Fab first night in rainy Edinburgh

Here, in the window of the Gilded Balloon shop, we have the Socks' merchandise on sale. The Socks comic and t-shirts are waiting for the punters to snap them up, another first time venture for us. For reasons I can't fathom, I've never got our shirts into the shop before, only ever managing to sell them face to face. Well now you can buy them when you pick up your tickets, and I hope you all do.

The Socks' first night was a stonker, though we come away with one big lesson - the show's too long. Again. This happens every year. We write an hour long show, getting it down to approximately 60 minutes in previews, then it grows in Edinburgh, with audience laughter and ad libs, meaning we need to trim it. A good 5 minutes has to go from the current show. On our opening night we'd reached the 59 minute mark and hadn't even sung the final "reuniting" song, let alone done the finale. If it's any consolation, first night audience, the finale's not the best bit of the show, but we feel you were robbed. So, today some judicious trimming is underway.

Before our own show, The Socks made an appearance at Chortle's Fast Fringe, which was excellent. We were the 9th act on a bill of a dozen acts, each doing 3 minutes, and for the first half of the show the audience was taking a lot of warming up. It's a difficult show to keep the momentum going in, with such a variety of acts coming on an such breakneck speed. But by the time we came on they were more than ready and we absolutely killed.

We were blessed with a lovely bit of audience interaction.

Right Sock: Name a superhero, they might be in the show
Punter: Superman
Right Sock: Or they might not
(Audience laughter)
Punter (repeats): Superman
Right Sock: No, we heard you. I don't know if you saw, we just did a gag that some might call witty, even ironic, based on the fact that we'd heard you and the audience heard us hearing you. By saying 'Superman' again you are, if anything, wasting time that we can't spare in this Three Minute Slot!

It doesn't read like anything, and the words will have been slightly different, but the timing was lovely and got great laughs from the knowledge that we were wasting a bit of our 3 minute slot talking about how we were wasting a bit of our 3 minute slot. Ah, you had to be there.

We then gave them Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, which went brilliantly, and off to great applause. Some good exit flyering afterwards and, hopefully, that'll spread the word that our show's a laugh.

More notes that need working on: the guest set needs mending. The cross bar is only held on by elastic bands, and has been ever since I lost one of fixing bolts during a gig on the Gilded Garden's outside stage (don't look for it, it's not there any more) in 2012. I must find a way of making it more secure, otherwise I can't lift the set with one hand, which makes getting on and off stage really hard.

Last night's opening audience, for our main show, wasn't bad. It beat 6 out of 9 shows, beating all of the "Modern Era" shows except 2015's Minging Detectives. Somehow, since our 2012 return, we've never managed the feat of '09 and '10 when our opening nights were sellouts. It was the past, they did things differently then.

And it's raining. We're all very nostalgic for the legendary summer of 2018 - do you remember it? When the sun shone all day, we reached record temperatures, and no-one thought it would ever end? That seems like years ago. I'm wearing an anorak and my flyers are sticking together. Onwards and upwards.

The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - STARTS TONIGHT! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018