Two shows in, and I am already feeling exhausted. This might be a record for the fringe fatigue to set in. Normally, it’s at least after a week and a half. But this year, the fatigue has arrived particularly early.
This is largely the result of getting the sleeper train up to Edinburgh, and not sleeping on it. Next year, I formulated a plan to do Durham Fringe on my way up and stay there for a few nights. This would avoid the issue of insomnia on the train journey and hopefully mean I don’t start the month already feeling exhausted.
Show two was on a Saturday, which of course means a Saturday audience. They are often a little more raucous than other days of the week, and so it proved to be.
Two of the audience were clearly a little worse for wear at 11.45am and were more than a little vocal throughout. But it was all good fun, and my show will adapt and work around whatever is going on in the room.
The show went well, and I was mostly happy with how the material went down. There are still a few things that need refining, and I can’t quite make one or two things quite fit, but it’s getting there and won’t take a huge amount of work to get there.
Weekends are almost always the busiest time during the Fringe, but this opening weekend has been far quieter than usual. However, it is ultimately a pointless pursuit to compare previous years to this year. This year is a different beast, and no number of comparisons will really achieve anything positive.
As a comedian, you can only play what’s in front of you – green room politics and panto aside. While smaller, the shows have been fun, and the audience has mostly enjoyed themselves. That is all you can really hope for.
So, this year, I have decided that the best thing to do is to just have as much fun with however many people happen to be in front of me.