festival: tim minchin

Last weekend the Edinburgh Festival Fringe kicked off, and we went to see our first show - Tim Minchin. We saw his show last year (for which he won the Perrier Newcomer Award), and thought it was fantastic, so we booked tickets to see him again as soon as this year’s program came out.

This years show, ‘So Rock’, was very good indeed. The songs and standup were almost all new material, with the balance a little more towards the standup side than in last year’s ‘Darkside’. The only repeat from last years show was the song ‘Canvas Bags’, where Tim implores the audience to take their canvas bags to the supermarket instead of using plastic ones. The song is funnier than it sounds, I assure you.

A cynic could argue that this was just a merchandising opportunity wrapped in a veil of green, as Tim’s reasonably priced keepsakes included Officially Branded Canvas Bags. However, we can now report the advantages of this investment. The one we purchased last year, and waved in the air during the climax of this years Canvas Bag performance, earned us a little wave from Tim.

The Fringe is huge - the largest arts festival in the world. Navigating the programme is not easy. Here’s how we work out what to see:

• Look for new shows involving people we’ve seen and enjoyed before, and book them for early on in the festival. We booked Tim Minchin on the first weekend, and got to see a great act for half price.
• During the first week or two, keep and eye on the reviews. Chortle is a good site for online reviews, as it Edinburgh Festivals.
• Filter out the poor reviews and the ones that don’t sound like your cup of tea.
• Book the promising ones during the last week or so.

Anj