The Edinburgh Fringe continues to marvel me, even after 15 years of doing this. I got back in the early hours after 91 performances in 3 weeks. Exhausting? No. I had a lovely time. Really, honestly lovely.
If you're ever tempted to give the Edinburgh Fringe a go, here's some tips:
1) Pay well over the odds for central accommodation, even better if it's en-suite. Last year I did it on the cheap and slept on a sofa for a month. Don't do this, it's not good for your health. My fringe this year worked because I could nip home for a cat nap, several times, and I didn't have to queue for a shower in the morning.
2) Wear comfy shoes. Nobody is judging your style of footwear at the fringe, and it's full of cobbles, so wear thick shoes that will last.
3) Eat lots of honey. My fiancee told me this and she's a genius. I lost my voice a week in, but a jar of honey did the trick.
4) Get 8 hours sleep. Ignore what they say about eating healthy and not drinking too much - I lived off pizza and was in 'networking' meetings that involved plenty of booze pretty much every night and it's fine. Sleep cures everything.
5) Don't do four shows a day....
Okay, so I was doing four shows a day, but I drink a lot of caffeine. My play, Harvey Greenfield is Running Late, was a real success...I mean, I've always liked doing it, but it's so nice to see others have enjoyed it, too. The Scotsman gave it 4 stars and audience reviews were consistently strong. There's much more to come from Harvey, including a film version soon, discussions for that began before Edinburgh when a filmmaker saw a preview version. History of Pop continued to pack out rooms and be as (intentionally) shambolic as ever, and it was an absolute joy to drum for Dominic Frisby - a fine comedian, who put together a cracking show. My own stand-up show was mostly ignored but I'm fine with that, the show was always planned to be my final stand-up hour, after 5 years of doing this, so I could focus on other projects, it kind of whimpered out but honestly, there's so many good things happening, I can't complain.
Much in the pipeline, including the BBC Radio Theatre Group recording my 4-episode sitcom, Technically Single. This has been brewing for a while and it's all very exciting (I wrote it 7 years ago), they're recording it a BBC Broadcasting House. When I was there last month to watch the auditions I was a bit of an excited tourist so, you know, I need to be cooler, somehow.
In the meantime, back to the drumming and drum teaching. In the studio with Glymjack this week to record an album with them, there's a Fred's House tour soon and lessons resume on Thursday. Technically fully booked up apart from Monday mornings, but as always drop me a line if you're interested and we can try and sort something.
Anyway, I'm rambling...I hope your summer was lovely!