Hello Comedy
Bonnie Scotland. That’s right, that place where they wear skirts. Me and comedian Spencer Owen went up to Edinburgh to watch some funny ha ha. My challenge? To scout out some good new acts!
Have a look-see what we got up to.
Many of you might know I do a bit of stand-up. I made my debut in February supporting Robin Ince. I did some odd ventriloquism in one gig and as part of a TV show I’m working on, I thought it a good idea to go up and check out some new acts! I roped in Spencer Owen to come along to help sift the ho ho from the no no.
Who did we see?
We had this massive timetable but cause of rushing around and some tickets not getting sorted we made do. I’ve linked each to youtube clips if you wanna check em out. If not, don’t. Boom:
Friday
Reginald D Hunter – Interesting more than hilarious. Is that a good thing?
Dave Hill – Spence said he was all right
Andrew Lawrence – Surprisingly uncreepy
Late Night Talky Talk – Free Fringe show with Linus Lee. Noisy band annexed to the venue made it a bit… ugh
C Aquila Open Mic – Nice little mine of decent unknowns including Adam Larter and Victoria Cullen
Saturday
The Aspidistras – Morning show. Gave us free croissants and coffee! Nice ladies. Cafes should be like this
Lunchtime Club – Well good! 5 young (20-25 year old) comedians. Literally, people, these guys are gonna big on our TV screens, proper talented: Tom Rosenthal and Rob Beckett, Liam Williams, Ian Smith and Joel Dommett.
Ray Green AKA Dave Gibson – Like Alan Partridge but more subtle. Like this guy
Oxford Revue – Nah. Studenty. Drama students pretending be comedians. Bum off
Nick Mohammed – Best show we saw. Never a dull moment. Unlike Holby City
Jon Richardson – Quite good…but hmm… we were well tired. Yeah, that was probably it
Comedy Reserve – Came to see Rhys Jones who was good but Daniel Simonsen was absolutely ace!
Sunday
We mooched around, ate greasy food
How did it go then? Good?
Yeah it was pretty good! Rammo on the train going up and quite a lot of rushing around getting to see acts. The main thing that went all tits up was the sleeping arrangement. See, we didn’t have any. We ended up getting 9 hours sleep in 3 days.
I managed to find out about a guy who had some rooms spare in a 4 bed flat he was renting. We called him and checked them out but he wanted £100 each for one room per night! We said no. On the sly, we arranged to come back later and stay with one of the guys already staying there. Cunning!
Problem. My phone battery died. We waited outside for this bloke to get home, 5am, still hadn’t turned up! So… we had to break in to a house – I say break in, I made someone hold the door open in an apartment block saying we’d forgot our key – then we snook inside and slept in a diabolical cellar.
Conclusion
Saw some good acts. Feels like those Lunchtime Club lot will do well which is exciting. But weirdly, at the same time sobering and slightly annoying as my own gig sets are miles away. I thought David Gibbs was ace too. Special big-up to Rob Beckett who won the Amused Moose competition! I entered that… didn’t make it past the first round. Bum.
Basically, if you get a chance to go up to Edinburgh, do. It’s a beautiful city – yes, I said the b word – and the festival is amazing. We saw comedy but there’s music, theatre and bizarre performances (circus, burlesque, magic) too. It’s still on for 7 days. Go see stuff. Go on, GO!!
did the God guy know you were filming him?
xx