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I am officially dead, well not really or I wouldn’t be writing this blog. But I have been touring right up till the day I arrived at the Edinburgh Fringe. I am exhausted and happy and clearly not dead. My show is at Pleasance Dome at 7pm every night, and people keep bringing kids to the show, which is freaky and odd. Meanwhile Ashley is Flyering like a devil out in the sun/rain that is Edinburgh. She is all sunburnt and sneezy. I love her dedication and hard graft. Yesterday I had a big fight with my hair and then decided to get most of it cut off and I did. A great hairdresser in Lothian Rd took up the challenge and my hair is the shortest it’s ever been in 40 years and I LOVE IT! It’s not gym teacher short, just short enough to manage. The show is going well, I made it up when I got here and it’s all god fun. Sorry I have been slack with my blogging, please forgive me? I am alive. I will write more tomorrow and give you juicy gossip and stuff. |
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At the Edinburgh Fringe, you do nothing but run about organising tickets, Flyering teams and making sure the box office hasn’t screwed up the tickets YET AGAIN! My show is at Pleasance Dome at 7pm every night and it’s going great. I have had a wonderful 4 star review and the other reviews haven’t been printed yet. The rain in Edinburgh really flooded the city over the past week and that has affected sales big time. The good news is, I got to meet the amazing Joan Rivers, I got to have sell out shows and I got to see my best mate Monica, her sister and her mum. They all came through to see the show. I have been video taping some stuff for a video blog and Ashley and husband are exhausted with the organising and Flyering side of things. Poor Ashley looked like a seal as she stood in the rain for hours handing out the leaflets promoting my show. I feel so sorry for her and the other guys that are helping me; I hope the evil rain goes away soon. Good news is, people have stopped bringing kids to my comedy show. It was becoming mental, I mean, I am chatty but for adults only to be honest. The show isn’t that rude, but there is adult content in there. So today is Saturday and I have period pains that would kill a horse, the cluster bomb in my womb is going big guns, yet I have to smile and pretend I am not bleeding to death. (When does this stop?). I am having a great time at the Fringe; I do love everything about it and can’t stop smiling every time I see my face on a poster, or a stranger buying a ticket for my show. These things keep me going! |
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I have been here now for two weeks and had ONE review! Granted it was a great FOUR star stonking review, but I am annoyed that’s all I am getting so far. The show is selling out well at weekends and that’s really cool with me. Mid-week the numbers are a slightly lower as not as many people are coming to the Fringe mid-week as previously assumed. The credit crunch seems to be having some financial effect and that’s worrisome for the shows. We depend on the cash through the ticket sales, as it costs about £10,000 to put on a show at the Fringe. Ashley is on the streets every day handing out the flyers, and she has a great wee team with her who manage to get my name out there. The problem is the bloody box office system, first they tell people that there are NO tickets left for me, then deny they said that, and then offer other shows to people who want to buy my tickets, and then deny that as well. But luckily Ashley went in to the Fringe Box office and pretended to be a punter and asked for tickets to my show. She was told I was sold out and did she want to buy tickets for some other bloke’s comedy show. Ashley exploded and explained she had full control and access to the ticket sales and she knew personally that there were tickets available for my show. I had to make seven phone calls to finally release twenty tickets for my show, which was after hours of the Fringe Box office saying I was sold out when I wasn’t! No wonder I am stressed to hell. The Pleasance has been helpful and is trying to resolve the Fringe Ticket Fiasco. So if you come through to Edinburgh and try to buy tickets for my show and they tell you it is sold out, COME TO THE PLESANCE DOME TICKET BOX OFFICE and buy them there. I am usually at the Pleasance Dome Box Office around 6.40pm. If you had problems getting a ticket, tell me personally! I will deal with it myself and try my best to make sure you get in. I will NOT let the incompetence of the systems that they programmed ensure my punters and I lose out. Thanks everyone for coming to see me and if you see my daughter Ashley handing out flyers in Edinburgh, give her a big smile for me, encouragement is a wonderful thing! |
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Last night I won the Nivea Funny Women Award, I got loads of lovely skin care products and a thousand quid! The award show was running late and I just managed to mutter some of my speech, I knew I had to run off to a late night gig at the Gilded Balloon, so my daughter Ashley did most of the speech for me. I have a video of it all and will post it soon. I am exhausted this morning and feel as though I have been hit by a truck, I am groggy and tired for no good reason. My show at The Pleasance is going well, audiences are wonderful and all would be great if the rain would just stop. Each night the show changes slightly according to how I feel and I love just improvising and dropping new bits in when I feel like it. Ashley and her mate Victoria are out Flyering daily, in rain and shine, I love them both. |
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I haven’t blogged in at least a week and I am so very sorry. I am still at the Edinburgh Fringe and the rain hasn’t stopped yet, so I am pissed off with it all. It really has made the Fringe really hard, the audiences have been coming in dripping wet, and I feel so sorry for them. Though they have been wonderful and I love the fact they still come to see me. I am lucky in a sense as my venue ‘The Pleasance Dome’ has inside queuing facilities and the audience can enjoy a hot coffee whilst they wait. Each night I walk through the queue to my show, and watch out for kids. As adults have still been bringing young children to my comedy show, I have no idea why, as the show is clearly labelled for 16 years and over in the brochure. Living at the Fringe is quite strange, the whole family have to decamp to a new flat and we all seem to fit in fine. Each person taking their own role in the circus that is my life, Ashley gets the Flyering done and husband looks after food and cleaning duties. I merely do the show. I was a guest on a few other shows, like Late and Live, Spank and The Nicholas Parsons show. I also done a wee stint on The Hamilton’s Late Night Show. It’s all good fun and I am a bit dosed up with the flu. The fringe has been awesome despite all the shit that goes with it, I have sold more tickets this year than any year I have ever been and that’s a pretty good achievement considering that most shows are having a hard time. The credit crunch, the Olympics and the weather have been against us from day one and don’t even mention the shit box office that failed to sell tickets. I am still pretty chuffed that I won Nivea Funny Women Award as well. Some people have tried to diminish the award, being rather negative but as far as I am concerned, anyone who supports female comics is ok by me. Being a seasoned performer at the Fringe makes me see things a wee bit clearer than the newcomers to the business. At the parties, you see stand ups chatting but staring over your shoulder to see if someone more interesting is standing close. Maybe a TV executive or major promoter could be within grabbing distance and you know your time with this person is over as their eyes start to glaze and they make a run for it to the more important person. You know you have a good pal in a comic when the continually make eye contact throughout your conversation. Last week I had a good catch up with the funny Johnny Vegas and comedy legend Barry Cryer. Both funny men and good chatters, though the night was cut short as yet another rainy down pour put paid to outside fag break. I slipped off to go home and outside the venue heard two comics bitching about other people’s reviews. The petty jealousies and sniping back biting always exists. Who got a comedy nomination? With cries of “Really, her? She is shit” ringing out through The Underbelly bar or who got a sell out show? “Why did he get an extra show? He is shit” Who got a five star review? “That sketch show is piss poor” That’s how life is at the Fringe. This goes on constantly, and it can become weary. Yet the positivity and hopefulness still thrives all around us, not every one is having a bad day at the same time. So it is now nearly all over. Speak soon. |