Every Edinburgh run includes a night which becomes known as “That Night”. A night when, assuming every other night has been going swimmingly and you’re doing a show you’re happy with, the audience will come along and simply not get it. It happened this week on Monday night when a healthily sized audience sat there in near silence, seeming to not understand gags, or maybe just dislike them. It’s hard to tell, though I did hear one woman talking to a friend as they left asking “how much of that did you understand?”. So quite possibly there was a contingent with English as a second language, we will never know.
You know That Night’s gone badly when you get your only bad audience review. The edfringe.com website only has six reviews on it for the Socks, all glowing. Then someone called Keith D has come along, clearly on That Night, and provided the poo in the punchbowl. He writes “Very disappointing show. Avoid if you can. Part of the show was not even performed, as the 'sock puppets' ran out of time. The only vaguely amusing bit was when the sock puppet 'outfits' started falling apart mid-act.” (I thought it was Keith D, who I know on Facebook and who is notable misanthropic towards the Fringe in general, but he reports that it’s not him, adding “ I shall find this imposter and kill him with socks”). I am reminded of the two audiences that came to our Glasgow previews back in March, one of whom loved the show and one of whom was the “Hooray Henries” who sat there playing with their phones and soured the mood for everyone. Maybe they’d come back on Monday to wreak their revenge and repeat the experience?
I’m happy to report that Tuesday night’s show was a return to form, and with only five performances left to go, even if we were to have another That Night every night, and let’s hope we won’t, it would remain statistically insignificant and won’t sully the memory of an excellent show that’s been a joy to perform almost every night.
And, as if to prove that no night is all bad, the video of Dead Ringer For Superman that has gone online was recorded on That Night. The laughter’s not as big as the other two nights we got on camera, but the lyrics are clearer and the shots of the costume collapse were the best. Hey, even Keith D enjoyed that bit.
(By way of context, here's my report from That Night in 2009 (again it was the final Monday), when the flat audience reaction totally threw me. I now recognise a bad night when it happens, and know it's not my fault. Showbiz.)
The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe every night at 10.30pm until August 26th
No comments:
Post a Comment