On what was predicted to be another quiet day, we managed to equal our biggest audience of the Fringe with 13 people.
I am not foolish enough to think that we have it easy from now on, there is a very long way to go and much more hard work to be done with inevitable lows ahead. But it is nice to be four shows in and have had a decent audience at every one so far.
They were more a smiley audience last night than a loud laughing one, but laughs were audible with some big ones occurring throughout the hour.
One thing of note is that there was a man sitting right at the front who appeared to be dozing off throughout the show. At least, I think he was dozing and not just really not enjoying himself. He did open his eyes a few times and I did at least get a couple of laughs out of him. My thick comedic skin has been forged in the harsh fires of small gigs in London and I think that my record number of audience members asleep is five. However, in this particular record breaking instance, they had mostly fallen asleep while watching a film in a pub on a Saturday night in Walthamstow and had a comedy gig sprang on them unsuspectingly. As you can imagine, it was a resounding success.
Anyway, back to last night, we made £20 in our bucket at the end, exceeding the ratio of a good free gig in Edinburgh being £1 per person.
This afternoon, I went to sit in on the audience for Richard Herring’s Edinburgh podcast, which had another of my heroes as a guest: the wrestler Mick Foley. It was a bizarre collision of two of my favourite ever things: half of Lee and Herring and Mick Foley. It was a very funny show and I’m glad I went. Mick is town to do a show for a few days, but I will not be able to go as it clashes with my own, so attending this was a compromise.
- 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.