Lows are an inevitability of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and last night’s show was certainly the low point so far.
Neither of us did particularly well and the laughs were in the arguably in the single digits for both our sets. I say ‘arguably’, because there was a big party going on in the main area of the pub, which meant there was a lot of external noise so we were again unable to hear the titters, if there were any.
We had to delay the start of the show by about five minutes, because we only had a handful of people in as audience. But as the bar was busy, there were five or six people wanting to see the show who were waiting to be served.
While we were waiting, two lads came in and boosted our audience to seven. About 30 seconds later, they were thrown out by the bar staff after looking underage and failing to produce any ID.
For the first week, I had been going on first with Paul on second. This had worked out pretty well. But last night, we switched the order and it wasn’t very successful.
When I went on at the start and introduced the concept of the show before bringing on Paul, some of the things I said got laughs, which weren’t even jokes. I thought this was a good indicator that it would be a good show, but I’m not entirely sure what went wrong. It just never really kicked into gear.
We ended up with around 15 people, with two walking in during the second half of the show when I was on, who walked out about five minutes later and were joined by three of others. Thankfully, after the brutality of the walk outs in droves at last year’s show, I have developed a resilience to it. In the seven shows previously, we only had one walk out.
Another thing I found out in my previous gigs at the Fringe, is that you can be performing in the same venue at the same time every day, with the same material and energy; but for whatever reason, some days people laugh and other days they don’t.
Confirmation of our audience’s enjoyment was received in the bucket collection at the end. From 12 people, we made just over £8 and €2. In such instances, you can only laugh. Then pick yourself up and do it all again, determined that the next day will be better.
The blow was softened by some free cake and sandwiches, which were left over from the party.
We are expecting a quiet gig tonight, with it being the closing ceremony of the Olympics. But you never can really predict what will happen at the Fringe.
- Love and Langton’s Dirty Laundry is on at 11pm every day until August 25 at the Kilderkin, 67 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8BS, as part of the PBH Free Fringe.