Edinburgh 2008 - Day Two

Monday 4th August 2008 (Day Two)

The second day of our second Fringe (our first proper decent-lengh one!) was sunny. Retrospectively, I appreciate this hugely. I'd packed very ambitiously (stupidly) for this Fringe - I'd brought little dresses and sandals: ridiculous!! All you need for a Fringe is: jeans (a couple of pairs in case of extreme rain!), t-shirts (band t-shirts are good, prettier t-shirts and tops are nice too; if you want to dress up especially for a certain comedian this is understandable!) And trainers!!! Or similar! And under no circumstances forget wellies!!! That is all you need. Oh, and cardigans etc for layers in case it's chilly. But it's boiling in loads of venues so you'll have to take them off!

So, it was warm, sunny and Richard and I were up early (in time for breakfast) and Nat wasn't (as is her usual way!). We had a lovely wander around, had time to take in some street performances (which is always lovely; we usually have very little time though. Ideally you should leave some hours free to wander and take all of this amazing stuff in.)

Then our first show was Rich Hall: Fifty Cent Words - Rich Hall was reading from his then-forthcoming book Magnificent Bastards - it was really great, a very cosy, intimate gig - just Rich and one of those old-fashioned leather chairs. Afterwards Richard told him that one of his jokes was his favourite ever joke. I said 'you're great, thanks' or something; he seemed like a really nice guy but I think he was hurrying to get somewhere (people usually are during the Fringe!).

In the afternoon (Nat was awake by this time!) we saw Teechers, a play by John Godber. It's a really good play - about these schoolkids in Liverpool who have been inspired by their drama teacher; they put on an end of year performance which is based on the reality of their last year of school. It's fun, funny and clever.

After tea we saw Mark Watson: All The Thoughts I've Had Since I Was Born - this was the year Mark Watson had really become popular - he was in the Pleasance Grand which is one of the really big venues! However, he hadn't let it go to his head or anything (and still hasn't, he's geniunely lovely) and spent ten minutes before the show wandering round the audience having little chats. His show was really good - it was the first time I'd seen him.

After that we went to a Rocky Horror Night at Frankenstein's Pub - it wasn't all I hoped; not many people had dressed up. The staff there were being the cast and they looked and sounded great buy in between the songs they played fairly bad/uninteresting dance music; we'd got dressed up and were expecting that everyone else would have but I think a lot of people were just out for a drink. If anyone was staging The Rocky Horror Show or doing something amazing with The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Fringe, I'd jump at the chance to go, however, I wouldn't bother with a night like this again: there are far better things to do instead.

The next day of our trip was (probably!) the best Fringe day ever!!