Les Hitler Moustache programmes sont arrivee.
It's always an exciting day when the new programmes turn up and as I've upped the order (because we ran out last year and had to print more) there were an awful lot of boxes to get shifted into my lounge. And these 42 boxes were only two thirds of the total. God, I hope some people come and see the show.
I opened up one of the boxes and pulled out the first programme, ready to spot whatever typos and mistakes I had missed. I had found three in the first five minutes, but none of them are massive or important or as embarrassing as when I spelled "threw" as "through" two or three years ago. If you come to any preview or show from now on you will be getting one of these for free. Hope you enjoy it. They look pretty good to me.
I will be getting the limited edition programmes out to people who kindly donated at my justgiving page when I am up in Edinburgh and the show is up and running.
The people of New Cross were the first to be given the programmes as part of the show, before a satisfactory if not spectacular post-birthday show at the Amersham Arms. I wore a false moustache, which just about did the trick, though felt a bit unnatural glued to my upper lip. The smell of the theatrical glue took me back to the days of Ra Ra Rasputin where I wore a false beard and moustache. These would quite regularly peel off in the heat and the sweat of that exuberant performance, but tonight the 'tache stayed put. But it got a bit clogged up with glue and so was nowhere near as impressive as the real thing. It was good to know that I have this as an option in case of emergencies or non-moustachioed commitments, but I hope I can have my natural 'tache back to almost full glory by August 6th. In fact I think I am going to have to start shaving the sides off soonish as sticking the false moustache on top of a real full moustache tends to blur its meaning. But my mum and dad will be relieved to hear that I won't be doing that until after the Golden Wedding party on Saturday. I am not going to mar their event by wearing a toothbrush, even though my mum's dad had a little Chaplinesque tache which seemed to upset no one. Maybe because it was grey. I am just carrying on the family tradition. But I don't think my mum would see it like that. Still good to have the falsie. Might turn up in it to wind her up. Or put it on for the pictures. I quite like the idea of having the Hitler for posterity.
Still it's quite a jolt to notice how close to Edinburgh it is getting. The show is steadily improving, but there is some work to do before it is right. Getting good feedback from pretty much everyone, but it's definitely not there yet. Only a little over three weeks to go. I can't believe the Fringe has come around so quick. Hopefully the programme is so dazzling that people won't look at the show too closely! They'll be too busy proof reading it and correcting it in loud and pompous voices.
