More from the Fest

To start off with we went to see Danny Bhoy at the Assembly Rooms. Jo’s been wanting to see him for ages, mainly cos he was in her tutorial class at university. It took me a while to warm up to him, but he got funnier and funnier as his set wore on. His show explored Scottishness. The Scottish diet, thistles and bagpipes. It’s funnier than it sounds believe me. He managed to be funny covering even the most basic of themes, like the Scottish reaction to last orders. “Shut it, you’re having two.”

After that we went for dinner on Hanover Street. Jo was impressed by the amount of choice on this one street. We eventually plumped for La Rusticana. After showing her the charms of The Phoenix on Broughton Street we headed up to The Stand.

It was no surprise to me but Daniel Kitson is still the funniest thing at the Edinburgh Festival. This year his show was a response to a review he received in Australia that termed him ‘a misogynistic little bully.’ It centered on his childhood friend Sam and the fact that Sam shaped him as an adult.

The funniest bits for me included Dan asking “When you’re doing something good for someone, you wish that other people could find out about it, without you having to tell them.” His routine on eating at a Chinese restaurant – going from shoveling down course after course to demanding any remaining food be removed from your vision less you be sick was inspired. He even had a bit on his love for Ben Folds and his horror that someone he thought a dick saw him with a Ben Folds T-shirt on and came over to speak to him.

He played for about an hour and three-quarters and apart from one bit about hotels did a different set from the 3 hour show I saw in Glasgow in March. He’s without doubt the most consistently funny comedian I’ve seen.

From here we went to Late ‘N’ Live at the Gilded Balloon. This was slightly disappointing. We missed the opening act but got there in time for Ed Byrne. I’ve never really been a big fan of his but I found him hilarious here. His routine on a Glasgow drunk threatening a kebab shop owner in Dublin was brilliant. He was followed by Jason Byrne who again I’ve never been a fan of and this performance didn’t change that for me. He closed by having Ed Byrne return and throw himself over some chairs, such is the crazy spirit of Late N Live.

Compere Phil Nichol then came on to do a cover of Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun with the band for the evening Rock Bros. I suggested that they were a department store who dealt only in rock related products. “Haberdashery, no madam, first floor plectrums, drumsticks and sweatbands.’

Anyway they rocked the night away as we adjourned to the bar. And at 5am that was about the end of the night for us. All that was left to do was attempt to find somewhere that sold a bacon roll. We did but about three hours later back in Glasgow.