I always like to travel up to the Fringe for at least a day to catch a few shows and, if I’m lucky enough, jump on a gig or two. This year was properly crazy though. Here was how it went down:
06:00 – Wake up. Grab a brush and put on a little make-up. Set off on the long drive from Manchester to Edinburgh.
11:30 – Arrive in bustling Edinburgh city centre. Take a further 20 minutes to drive 1 mile through city centre to my eye-wateringly expensive parking space.
12:00 – Hand out flyers for the Felt Nowt showcase.
12:05 – Remember how much I hate flyering.
12:45 – Host the Felt Nowt showcase to a lovely audience of 3. Quality not quantity, and those 3 random people are at least game for a chat and a laugh. Connor Read does less than 5 minutes, tells the audience he has somewhere to be, then sits back in the audience. Joe Casey and Luke Connell represent bespectacled gents admirably. Sean Turner sings a Sweet Caroline parody about a woman made of sweets. We eventually get to an hour.
16:00 – Watch the Show for Gareth Richards. It’s a lovely tribute to a comedian I wasn’t greatly familiar with, ending in Nick Helm singing a song called ‘Disappointing Towel’ that gave me goosebumps.
17:00 – Bump into Taskmaster New Zealand’s assistant Paul Williams. Not only do I love him on TMNZ but he wrote ‘Surf Music’, one of my favourite songs, so it was hugely exciting (other comedians I walked past that day include Sam Campbell, Rose Matafeo, Stuart Goldsmith and Vittorio Angelone).
18:00 – Saw Glenn Moore’s truly brilliant ‘Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, Glenn I’m Sixty Moore’. I’m not sure I have ever seen a show so dense with jokes, callbacks, and amazing wordplay. Amazing stuff.
20:00 – Do a 7 minute set at ‘Kohl and the Gang, hosted by Raul Kohli. Raul gave me one of my first ever gigs when I was starting out, so it was nice to see him again. And what a venue! I wish I had gotten a picture because it’s the closest I’ve come to looking like Elvis in Vegas.
22:30 – Did a cheeky 5 minute set at The Stand 3 for 25 Years of Red Raw. I feel very lucky to have had The Stand on my doorstep and I love the idea of being a tiny part of its history. Ray Bradshaw hosted and was a thoroughly lovely chap who seemed to enjoy me serenading the crowd with ‘Bob Esponja Calca Quadrada’.
And after that, it was an hour long drive to Glasgow, a few hours sleep, then up and back to Newcastle the next day!
Harry Ford - Comedian 