Festival 2

On Monday, the last day of the festival, Jo and I went through. I would recommend going thru for the last day, as although a lot of the shows were finished, The Underbelly and the Pod Deco were dismantling their venues when we went past, for instance, there’s less competition for tickets for what is on and the streets and venues aren’t as packed.

We first of all saw Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) at the Pleasance, which had been a 5 star sell out show all Festival. And it turned out to be one of my highlights. A monologue in a tight studio theatre, delivered by James Urbaniak star of Henry Fool and the man who played Robert Crumb in American Splendor. He totally grabbed the audience by the balls, the interaction was better than most stand-up comedians. An audience member left and Urbaniak chased after him, commenting on his exit. We weren’t sure if it was scripted or not (it was) though what definitely wasn’t, was the Edinburgh native, who remarked ‘Ees left ees bag, as well.’

It was partly a comic performance that had us laughing out loud and sometimes giggling nervously as he developed an unnerving feeling within us all, repeatedly asking for volunteers and then going ‘no, skip it,’ until he did bring a terrified individual out onto the stage, where he stood for the remainder of the performance.

It was a premiere for the Festival and transfers to London this week. I was also pleased at being able to buy the text on the way out for a mere £2.50.

After that we moved onto The Assembly Rooms to see another critically acclaimed play, Fatboy, starring Mike McShane, best known here for Who’s Line is it Anyway.

Although there was a strong central performance from McShane, neither Jo nor I really got it. We think it was supposed to be a satire on America’s selfish greed, or even on the greed and selfishness that is inherent in all of us. The reviews seem to bear this out, but it didn’t really stick with us during the show. There was a few laughs and it must have had the highest expletive ratio of anything in the Festival.

We had a nice finish to the festival though as we went to see Adam Hills and his Go You Big Red Fire Engine 2: Judgement Day. Jo was enthralled by how nice he came across as. His show was funny and fun.

A large chunk of his show centred around Disney and their refusal to allow disabled or terminally ill children to be photographed in Disneyland. As you may be aware Hills himself has an artificial foot. Apparently Disney don’t allow this because it would ‘shatter the magic of Dinseyland’ cos they wouldn’t want kids to be aware that Mickey Mouse’s Jesus like abilities to cure the afflicted have wore off. Last I knew children didn’t think that Donald Duck was a cancer specialist. As Hills himself notes, ‘what makes them think that disabled people’s greatest wish is not to be disabled?’

His laughter with a message made a nice end to the Festival for me.

Celebs spotted today were comedian Adam Bloom, Rob Brydon giving someone directions on the Royal Mile, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Owen O’Neill, playwright Ian Heggie on the bus to Glasgow and Nancy Cartwright again. She was with her two kids and as they were going into a show, she shouted her son over. “All right!” he said as he stomped toward her, as he passed our table he rolled his eyes and exclaimed “Jesus!” Must be tough to raise kids when you’re Bart Simpson.