shame because the venue would be fantastic as an imprvo space good stage size with loads of room for seats. I think the real problem was in maintaining the energy, which often dipped.

 Following this I saw Who Ya Gonna call; A fan tribute ghostbusters musical. I’ve seen ghostbusters once, but the show was paced and pitched in such a way that even someone with no knowledge could keep up. The show encapsulated the spirit of the fringe, that of people having fun. The singing was very good and the rapor that the three players established with the audience was great. The songs, all original pieces for the show, were witty and wonderfully detailed. Watching this show the audience felt a consummate part of the performance and it was a genuine joy to watch.

 Having seen bad shortform this morning I went to see the best this evening. The Noise Next Door, is the only full time professional improve group on the circuit and actually take improv to comedy clubs. Their previous shows were slick well oiled improve game machines. Their show this year was something a bit different. Soundhouse blends the line between improv and sketch further, The whole show has a narrative and then the five players punctuate it with shortform games. These guys really are on the top of their game, their wit is stunning and their teamwork paramount.

 Finally (and I mean that literally as their run was ending the same night) I saw Cariad and Paul one last time. Of all the shows I have seen this fringe this has been the one I’ve felt most compelled to tell people about. Every time I have seen it I’ve felt like I’ve been watching a master class. Tonight’s show had birds of prey with bullying issues, a German and French couple in Paris during world war two and a couple that were on their first date. Each was a joy to watch.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Eleven

Back on the Flyering band wagon today, I did two and a half hours of intense paper distribution in the bucketing rain. I’ve learnt to profile fringe goers by sight during this trip, The target for Ross Vs Violich is liberal and left wing professionals and slightly older women, For some reason these two groups work best with the material. The way to spot them is simple, women over forty who tend to wear bright colours and professionals who are easily spottable because they look like they’ve spent a bit of money to look like they do. It’s not a fool proof system but It does the job.

 The first show I saw today was  Bristol improv’ Night of Noir,  an improvised film noir from the students of Bristol universities Society. The title was “The golden hairpiece” and told the story of Natasha’s destructive run in with a cursed mayan hair pin. The Bristol Uni group are incredibly impressive, they are ambitious in what they do and in the case of Night of Noir it pays of tenfold.  The characters were sharp, the accents were convincing and the overall effect was a very entertaining and funny piece of improvised comedy.

 After the show we all went to get drinks – It was really nice as I hadn’t had much chance to meet the Bristol uni group at the uni events around the fringe, simply because their two shows were around the various times when student stuff was organised. It was here that I got chatting on one of the improvisers who was guesting in a free show that night.

 Instant order is an improvised trial, in which the audience play the jury. Todays show was special – Harry Potter Themed. I must admit I didn’t enjoy it too much, The format got in the way of the improvisers and the characterisation was often weak. It’s a shame because stronger scene work would help the format and a stronger format would help the scenework.

 The last show I saw today was Cariad and Paul. Once again I saw a beautiful show, with incredible, deep and honest characters. I don’t know why but I feel the need to justify why I’ve seen certain shows so many times but I’m going to anyway.  Its an exercise in learning. If I watch the best I can learn from the best. What was kind of mind blowing is that after the show the people who I have massive respect for invited me to have drinks with them. It felt like walking around the feet of giants, which is strange but kind of inspiring. It kind of gives me a goal to reach for.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Ten

 Re reading the last few days’ blogs, I realise that my plan to get myself out a dip didn’t really work. Therefore I decided to do the only white middleclass thing I could and throw money at the problem. I spent the early part of the day lazing – Tuesdays are days off for Pistols so no flyering today. I said goodbye to Tim who’s got to head home, and then sorted myself out for the day. I headed over to Georges Square to get tickets for whatever was on.

 The first show I saw today was School of Night’s Spontaneous Shakespeare. It is a brilliant cavalcade of literary intelligence. The show is very simply four improvisers playing together and showing off. That makes the show sound very egotistical but it isn’t. Its just stunningly impressive. The four Improvisers move between Chaucer, Shakespeare and a plethora of other poets and writers in telling a story, like Sarah Kane or Oscar Wilde. Todays show was the Tragedy of Prince David, The prince of Aberdeen who was angry at everything. If truth be told the narrative got lost in the performance of the piece but it was very impressive nonetheless.

 The Next show I saw was Rachel Parris: The Commission. Rachel Parris is one of the cast members of Austentacious, which is what first interested me in her show. When I got to the counting house at 3:30 I was not sure what to expect. I found a queue already forming for the 4:00 show. Grabbing a drink I made myself comfy against a wall for the half hour upcoming.  The show itself is a blend of witty songs and reflections on her life as a singer-songwriter prior to moving into comedy. Parris‘ presence on stage belies her talent and the sheer tour de force of this exceptional performer.

 My final show today was Showstopper! The improvised musical.  I previously saw Baby Wants Candy another improvised musical theatre show, it is interesting to compare the two. Showstopper is highly structured with a director to keep the story on track, he provides location, exposition and direction, while the cast perform incredible songs in every genre and variation one could imagine. The director can tend to interrupt flow but the overall effect is very flashy and highly polished. Todays show was  “Where theres a Quill” a musical set in a 19th century Printers It featured various elements of Victorian London, urchins, Jack the Ripper, Wards and of course Charles Dickens most famous work the cold banana. It is interesting seeing both of the musicals, Baby Wants candy is a piece of pure improve, it just sort of keeps itself going along and all the improvisers play very well together, the story has greater freedom and it develops a mode on its own. Showstoppers, is far more polished, it is slick and flashy and gives all the spectacle you would expect from a west end musical. Both are brilliant but I would say that if you are unfamiliar with improve Showstoppers is better to see.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Nine

I have a new room at the flat. Its quite exciting, I’ve gone from sharing a room with five people to a single room with barely enough room to swing a cat. But I don’t have to worry about bothering other people when I wake up earlier than them (which I appear to invariably do).  It’s the bizarre routine of Edinburgh that even though I am shattered at every waking moment I still keep going. A single minded determination to enjoy myself and see (or endure) the festival.

The show I saw this morning was the Blank Slates, an Improv show from the student society at UCL.  It was a short form show with a variety of games being played by the five team members. UCL put on a good show with a small audience, most of whom were children, but I would have liked to see them in a situation where they weren’t forced into self censorship by the age of their audience. They ended their show with a small longform story, this had some fairly strong character work but lacked a level of pace which would have made it more compelling; I would attribute this to the audience  once again.

Following on from this show I went to flyer for the second Uni Jam; we only flyered for the hour before the show started, but it surprised me how many people we actually got, - pretty much a full house. The show this time was a group play session, lots of games and silliness and an opportunity to pay with people we don’t normally get to play with. I was in a game of Story Story Die – a fatal narrative game, and space jump in which I played a goldfish. I love playing with new improvisers so today was great.

After this I hightailed it across to New town to see ten thousand million love stories but unfortunately the show as canned for some reason. IT was a shame as they had an audience of about fifteen waiting for the players. Still that’s Edinburgh and something’s fall through the cracks.

I spent the rest of the Evening with Ben Hollands – another Uni of Notts student who’s an incredibly talented improviser. We had dinner then just went for a walk, around the city before returning to the flat for a bit. It was nice to catch up, he’s open of these people who has a thousand different talents and is in constant demand so we sort of lost touch over the year.

Todays location is The Pleasance Courtyard. The pleasance courtyard is part of the Uni of Edinburgh, It has an eclectic mix of venues with even stranger names. It is all arranged around one courtyard and the small lecture rooms and larger soaces are turned into stages. It is a bit like the fantasy bit of Disney land with the archaic stonework and modern bits with that shell. I this year I went to the improsium here but last year I spent a lot of time (and money) in this courtyard.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Eight

I was worried I was getting into a funk, the last few days I’ve been doing so many shows and flyering so much that I’ve been neglecting to have fun. And whilst I may be using Edinburgh as a trade show, as much as a gigging opportunity, I have to remember it is also a holiday.

 That in mind I decided to go easy on flyering today, seeing Austentacious  again with some friends and getting geared up for the student show this afternoon. Todays Austentacious  was Northanger Tabby, a bizarre tale of village life centred around one cat who gets doped with laudennum for fear of the violent litter of kittens she is carrying the “malititter” as it was dubbed.  The last couple of Austentacious shows I’ve seen have started to leave some of the tropes of Austen behind, they have been sillier, In many ways I prefer these shows to the more verbatim austen elements. It highlights the manners and tropes of the period better.

 In the University Improv show, Harry (the new Troupe Creative Director) came and did a twoprov with me. I was really pleased with how it went, the characters were tighter and I generally enjoyed it. (Something I am glad about after me feelings about yesterdays gig.) It was great to see the other universities there and seeing he talent on the improve scene. A couple of the Maydays were also there, Jules Munns and Rhi Vivian. Although I’ve only met them a few times each it was really nice of them to come and see what we were up to.

  After the show we moved over to the pleasance dome for drinks, passed a relaxing hour, where I discovered I need to get myself a pleasance pass for free lime and sodas (yes I am that cheap). I alsoe got tickets to see The Phil Jupitus Experiment. I went into the show not knowing what to expect; some friends were going and asked if I wanted to tag along. In the process of getting the tickets I found out that every atm at the pleasance dome had stopped working. I ended up having to use cash back at the bar (paying for a lime and soda in the process)

 The show turned out to be an improvised format, with Phil being “reprogrammed” over the course of the night. I must admit I was disappointed, Whilst the show was solid enough, being an improviser I could see how the various activities worked and I felt like I wasted my money in seeing it; that being said he does have another two shows up here which I cant comment on – having not seen them. One highlight that did come as a surprise was an impression of Boris Johnson which morphed into a child catcher like figure over the course of the monologue, I think the main problem was that the whole show was very low energy and took a long time to get going.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Seven

Today was a strange day, almost humdrum by the standard of my other days. I’ve reached that point in the fringe where I am constantly tired, desperate for whatever break I can get, yet still going all guns blazing none the less. This morning I flyered before once more seeing Austentacious (it’s a different show everytime so why shouldn’t I?) Today’s tale was Pi and Pythagoras and the characters were all struggling to locate a missing integer. There were families racked by numbers, the question of women’s education and the obligatory “Worm Queen”. I think the surrealist really brings out the talent of these improvisers, all of who dealt with the situations admirably.

 Following on from Austentacious, I headed to the Voodoo Rooms to do the front of house for Pistols again. There is something very satisfying in doing the front of house for a show, it’s a very simple yet helpful task and I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it.

 With the front of housework done, Tim and I went off to do another twoprov with Juliet Yes And Friends. I was terribly unhappy with the work we did. The first scene had decent characters but lacked relationship. The second was an almost verbatim problem we had discussed previously and the third was not given enough time to get going. This left me feeling very unsatisfied and slightly bummed out. I returned home to the flat to recharge, watching a couple of episodes of Doctor Who whilst lazing in bed. I also cooked dinner – a chorizo pasta with corgette ribbons in – very filling and very satisfying.

 After this we headed out to meet up with the cast of Death By Murder to celebrate our friends success on their run. Tonight had sold out so we weren’t able to get in to see it. It was really nice evening, just chilling out having a few drinks and talking. I headed home about midnight to get some much needed sleep.

 The venue today is the VooDoo rooms. There are three spaces here, Speakeasy, French Quarter and Ballroom. Each room has a stage space and bar, and hosts a full compliment of acts as part of PBH’s Free Fringe. Each room is themed along the lines of its name; e.g the speakeasy is a 1920s art deco lounge. The venue is complimented by a fantastic high ceilinged bar again done in a 1920s style with large mirrors and windows to get plenty of light in the room. Pistols at 3:55 is based here.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Six

The more things I do the less shows I’m able to see. Having gone from seeing four or five shows a day to being in two and flyering for another I have lost time and also saved money. It’s a blessing really. This morning I met up with a friend James, who is producing a show. He’s been going for over two weeks without a day off. I’m amazed he’s still standing.   But  couldn’t catch up all day and we both had Flyering to do. I headed back to the mile died a little further inside by flyering myself blind and then made my way across to the Improvised improv show.

 As with yesterday a variety of improv games and scenes ending in a La Rhonde. Talking afterwards to Luc Valvona – the organiser we discussed about how nice it was to play with strangers and how when you play with one group of people a lot you can get complacent, teamwork helps build group mind but also dampens your spontaneity.

 After this I headed to the Voodoo Rooms where I did front of house for Pistols at 3:55. It’s a hell of a lot nicer than flyering, just pointing people to the seats! I hung around for ten minutes to show in latecomers and then jaunted across town to meet the people for Juliet Yes and Friends once again. Once again I was put in a team of strangers and we did an Armando. The Armando is a series of scenes inspired by a truthful monologue. We got the suggestion trash can and that led to a series of scenes about dating, eco warrior-dom and excessive recycling. It was fun and went down really well.  Plus we went for Nachos after the show. I like nachos.

 Later we went to watch Max and Ivan. A sketch comedy duo with their show The Reunion. The reunion is a narrative sketch show about , surprise, surprise, a school reunion.  The whole show is a slow burning, beautifully crafted piece of sketch comedy that presents very human characters with all the quirks, charms and geographical euphemisms of modern life. Part way through a member of the audience is brought up to play a musician. Pure dum luck led this to be me. I was extatic and surprisingly proud of how my improve training kicked in. Suffice to say I hammed it for all it was worth.

I’m going to talk about some of my favourite places in Edinburgh over the next few days. To start with I am going to talk about the Pleasance Dome. The Pleasance dome is one of the University of Edinburgh’s buildings, it is a large glass domed room which is strung with lights as over the main room. this makes the glass dome look like it is glittering with stars. The large space coupled with a quite a powerful air conditioning, making a gentle breeze throughout. It’s the best place to relax in the evening. It houses four venues; Ten, Jack, Queen, and King domes. It has been here that I saw Max and Ivan, Cariad and Paul and the Beta Males.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Five

 Today has been a very good day; mostly because I got to do improv today. I was in to shows, the first – Luc Valona’s improvised improv show at 1;45 is a fun little gig that is closer on a jam than a show. However many improvisers turn up, form the players and then there are games and scenes afterwards.  Today there were four others so we played a mixture of short form games and ended with a longform format called the La Rhonde. The La Rhonde is a form that has participants perform two person scenes in a cycle ours turned into a giant prank filled zombie town featuring a Woolworths. I’ve known about the La Rhonde for a couple of years now but today was the first time I had actually had the chance to perform one. Definitely something I am going to come back to.

 After this we flyered for Pistols at 3:55 then headed over to the next gig we were performing also. Juliet Yes And Friends is an improv review featuring a changing line up of improvisers every day. Tim and I were in a team called Hastily Constructed, this time we did an Armando – a series of scenes inspired by a monologue. This being done, Tim and I were invited to guest in a review happening just upstairs, we used it to debut Awkward White Boys – our twoprov show. It went ok, two good scenes, one weak one that I was not happy with, mostly because I played a character who was insane/fixated on a dolphin with no grounding.

 After this we were exhausted made it back to the flat before we realised we were due to be at ‘whose round is it anyway?’ the title of a meet up for student improv groups. I was initially resistant to going, being really, really tired. But it was worth it as the people we met were lovely and  there was mirth and networking a plenty. I then headed off to see Death by Murder

 For those of you who read the review of the Red Herrings Death by Murder on Monday, since taken down from this blog, I was disappointed in what I saw. However on coming to see this evenings show I was delighted, seeing the show I had expected to see on Monday from one of the best student groups in the UK. The characters were tight, grounded believable and very human in their presentation. As with Monday the group were impressive with their teamwork and stage pictures, The humour was easy unlaboured and brought genuine belly laughs. A delight to see back on form in a very funny show.

Following on from Death by Murder we headed over to the Pleasance Dome to see Cariad and Paul again. Once again another hypnotic  beautiful show and a great way to end the day again.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Four

Today nearly killed me. Up early and back late, a full day of stuff in-between.  Starting with an early trip across Edinburgh to go to the Improsium – an annual gathering of all the improvisers in Edinburgh. It feature three guest speakers, Al Sammuels from Baby Wants Candy the improvised musical, Troy Conrad, the creator of Setlist, the improvised standup show and Cariad Lloyd, from Austentacious. The whole event was put on by the Maydays, and two of them Heather Urquhart and Jules Munns, ran the discussion, where we talked about the student improv, game of the scene and a third thing I’ve forgotten.

 After this I went to see Rosemary, the first offering from the Seckford Theatre company. Their play Rosemary,  written by director John Williams, examines the events surrounding the life of Rosemary West. I will admit that when I went to see the play I went with a certain level of apprehension, I am the first to admit I do not ‘get’ physical theatre and am generally uninterested in tragic stories. However Rosemary was captivating, rising questions whithout being preachy, eerily haunting in the performing with its young cast given ghoulish appearance by makeup. The Polaroid Cameras used to represent the press in the play were occasionally irritating in the blinding flashes into the audience, however this is such a trivial comment that it deserves to be only touched on in passing. An excellent play that bellies the young age of the cast.

After this I met up with Tim and we went to see Truthmouth, a one man show by Joseph Morpurgo. Truthmouth  is a piece of theatre delivering ‘real words’ from people, although. The vast range of this brilliant performer was brought out as he delivered monologues from a plethora of characters, not to give too much away, a highlight is the Snake from a n Old Nokia phone. A free show in the Lounge at the Counting house at 3:45. Be sure to get there early as the room is small and the show is deservedly popular. This is a show that completely embodies the spirit of the fringe at its best.

 We then headed to George Square, where we sat down for an hour and a half. It was nice, I had nachos. We also met up with another friend of mine Angelina who ran Improv at the London School of Economics. We then headed off to see our next show at the Pleasance Dome

 The Beta Males are a fantastic sketch group originally from Jersey, bringing a blend of Silliness and wit to the fringe once again in their superhero themed Superopolis. The premise gave way to a whole host of brilliant and bizarre characters from lollipop-man a literal lollipop with superpowers through to the Human Defense league an anti superhero team of superheros. My favourite has to be Strongth a parody of the hulk who talks about his troubles in love. All in all a witty delight packed with energy and humor. Highly recommend seeing.

 We had to hightail or way to the Assembly rooms after this to see Baby Wants Candy. An improvised musical company from America. Today’s show was Harold the Canadian Turns His Life Around. A story of substance abuse, hockey and Alternative parenting techniques. It is incredible to see an improvised musical done at all and when it is done as well as Baby Wants Candy does it, you are really in for a treat, synchronized dance numbers and belting songs completely off the cuff. What caps all of the brilliance of this off is that you can see the performers having so much fun as they do the show. Another one that everyone ought to see. 

Finally we went to our final show of the night Cariad and Paul. At 11 pm in the pleasance dome, the show has a sort of magic akin to a fairy tale about it. Taking only one word from the audience as a suggestion, the two wove a series of simple yet satisfying narratives and truly human characters into a hypnotic hour long show. All of this was built upon by a cellist playing in the background giving the whole show a whistful air that was incredibly pleasant to see at the end of a very full day of shows. The run is heavily limited –only four more shows, but well worth getting to see if you can.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Three

I have clicked on to fringe time. I woke up at 10:30 and felt wonderful.  Tuesday is the day off for Pistols at 3:55 so no flyering! ‘Woop woop’ This meant that today we hit the ground running and got straight on to shows today. We headed over to the mile and down to the Underbelly to book tickets for shows then up to the fringe box office to book tickets for something else which I’ll talk about later.

 The first of todays shows was Domestic Science calling themselves the fringe’s only science lunchtime party.  It takes the form of a couple talking all things science, with some humour and a few experiments thrown in for good measure. The show also features guest spots. Today there were offerings from the fantastic Sci Fi improv team of Project 2 and the memoirs of a ghost hunter. The show is family friendly upbeat and interesting, presenting audiences with experiments they can do at home as well as explaining how and why the results happen.  The show occasionally dipped in energy, and suffered from some technical blips but it was a sound show and had a lovely silliness to it throughout.

 Straight after this we headed over to the Under Belly to see Impromptu Shakespeare. Impromptu Shakespeare is (as the title Suggests) an improvised Shakespeare play. One hour of hilarious bard tribute. Todays show, inspired by themes of Japes and Servants, produced a piece about marriage, disguise and tomfoolery involving the dead. The cast had the audience in stitches right from the off with strong characters who brought laughs a plenty. The improvisers stuck fairly close to Shakespearean dialogue patterns with modern elements thrown in which blended well into quite an authentic show.  Occasionally you could see the cast break each other with what they were saying and there was some slight corpsing, however it was too fun a show to notice what slight slips of stagemanship that there were. Impromptu Shakespeare is up at the Fringe for the first time this year and I hope it returns next time around.

 A long hike around the castle led us to Shhh! The improvised silent movie.  This troupe of Italian Improvisers had devised a very unique show to deal with a very unique problem. It is easy to forget amongst the razor sharp verbal wit of the fringe that some people don’t use English as a first language. The cast of Shhh found a way around the problem quite spectacularly. Taking the suggestion of a job a 45 minute piece of mime and physicality, with the occasional projected caption. A very physical improv show forms in front of you, with slapstick humour at its core and a jaunty piano accompaniment throughout, giving a very genuine experience of the early days of silent film. The troupe of players all deserve to be praised for their specificity and acting ability, conveying a complicated plot to the audience with almost no loss of comprehension. A gem of a show and well worth the long walk round to Gryphon Venues to see it.

The last show of today was something from my flatmates; Casual Violence, up here with two shows House of Nostril and Om-Nom-Nominous. It was the latter of these we saw at the Voodoo rooms this evening, Casual Violence are, as well as being thoroughly nice people, very talented sketch writers and performers. Om-Nom-Nominous is a bleak and humorous series of sketches with a wonderful darkness to them. Bold and captivating, the macabre montage of sketches is the best of collection from 4 years work. The performers were comfortable enough to address the audience when unavoidable accidents happened but were straight back into character after and the piece flowed well.  Their cool handling of a technical malfunction with a pair of props showed the professionalism and quick wit of these excellent performers.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Two

It appears I am still functioning on what might be described as “professional time’ namely I wake up before 7 am to go to a job that clearly doesn’t exist up here in Edinburgh. This led to me getting up hours before anything actually got going up here. In the night I appear to have also developed a cold. Bugger. I used the morning to try and upload the photo of the mile – unfortunately in the flat, the Internet is somewhat patchy. After six attempts I managed to get it up (ooh matron).

Tim and I left the flat early this morning, grabbing a questionable breakfast at McDonalds. We then headed out towards the Mile, flyering for Pistols at 3:55, part of the conditions of our accommodation. We spent an hour trying to lure people into a very good show. Unfortunately the mile is so full that I’m sure our flyers got lost in the blur of paper and stars. There is of course the continual rejection of flyers as well; left right and centre people turn down the small cards advertising shows. I’ve developed a few techniques to try and ease the rejections and improve my hit rate.

1 The order

Telling someone that they need one of these works surprisingly well.

2 The collector.

Encourage your punters to collect them all as you hand them a flyer.

3 The magic trick

(If you have a multiple star review) Pick a flyer any flyer. Is it the four of stars?

After flyering we headed over to the Counting House to watch Austentacious, an hour and a half before the show started. For most, this would be a deterent. In fact if it was anything but Austentacious it would for me as well. My review is as follows.

Austentacious is a completely improvised Jane Austen style novel, performed by the widely acclaimed Milk Monitors. Over a one hour show a world of carriages, Balls, lords, ladies and love unfolds in front of repeatedly packed houses. Every single player adds a wealth of detail and depth to this show; packing authenticity with belly laughs a plenty. The show today was ‘Anxiety and Articulation’ telling the tale of the diminuitive Captain Jackson from Little Latchton and his search for love in the big world of Massive Latchton. Improvised tongue twisters and limericks fell with ease from the players’ mouths. This show is, I believe the best show at the fringe. IT was last year and I am quite confident it will maintain its status this year too. One slight detraction is the queuing time necessary to see it. That being said it is well worth the time but arrive before 12 if you want to see it.

No time to stop, Tim and I carried on to see the Mechanisms. The Mechanisms are a band of immortal steam punk space pirates with a dash of cyber punk thrown in. They are also a musical narrative cabaret act. The seven members costumed in Victoriana garb were doing a double bill of their two shows, last years Once upon a time in space and following on with this years album Ulysses dies at dawn. The premise of the shows are simple, retelling fairy tales and greek myth respectively, in dystopian futures. Each show was packed with verbal wit and hauntingly beautiful singing. The double bill happens every Monday at 4:15 as part of the PBH free fringe, but if you cant spare a Monday, Ulysses dies at dawn is played every day from 5:30 both at the Why Not?. A guaranteed hour or two of fun and music.

Following on from this I saw Timeline, another offering from University of Nottingham students and Graduates, this time as Two Box productions. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this quirky little piece of theatre. It tells of five students lives over the course of a year bringing out human qualities of the characters as they negotiate University life, partying and love through the idiosyncrasies of the Facebook Generation. The piece was well acted, and the stagecraft in executing the various functions Facebook allows was excellent. A surprising piece of character theatre and a script packed with wit, charm and a very human vein throughout.

[edinburgh2013blog]

The Royal Mile- the core of the Edinburgh Festival

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day One

I have learnt to loathe my Alarm clock. This in itself is unremarkable, plenty of people hate their alarm clock but mine, or rather the function on my iPhone sounds like a submarine klaxon. It was therefore at five to six this morning that I woke up to the thought that my room had been struck by a torpedo.

After a hasty flurry round the house to collect whatever things I forgot, I got to Ipswich train station at ten to eight, five minutes before my train departed. At this point some one came over and asked if we could call him a cab. Mum gave him a hand and I got through to the platform with a couple of minutes to spare.

 The train was a simple matter of sitting down for far too long, as trains tend to be. There was a brief break at Peterborough but that was uneventful, except for a ham sandwich. I got back on another train chatted to a man who was reading the daily mail and beat a personal best on doodle jump  Six hours of travel and I was in Edinburgh.

 At the station I met up with a friend – Tim who, for the next week at least, is going to be going round to see shows with me. We are both staying at the same accommodation a nice flat in the lower part of a large town house. This is all in the new town. For those of you who don’t know Edinburgh is split into the original old town and the Georgian new town. After dumping our stuff we headed out to see our first show. Incidentally the show of our hosts.

 Pistols at 3:55 is part of the PBH Free Fringe. It featured two Edinburgh Veterans, James Ross and Steve Violich (both former members of disbanded improv group, Fat Kitten) doing an hour of stand up comedy. The show features two ‘contrasting comedians’, one, wide-eyed, low energy, innocent act; the other a typhoon of words and tense energy. In spite of the two differing styles the show is tight and covers topics including life as a New Zealander and the difficulties in naming a child. The show blends stand up with character comedy and skit like features to make a thoroughly enjoyable comedy experience, Violich’s fresh-faced charm is very endearing and Ross is a tour de force of verbal wit.

 Following the show we headed over to The Royal Mile, via the pie shop, something of an Edinburgh staple – unhealthy food that could probably kill you In my case it was a sausage roll. We were looking for the Red Herrings, Nottingham University’s improv group.  There is no where quite like the Royal mile during the festival; thousands of people, giving out flyers trying to promote their shows. I bumped into several people who I knew and promised to see their shows. We made out way out to our first foray proved unsuccessful so we headed back to the flat to get some food. The two of us are going in halves to keep costs down.  

 After running errands we came back rested for an hour before making our way out to see our next show. This time it was Lights! Camera! Improvise! The improvised movie. A new film improvised live on stage every night. Tonight’s ‘film’ was “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” A high school romance Kung-Fu Movie with french independent and anime undertones. It was my first improv show I had seen this year and it didn’t disappoint.  You could see that the performers were having so much fun in performing it. The group from the Mischief theatre were especially good at presenting interesting stage pictures that made the dojo atop Ben Nevis a world very real to us. One element of the show is a ‘director’ figure who steers the performance. I found this detracted from the performance breaking the flow of the narrative rather than adding to it. That being said I would encourage everyone to go and see this performance. The underbelly Cowgate 20:20.

 We wound down the evening by chilling with the Herrings at their hostel before returning to the flat. All in all the first day of the fringe has been pretty good. I’ve seen loads of friends and got two excellent shows under my belt.  On top of this I have only spent £19 today – so on track with the budgeting. Bring on Day two.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day 0

So Tomorrow I am heading once more up to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, my second time  up there. I am getting a series of trains from Ipswich station up via Peterborough to Edinburgh. Its the same trip I made last year,  six hours of train travel. I know a lot of people hate travelling, understandably; i will be sitting down on a train for a quarter of the day, but I quite enjoy it, I find its a great opportunity to get some work done; The plan for tomorrow is get another chapter of my sci-fi story done, finish reading Keith Johnstone's impro for story tellers and i'll probably think of something else that needs doing.

This time up at the festival, I've got myself a lot of guest spots. Primarily doing Improv; improvised comedy, which is my real love in life. I've also got a shedload of shows to see which I'll write about and review on here too. I'm already filling up my calendar with shows  to see and others to be in.

Last Fringe I went a little bit wild - spend all of my summer earnings very quickly and diving into my overdraft afterwards. This year I am determined to not go broke, partly because two weeks after i get back form Edinburgh i am off to london to do a week long improv course with people form Chicago. So here's the challenge. Try to keep to £20 a day or less. That being said i'm not going to stop myself having fun and I could afford £30 a day. But i'd really like to not be broke by the end of the trip therefore £20 is the challenge.

So tomorrow I will be on the train north, that days £20 in my pocket and ready for what Edinburgh holds. I cant wait