Another two shows at this year’s Edinburgh, and they were both very different audiences.
On day three, they started fairly quiet during the opening of the show, but there was a dramatic turnaround when the quiz began, and they might have been the argumentative audience I’ve had so far. Consequently, I overran – which annoys me intensely. As a result, I have had to change the quiz to remove opportunities for interactions or interruptions, which, in fairness, I actively encourage.
On day four, I had my largest crowd of the run so far with 67. It’s also one of the largest crowds I’ve ever had for the show. I believe the record is currently 76, which was first set in Newcastle in 2017 and then equalled during the last of my late-night shows in 2019. This could easily be topped with a corporate booking I am doing in a couple of weeks, but I am hesitant to include that for shows where I’ve sold tickets.
Anyway, the day four crowd was so large because it’s 2-for-1 on tickets for the first Monday and Tuesday of the fringe. I knew within seconds that they were going to be good and much louder than Sunday. Strangely, they were better behaved in the quiz than the day before. The material part of the show isn’t quite where it needs to be, and I need to figure out how to make it work better.
In other news, Storm Floris has been causing trouble today. I was delayed by ten minutes on the train in, which wasn’t actually too bad considering the damage inflicted elsewhere. But some venues have closed. I was at least able to do my show. The storm joins Oasis as another two-syllable word ending in “is” that is disrupting this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. I’m going to be the first to call the effect “Florasis”.