Hello Everybody,
To millions of people around the globe, tomorrow sees the start of the 25th Games of the Olympiad in Beijing, but to a considerably smaller group of people tomorrow marks the opening of the 10th anniversary of the Comedy of Danny Bhoy in East Lothian. I’m sure when the Olympic Committee discovered their big opening clashed with such a momentous event on the other side of world they were kicking themselves (which incidentally I’ve always thought should be an event). In fact, there is an argument that stand up comedy requires similar skills to that of our top Olympic athletes. I may not be very good at throwing an object for distance, but I’m not too bad at dodging them. And trying to keep one’s focus and balance while attempting to get through a complicated routine almost perfectly describes my last gig in Port Hedland, Australia. Perhaps one day, falling into an orchestra pit will be an Olympic event, in which case I’ve got the gold in the bag!
After the past 2 months of trawling around old familiar comedy haunts in London armed with a handful of scrunched up notes and an old Sony Dictaphone, I’m finally ready for the Edinburgh Fringe. My opening night tomorrow should be interesting after the calamitous ticketing problems of the edfringe website this year. If you want to know what happened to all those people who masterminded the launch of Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 went after they got fired? It seems they all got jobs at the edfringe box office! Hopefully, it won’t be as bad as I fear, but if you do have tickets for any of my shows at Edinburgh this year, please, please turn up at least 45 minutes beforehand if you can? And let me take this opportunity to apologise to any of you who do have problems.
That said, I am hoping it should be a good show. As previously mentioned I have a nice little surprise for people at the start of the show, a little project I have been working on the past few months, which I am very pleased with. I am currently staring out of my window at the second consecutive day of heavy rain in Edinburgh. If there is a God, it seems he hasn’t been impressed by any shows he’s seen at the festival so far this year, but the forecast is for brighter spells tomorrow...around 7.15pm (do you see what I did there?) Anyway, I hope any of you visiting Edinburgh this month have a swell time. If you are going to see a few shows at the Fringe, my advice would be avoid any shows that list awards you’ve never heard of, or even ones you have heard of. And don’t be sucked in by how many star ratings there are on a poster, any more than you would be sucked in by how many pound signs there are on a ‘how would you like to be rich?’ advert. Try to go and see some of the smaller comedy shows, outside of the big 4 venues. They can be so much more rewarding, and after all, that’s really what the ‘fringe’ is all about. What I’m saying is, if the Fringe was the Olympics, don’t just watch the track and field events. Anyone for ping pong?
Cheers,
Danny