Ouch. Here's the damage after the first night of Roll Up at this year's Fringe. The Sock on the left's eyeball got wrenched off during a costume change in the second half of the show. Thankfully they seemed to get away with it, with a lot of tonight's laughter, in what was a good opening show, coming from the wardrobe malfunctions.
Of which there were a couple too many, thanks, in part, to the heat. The Socks show this year is taking place in a brand new venue, The Gilded Balloon's Patter Hoose, which was formerly C Venues and is, for the rest of the year, Adam House on Chambers Street. My sub-venue, Dram, is one of two black boxes that have been erected inside what must be a gigantic ballroom. They're good spaces, which could actually seat more than the 60 punters they have allocated. The problem which only became obvious on the first night is that they have no air coming into them.
With air con units, and judicious opening of doors, we'll eventually cool the place down, but on the first night the room was the hottest room I've performed in since 2007/8's Balcony, which remains the hottest place on Earth I've ever been.
It's been that warm-up period where you meet friends you've not seen for a year. Here's me and Marcus, in our annual reunite selfie. And, talking of changing the subject, I was reassured talking to a friend who's in a Pleasance venue to learn that he too has a problem with the heat, causing heavy make-up to dribble into his eyes and blind him. So these teething problems affect us all, and we'll get over them.
Our Fringe kicked off with a performance at Chortle Fast Fringe on Wednesday where, though I say so myself, the Socks killed. Keeping our slot down to just two and a half minutes, we played a blinder, and did some good exit-flyering afterwards. That's the way to start your month.
The Patter Hoose looks good at night, and we've yet to see whether its location works well for getting punters in. One thing I've realised I can't do, which I was getting into the swing of last year, is last minute whipping-in. I was able, in recent years, to go round the tables of the Gilded Garden bar, just outside Teviot, reminding people our show was about to start. This regularly got a last minute handful of people to dash to the box office and come into the show. Now I'm in a venue that's a five minute walk from the Garden Bar, and which doesn't have such a busy bar itself, I can only do advance flyering. But, hey, I've done that before and, with application, I shall prove that I can find the punters, wherever they may hide themselves. Audiences for the first two nights were, I confess, lower than I'd like (Day 1 Wednesday was 30, the same as Socks In Space's first night, and just a few short of Superheroes and Shakespeare; but Day 2 Thursday was a rather poor 21, 2 short of Superheroes and in fact our third lowest opening Thursday ever. More flyering needed.)
Busy enough for you? This was the sight that greeted me at The List launch party at Summerhall on Thursday night, when I got there about 11.00. Quite the busiest of the parties I've managed to go to this season, and the winner of the free drinks prize, with Johnnie Walker, Red Bull, Innis & Gunn and no doubt others I could neither reach nor see giving away free drinks - and free top hats by the handful - left right and centre. Despite which I didn't stay long, having only found two people I knew, and had a nice chat with a chap who works as a clown. Well done Summerhall, though, on a great looking launch.
The Edinburgh Festival mag launch at Brewhamia (Tuesday) was fun, as it had been last year, with drag acts galore and more free drinks, this time a designer whisky whose name I, sadly, can't remember. Before that, and clashing with it (so one could nip between the two) was the Patter Hoose launch, with free wine and Johnnie Walker (a brand whose promotions are ubiquitous in town this year because, I learn, they're opening a new "Experience" venue on Princes St. The top hats are theirs. So far I've only collected one, but I'm sure there are more to be had.).
The Gilded Balloon's Press Launch was fun, but bloody hard work for the performers, comprising as it does a 90 minute show of various acts, in front of an industry audience, famous for their resistance to fun and laughing. The violin act (Bowjangles), the tap dancing blokes (The Tap Pack) and physical comics The Kagools were the most successful in the challenging environment, looking like great shows, and Gingezilla's torch singing commanded the room brilliantly. Comedians struggled more, but once they'd got over the fact that you weren't going to get proper laughter from this room, Hal Cruttenden, Maisie Adams, Daliso Chaponda, Fred Macaulay, magician Pete Heat, sketch group Just These Please, and especially MC Scott Gibson acquitted themselves well. Here's hoping the room was full of journalists that know enough about comedy to know to know a good act when they see one. It was good to touch base with Ewan, Geoff and other journalists, in our front row seats. It's good to feel the Fringe really starting.
Here's one of our posters at the venue. Due, I think, to me delivering artwork late, The Socks don't have an A1 poster outside the venue, which we'd hoped for. So we are feeling rather on the invisible side (more flyering needed). But given that there are more posters for more shows than ever before, to a degree that makes saturation feel a truly inadequate word, I'm not sure what good or harm posters do. Remembering that last year I splashed out on seven foot high billboards that seemed to make no difference to sales, let's see how different being poster-lite makes.
Oh yes, finally, what about the show itself? Well first night went great, eyeball-loss notwithstanding, and the second night was really hard work. A small crowd and a hot room probably didn't help, but they were also really really quiet from the start. The good news for me was that, once we'd won them round, they responded better to the second half of the show than the first. I've been worried that the narrative play with characters of this year's show, which is slightly different from our usual double-act sketch structure, was making the second half the weaker half, but this tough crowd showed that it ain't necessarily so.
Indeed I found this comment on Facebook this morning, referring I think to Wednesday's show: "Saw you last night - it was hands in the best thing I have seen at the fringe. Was impressed with the celebrity cast too. An eye-popping experieince! (Hope the recovery goes well)" - Simoof T Kowdog (probably not a real name).
How am I not sure that was Wednesday's show he was referring to? Because we also lost an eyeball, this time from the "sawing a lady in half" prop, on Thursday. Let's hope this doesn't become a thing.
Until August 25th, The Scottish Falsetto Socks ROLL UP! at the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose 9.30pm, every night of the Edinburgh Fringe 2019. Sexy new venue, sexy new timeslot. Book now!
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