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I flew up on Friday with a friend David McAdam. David is native to Scotland; he is originally from Dunfermline which is close to Edinburgh. On the first day, we managed to see three shows and go to apparently 9 different bars and restaurants. We touched down in Edinburgh around midday. The first show we saw was "Atomicity" by Chris Addison; it was a very funny and witty show. David was familiar with his column in the Guardian newspaper; this show was one of his picks. The loose premise of the show was about the universe of and how we are all made of atoms. Ultimately, the show ended on a positive note of a philosophical nature about living one's life, funny how he snuck that into a comedic monologue. At one point during the show, an older man stood up and exited the show; to exit the small hall, he had to go down to the front of the room and interrupt the show. Then the man, was not sure of the way out of the room and Chris stopped his monologue momentarily to assist. It then took Chris a few moments to remember what he was talking about; he was holding his face and laughing as he tried to regain his composure. Everyone was greatly amused by the unscheduled interruption.

Chris Addison's home page

Before the show, we had attempted to eat lunch at the Hard Rock cafe just near the venue the Assembly rooms. We abandoned our lunch about halfway only to be waiting in a queue to enter the venue. This was a preview of things to come.

David and I walked around Edinburgh after the show. We did stop at place called "Tiles restaurant and Bar" which is a listed building. I snapped a few pictures there. See the photo of David holding a Scottish five pound note.

The next show we was "Ray Peacock and Son" The premise of the show was a father and son routine that goes wrong during the performance. We saw this show at the Pleasance courtyard. We were sitting down in front and Ray asked me who I was and what I did. I mentioned that I worked for a TV company in London. He eventually got it out of me that I work for Sky Digital; he then proceeded to ask me if I could get him free satellite TV and what my phone number was. I said, "Sure" my number is 555 ...". He cut me off; he was not going to be mislead that easily. In TV and movies when someone gives out a phone number with 555 that means it is fictional; there is no 555 prefix in North America; it was my little joke. The show had its moments; the performance we saw was uneven.

Ray Peacock and Son

This was our last day to see performances at the Fringe Festival. During the day, David and I walked down to the new town in Edinburgh. We had certainly done a lot of walking over the last three days. We went to the City Cafe for lunch if I remember correctly. I had been here the year before and David Walliams the comedian actor from Little Britain was having lunch with some people. He was chatting with some people about his TV show and I swear he was making eyes at me; my friend was in the washroom and she missed it all. If she had seen it, I don't think I would have heard the end of it.

National Hero

This was a more conventional play in that there was an actually a set this time and props. It was a drama involving a bomb removal expert played by Timothy West and the complicated personal life he had. It was topical with the recent terrorist activity in the U.K. The play posed some very interesting questions and showed the consequences of the choices people make for love and out of fear. A very solid performance and thought provoking. The only thing was the theatre was like a sauna; it was so incredibly stuffy; it was almost unbearable

Fat, Bald and Loud

We saw Craig Shaynak do his routine; we had met Craig a few nights earlier. Craig's routine wa divided into two half; the first half he talked about his childhood and how as young man he became fat and bald. The anecdotes about him and his brother squabbling over Evel Kenievel toys was very funny. For the second part of the show, Craig did an improv act where he would randomly chose a type of accent or speaking style and put in a setting. Before the show, everyone in the audience filled out a questionnaire from which he based material to perform. After the show, we had a few lukewarm beers with Craig in the Apex Hotel bar. During the show that day; there was some children in the audience and Craig said this threw him off a bit; he had to be careful not to say anything that was inappropriate for impressionable children. Craig works in hi-tech during the day, like me. If all goes well, he will go full-time into acting and doing his comedy routine.

Fat Bald and Loud

We were now off to the Speigel tent to see comedian Jimeoin; he is apparently really popular in Australia where he lives; he is originally from Ireland.

On the way there, we stopped for a snack. There was a food stand selling Indian food; and they were selling something I had never seen before - haggis pakoras! David got an order of them and I tried a piece; it was quite nice actually. I had never had haggis before; I did have vegetarian haggis at a wedding the year before. David was quite impressed with the pakoras and noted the name of the restaurant where the people were from; I think they were only operating the food stand during the Fringe.

Jimeon
We meet up with a friend from Russell Stopford and his friend's Rachel and Barclay before the show. Russell and I met when I was at the BBC and we stayed in touch for over five years now. And David had worked with Russell when he was at channel 4. It was an unexpected surprise to see Barclay. He had recently left London to live on an island off the Scottish coast. Barclay was telling me his days where now spent dealing with the endless moisture in the properties he was renovating with his brother. Barclay used to run Remote Films; a non-profit film company based in south west London. And Rachel is a close friend of Russell's who lives in Edinburgh.

Jimeon's web-site

Jimeoin's routine was very funny. His delivery was quite relaxed; he eased from one segment into another and end his show with a song on the guitar or so it seemed. He is a regular at the Fringe festival. We laughed, chortled and guffawed.

After the show, we hopped into a cab to try to see one more show; Russell was saying this show was not one to miss if we could get tickets. Alas, it was not to be; it was sold out and there was not tickets at the door. We wondered what to do next and Russell said let's go for one drink and call it a night. Russell had been very busy over the last few days; he was doing some work filming and editing the talks at the Edinburgh TV festival. We want to a club called the Opal Lounge. And one drink turned into a few; Russell was in the mood to boogie and we all hit the dance floor for a bit. We ended up staying in the club until closing time around 3 AM. And we lost David in the process, we were able to speak to him on the phone and I decided to meet up with him in the morning. David was not making much sense and the phone connection was not very good; he tried explaining to me where he was but I could not make it out. Barclay had departed earlier on, now it was just Russell, myself and Rachel. We went to Rachel's apartment to chat and have another drink. There we were eating cereal in the middle of the night and drinking gin and tonics! Russell went to check what time his flight was on Monday. His face grimaced as he looked at his laptop. His flight was at 7:30 AM and it was now sometime approaching 4 AM! I got a taxi back to the residence. I found out later, that Russell took a later flight in the day and gave the early morning flight a miss.