fringe notes

Edinburgh. Used to live there, you know. Nice place. Been a while. Until last weekend. Visited the Blythes.

Outline: drive, drive, chat eat chat drink chat, sleep, cat, wake, cat, freshen, un-fast, bus, fringe…

Firstly, Flanders and Swann: A Brand GNew AfterGNoon, featuring my old friend from Derbyshire, Tim FitzHigham. Tim has previous on the Fringe, and he’s usually been running two shows a day, plus a few extras. This year, Tim’s wasn’t able to run his solo show, but the Flanders and Swann show was great fun. It featured a new selection of songs and a new script to tie them together, which is probably just as well as following last year’s show we bought the CD and listened to it a bit too much.

After the gig, we got to hang about with Tim for a couple of beers. It was great to catch up, and to hear that his writing appears to be going well. Last year, I bought a copy of his book ‘In The Bath’, which tells the story of Tim rowing across the channel in a bathtub. It has now been released as a paperback under the name “All At Sea: One man. One bathtub. One very bad idea.”

Conquering the Channel in a Piece of Plumbing.

Later on, we went to see Adam Hills: Inflatable. The show successfully wove some more serious thoughts in with the comedy, much of which arose from the interaction between Adam and the live-action signer for the deaf. A solid four-star rating.

Finally, at a ridiculous hour, we went to see Daniel Kitson at the Stand. Daniel Kitson is simply very, very funny. No other act I’ve seen can render me helpless with laughter - giggling like a child with ribs and cheeks aching and tears in my eyes. His work is always very personal, very honest, and I think this contributes much to the power of the storytelling. You’ve not Fringed until you’ve Kitson’d.

…and then, more sleeping, more waking, more eating, more chatting, more shopping, and more driving, and a good time was had by all.