So it looks like I'm falling behind in my updates. I am too tired in the evening to upload my photos and write the blog so I'm doing it in the mornings. Seems to work better. While Robin and Deb do the "fat burning dance party" video in our parlour room and Colin surfs the net and Hendrik talks to the publicist and letting agents and while Jayne does her hair and Luke gets out of bed ... I write this. We are like one big happy family. I came home last night from seeing a show and there was music playing and everyone was gathered in the living room laughing, talking, sketching. Yes Jayne and Deb have started a sketching club. They are very good.
Yesterday I saw two shows. One in the morning called Sting for Nolte. It was amusing. The acting was better than the writing I felt. It was about a guy whose fiance gets him tickets to a Sting concert for his birthday. He hates Sting but loves Nick Nolte so he decides instead of finishing his philosophy paper on probability and telling his fiance he hates sting that he is going to convince Sting to remake all of Nick Nolte's movies. The lead guy was very charming and funny. I'd say they did well for a 12:15pm crowd. My theory is that audiences here fair better when there is no fourth wall in comedy shows. They like to be addressed. With our show I feel like they are being very polite and quiet as they watch what they feel is a play. Just a theory. And I have had many trying to figure out the workings of audiences here.
After the show I walked and walked. I found this beautiful old cemetary behind the Greyfriars pub. Many prominent Edinburgh writers, thinkers and politicians are buried there. Among them Allan Ramsay who was a very famous poet from here. It is a really creepy cemetary. They actually have a midnight grave tour where they take you around and tell you all the scary stories about those who are buried there. While I was walking around taking pictures it started to drizzle rain while the sun shone. Very beautiful. The graveyard came with it's own "angry Scottish grave keeper". I think every graveyard should have one. He was telling one tourist about the most haunted grave. I actually got creeped out looking at it.
Then I walked to one of the venues that is under the bridge in this cave like spot. (Pictured above) It's called the Underbelly. I bought tickets to see Rebecca Drysdale, a comic who is doing a one-woman show. I chose it because she is a Second City alumna and won some new comedian award at the Aspen Comedy Festival. It was two for one Mondays so I got an extra ticket. Oh forgot to mention that on my way to see Sting for Nolte I saw the Edinburgh policeman's piper band playing. This city is crazy in that sense right now. You walk down the street and can see six or seven different bands, Polish men on stilts, a fire eater, everyone is out doing their thing. It's great.
We did our show last night. The crowd was a bit smaller. And quieter than our opening. But of course after these women approached us and said our brilliant the show was. I thought were you at the same show? Then I was surprised to see my friend Ryan waiting for us outside the venue. Ryan is my friend Mia's partner and he is a drummer who is here touring. Small world. And he also teaching Luke drumming. Hilarious. So suddenly I had someone to use the extra ticket that I'd bought for the show. So we ran over. Watched the show. It was okay. I wasn't really blown away. She ended it by taking off her clothes and miming taking a shower. I thought if you're going to take it all off in front of a fifty people at least say something. I don't know. Then Ryan and I bumped into the bass player from his band and we all went to grab some food. It was nice. He went to his gig and I went to find the ladies and wander. Didn't find anyone but went to the Spiegeltent which is my new favorite place at the Fringe. There was a human jukebox. Three guys crammed into a inflatable jukebox and people would put money in and request songs. They were great. So fun. The tent is amazing really. The one in Toronto doesn't even compare. Sorry Dmitry. I love the show in Toronto but we're so ... not European. I don't know how to describe it any other way.
Then I walked home. Another beautiful night in Edinburgh. Woke up this morning to a review in the Scotsman, the local Edinburgh paper. It's a readers review but still very encouraging:
4 stars
Of the six Fringe Festival productions we have seen to date, Women Fully Clothed, showing at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, is by far the most superior. These five fabulously funny females present a fast-paced, slightly satirical look, with a Canadian edge, at the lives of women. Comediennes in their own right, the women blended their individual styles and talents to form a successful ensemble. See it!
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