I may be the only comedian in Edinburgh actually awake at this time, and I've certainly not adjusted to Edinburgh Time in any way. Hev and I came away from the Loft Bar last night before 1am and felt it was getting a bit late.
This is the first year I've combined doing an Edinburgh Fringe show with doing a, sort of, day job. For three days I've been teaching my Comic Art Masterclass at Balerno High School. Only 2 hours each day, though with the drive out and back it's taking me out from 12.30 to 4.30, time which in previous years would have been filled with flyering the show and filming Socks Diary videos on the street.
In 2007 and 08 I filmed a Socks diary every single day of the festival, but this year I haven't even started one, and with this schedule I can't see it happening in a hurry. For as well as the day work, which this coming week sees me doing two libraries a day, from 10 till 3.30 plus travel, for four days, there has been the flooding of our flat back home.
This being the first year Hev has accompanied me for week one (usually she arrives in week 3), little could have been more damaging to a holiday than your flat being flooded by a leak from upstairs so bad it gets reported by the flat below you, about which you can do nothing but worry and make phone calls. A lot of time, phone money, and angst has been expended on this problem, which will continue to hang over us long after Hev goes back next Thursday. She doesn't yet know if she'll be able to turn the lights on without blowing the place up, so untold horrors no doubt await.
On the other side of the coin it's been the best Edfringe yet for me and the Socks. We've had one total sellout followed by two technical sellouts (5 seats left unsold and I think that's a problem about releasing venue or press tickets which I can sort out) and we've already been on GMTV. The shows have gone really well, and I mean really well. After we changed the content between shows one and two, losing two weaker sketches and replacing them with one from the touring show, it has come together beautifully and hopefully we can keep this up.
And last night Hev and I had a barbeque on our roof terrace. The flat may be smaller than previous years (and that was a cause of some misery before it got drowned out, as t'were, by the flat back home's problems), but a roof terrace that looks out over the roofs of the Royal Mile round to the Mound, to Calton Hill, to the Firth to Arthur's Seat and round to the Mile again is unbeatable. And we had it to ourselves, gorgeous.
And the weather, though it tempts fate to mention it, has been incredible. Hot and sunny all day since we arrived. Remembering we left behind a Bristol where I felt it hadn't stopped raining for a month (and it was Somerset's wettest July since records began in the 19th century) this is a treat we can't underestimate.
Today I have the annual Edinburgh tradition of Parking The Car, ie taking it somewhere outside of the parking fee zone (which extends every year) and walking a loooong way back (then planning the bus journeys to take me to all next week's day jobs). Then flyering. Tonight's show is selling well and should, fingers crossed, be full by tonight, but the rest of the week has a long way to go.
Especially Monday the bloody 10th. It is still the only show not to have sold a single bloody ticket. It's inexplicable. I've put the show on a 2-for-1 offer, and will plug it like buggery all weekend. Luckily I bloody love flyering and am actually actively looking forward to getting stuck in.
Here we go....
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