Nah, that's just me indulging in a little nostalgia from the Scottish Falsetto Socks video vault, remembering those glorious Edinburgh nights when we'd start the run with three sellouts in a row, and keep doing it every other night. This year in Adelaide we're not quite there yet, and still having to work hard to get ourselves known, seen and heard of.
As a byproduct of not having very big audiences yet, last night the Socks encountered their first Bogans. This is a dreadful pejorative term coined in the 80s which is a little similar to our own Chavs or Neds, but it can only be the right word to describe a group of drunks who not only threw their own socks onto the stage during the show and resolutely failed to understand a single part of the show (during the Cookery/Gardening/Superman routine they took to cheering every time Superman appeared and booing when the other characters appeared which meant nobody could hear any of the punchlines), but even took to singing during the show. Okay it was only one woman singing, and she didn't start until we were doing the Hollywood Musicals songs in the last quarter of the show. But once she'd started chipping in with her rendition of Chim Chiminy, over the top of whatever else the Socks were trying to do, there was no stopping her. The killer Star Wars routine, the most reliable end to a show we've ever had, was not helped by this woman singing the Star Wars theme tune at random times throughout it, including over the top of the lightsaber duel which, if you can't hear it, makes a whole lot less sense.
(If you've never seen the Scottish Falsetto Socks before, this is how things usually go...)
The reason we had these wholly unhelpful elements in the audience - who have just this moment reminded me of a Fosters advert from the 80s which I can't find on YouTube, the one where Paul Hogan goes to the opera and starts joining in? - is because this weekend is when The Adelaide Fringe starts in earnest, the first week being effectively a preview week when only the Garden of Unearthly Delights is open, and it is absolutely packed. This means that, after a certain hour of the evening, the organisers restrict access to Rundle Park (aka the Garden) unless you have a ticket for a show. This results in punters buying tickets for shows, regardless of what show they're going to see. Many will buy tickets for shows then not even go and see them, just so they can get through the gate and drink standing up (which is illegal elsewhere in Adelaide. No really). So there is a chance an unfortunate comedy show can end up with some audience members who have no idea what they're watching, are definitely not long established Socks fans, and can make it hard going for the majority of the crowd.
There is, of course, a solution to this. If we sellout our show in advance, so that every ticket holder is deliberately there to see us, we can get on with the business of making them laugh. So we're working on that. Already ticket sales for tonight, Saturday, are at a delightfully healthy level, with 9 hours till showtime. Let's make this a great big biggie.
And the temperature today..?
39 degrees? No worries. (And I take it as a consolation that the Captcha I had to type in in order to upload that screen grab was "easy as pie". I'm sure it will be).
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are at The Garden Of Unearthly Delights, Adelaide every night at 7.45 until March 18th. Tickets here.
Four & a half thumbs-up review from The Punch
"Roll up roll up" - Adelaide Advertiser review
"Side-splitting laughs" - FIVEaa review
"Delightfully silly and thoroughly enjoyable" - The Heckler
"Head-slappingly funny" - Festival Freak review
Adelaide Waiting - Socks video
Sorry to hear about the Bogans, they are truly representative of most of us down here
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