Edinburgh Fringe day 12. Keep Smiling!

No, that's not a fixed grin because things have gone suddenly downhill or anything like that. It's a fixed grin because I went to a comedy show at the free Fringe today that really wasn't funny. It was full daylight so you could see everyone in the audience's faces and the guy had done a lot of research and was trying very hard and our eyes kept meeting so I kind of felt obliged to have a bit of a smile.

There were three bits I found funny in the hour ... but that was about it. And the rest of the (packed) audience weren't that amused either. The applause at the end of the show was fairly minimal.

I'm not going to name him because ... oh bugger, should I? I don't know. It's perfectly fair to write a negative review and if it stops other people going and not being amused either... It seems a bit mean. But for goodness' sake woman! All's fair in love and comedy.

Okay, it was a show called All the Jokes in the Bible. I went along because I'm interested in that kind of stuff and I love hearing it made funny. Wouldn't be doing my own show, The Maggy Whitehouse Experience if I didn't now would I?

I will confess that I was noting any Biblical inaccuracies (five) but that's fair dos really for a vicar. But
I didn't go in order to criticise it. It just wasn't funny. And he didn't even mention donkeys apart from Samson's smiting his enemies with an ass's jaw. There could be a lot of good humour in the Bible from the donkey stories...

Anyway, going in to watch a show on my own was great fun in itself and now I'm more experienced in buses and how to get around the city I'll do it as much as I can. Today though I was starving ... having said that staying in The Dell is wonderful (and it is) today, Anne-Marie had a client in her healing room which is off the kitchen and you're not allowed in to the kitchen during those times.

And I'd left it too late to have lunch.

So, having walked from All the Jokes in the Bible to Ryrie's I was close to performance time but I had to stop off at M&S at the station to get their nut and seed energy food package before I could perform. Which of course left seeds in my teeth so I was picking those out frantically beforehand!

However, tonight was a lovely show. It flowed pretty well with a very good audience for a Monday - 15 people - including two Facebook friends, Gillian and Carole, who had come all the way from Glasgow. I just knew them ... having spoken so much on Facebook it wasn't like meeting people for the first time at all! Such a pleasure. What's more the audience were generous financially (and Gillian and Carole gave me tea bags and fruit too!). It's just great to get back to your digs and be able to hand over the night's rent in takings and have more than enough for food and fun tomorrow.

Happy day. Lots more of those to come. Just wish that guy had been funny.