My boring old Edinburgh continues, but I think I am happier this way. I managed to get to the gym for the first time in a few days and was pleased to see that despite eating a fair amount of Haribo and chocolate to get me through the rigours of AIOTM my weight continues to drop. I seem to be about 7kg lighter than I was 5 weeks ago, which is not too bad a result (but of course I am on a different pair of scales, so there's no guarantee that is right). And though I was tired and had forgotten my headphones, so didn't manage too long on the running machine, I then played Conquest on the iPhone as I went on the exercise bike and managed to keep going for over 35 minutes without really realising I was cycling. I was almost late to meet Collings in Caffe Nero.
He was a bit tired and ill, having been out enjoying himself most nights, unlike his monkish and monkeyish flatmate and colleague. And I was maybe a little too grumpy and rude and things got a bit sticky in places. Though I was glad to see that the rather shy Andrew in the audience, who was there with his mum, seemed to be happily posting photos of himself with us on Twitter after I had maybe overstepped the line from banter to bullying. Usually I am quite good at selecting a "victim" who will enjoy the experience (and the plethora of people lining up to be called a cunt by me shows that there is a willing audience for this nonsense) but the room is dark and it sometimes hard to gauge reactions. In the end Andrew and his mum were laughing at the awful things I was saying, but I am not sure the rest of the audience appreciated this. It's been weird the way that people are being shocked by what is going on in the podcast, but I think we are getting a significant minority each day who have not heard it before, so maybe don't realise that the grouchiness and rudeness is an act. And on some days perhaps when we are putting ourselves through the not entirely simple task of adlibbing 10 hours of comedy in under two weeks, we are perhaps actually a little bit too grouchy. But I am enjoying digging myself a hole and seeing if I can get out it. I really have very little idea of what will be coming out of my mouth next. Hopefully you at home will be laughing more than the audience in the room.
Check it out here.
I had been amazed and impressed by
the news story of the nimble, leaping bull and it was hard to feel too much sympathy with the crowd of people who had come to watch a bull being tormented, when they themselves became the tormented ones. But people got hurt and the bull got destroyed so there aren't really any winners. Even if he is the Braveheart of bulls and the first step in a Planet of the Bulls situation developing.
I had stupidly taken on more work agreeing to write a 1200 word article about having a Hitler moustache for FHM to help publicise the DVD release in October. I tried to avoid getting on with it, but luckily it's a subject that I am on top of and I managed to get half of it done despite sitting around eating Soleros for most of the evening. I should be able to polish it off in the morning.
And after last night's disappointing dip to an audience that was 181 strong (annoyingly just short of the White Belly capacity of 185 that I had been hoping I might top every night this year), there were significantly more in tonight to see a solid show. My editor came and spotted a spelling mistake in one of the slides that only one other person has noticed (or told me about) and the other one couldn't remember which name was wrong.
I went to the bar for a short while, but then came home to watch some telly and try to make some headway on the limited edition programmes. There's still about 90 to put in envelopes and post, but they are at least now all created, so as long as you've sent me your address donators you should get yours before the end of the Fringe. I was up til about 2am doing them, half-watching "Galaxy Quest". I love the Edinburgh Fringe. Venue 2089 (our lounge) has by far the best shows on.
