We have received our first review of the Fringe and it’s not a good one.
Three Weeks gave us 1/5. It was Friday, the Bog Salmon day, when there were actually a lot of laughs and it was a fun gig. But according to the reviewer there weren’t and it wasn’t.
But never mind, of course I’d like a good review with quotes I can use but a bad one really isn’t the end of the world. When you put yourself out there to perform in public, people will inevitably criticise you. And in many ways it is a relief, there is nothing that can be nothing worse than a one-star review and the only way is up.
I was hoping to avoid getting any reviews this year; I just wanted to do my show, make it as good as can be, learn a lot and go home a better comic. Nevertheless, either you let criticism get to you or you take it on the chin and vow to improve. I shall be doing the latter.
The festival is all a massive, and often brutal, learning curve. There is no greater test in comedy than putting on a successful show at the Edinburgh Fringe. As Langton said, we have three weeks to prove Three Weeks wrong, and prove them wrong we shall.
And now to quote an appropriate line from the restaurant critic in Ratatouille: “In many ways the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer their work and selves for judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”
Thank you, Pixar.
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