Edinburgh: The Aftermath

Obviously, I'd rather have made my final Edinburgh post about a week ago but the past few days have been kind of mental (This will probably become clear later.) In some ways, it's probably a good thing to have put some distance between getting home and making this post because I've had a chance to reflect on my stint at the Fringe and last week I'd probably just have gushed mawkishly and incoherently about the whole experience.

My last two days in Edinburgh were pretty damn close to perfect although it really felt as though the whole experience came to an end far too abruptly. After a very drawn out process, I managed to get a ticket on Sunday afternoon for Enda Walsh's 'The New Electric Ballroom', which had drawn rave reviews from critics throughout the festival. It was easily the most professional theatrical production I'd seen throughout the Fringe, with an elaborate set, stylised costumes and actors that I can only guess are paid professionals.

The play focuses around two elderly sisters who both had their hearts broken by a big band singer in the sixties and the impact their subsequently hermitic existences have on their younger sister. The script featured repeated dialogue that wouldn't sound out of place in a Beckett play but was also imbued with Walsh's trademark verve. Although perhaps not as strikingly original as something like Disco Pigs, this play packs an equally powerful punch in its dramatic climax and certainly lived up to the hype. Try to catch this when it inevitably comes to The Abbey or The Gate.

Later on Sunday, I got to go to a special show at the Assembly Rooms performed by the newly crowned If.comedy Award winner David O' Doherty. O' Doherty was clearly still reeling from his win and really seemed to enjoy the set, eventually being goaded into giving a second encore. Later in the evening, we got to meet him and congratulate him on his well deserved success. It was so endearing to see how humble he was about the whole thing, claiming the £8000 will go some way towards paying back all the money he owes to his dad for financing his comedy career. International success generally greets winners of this prestigious prize so let's hope he manages to stay grounded.

The majority of my last day in Edinburgh was spent packing and then working. I foolishly booked my flight for 8am the next morning, which meant that I had to try and moderate my alcohol intake. Kind of challenging when it's me that we're dealing with and the lovely Ed Byrne puts £200 behind the bar for the front of house staff.

Obviously, I failed miserably and wound up fairly hammered midway through the night. I never made it to the third leg of our celebrations in Garribaldi's because I decided that four hours before I was due to leave Scotland was the opportune moment to make an advance on the colleague that I'd gradually become more and more enamoured with throughout the festival.

The way it played out probably would have been very romantic if I hadn't been so bloody drunk. We walked around the same block of buildings in Edinburgh city centre about four times before I finally got the courage to kiss him. In some ways, it might have been cool if we'd hooked up earlier on because it's been a long time since I fancied somebody as much as I liked this guy but in other ways, I'm kind of glad it happened the way it did.

Because of the fact that I was going home, our tryst could mean anything or nothing and it was a ittingly amazing end to an unbelievably awesome few weeks. After extensive lip-locking under archways, it was time for me to leave and he bundled me into a taxi so I could go pick up my stuff and head to the airport. As a result of these shenanigans, I deprived myself of the opportunity to say most of my drunken farewells. I got the boy but never got to say goodbye.

At the airport, Ryanair brought be back to reality with a bump my imposing another 'excess baggage' of £48 on me. I had checked in a second bag online but apparently this doesn't entitle you to any more weight. Oh well, you live and learn. Right?

So, that was my time at the Edinburgh Fringe. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it was the best four weeks of my life so far. I certainly hope to be back for many more fringe festivals in the future.

As I've said before, there's a lot to be said for travelling on your own, under the right circumstances. The front of house job enabled me to meet so many fantastic people to socialise and see shows with whereas the Fringe environment was such that it was impossible to feel lonely, bored or homesick.

It's reassuring to know that I can survive in situations like this and, unlike on my work placement last year in Eagle Star where I was also starting off knowing nobody, I didn't feel a need to adjust my behaviour or play down aspects of my personality in order to fit in. I was just myself and people accepted that.

My decision to come to Edinburgh for the festival was made hastily in March at a time when my world seemed to be crumbling around me and I needed something to cling to. It's comforting to think that this incredible experience was borne out of a difficult time and that in the future I may be able to turn similarly frustrating situations into amazing adventures.

Until next year, Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Diary: Day Twenty-Six

I've started the 'going home' stuff. I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to get to the airport tomorrow night. Positively depressing.

The last couple of days have been great though. I finally managed to see 'Lucky You', a play that's been on in the venue at which I'm working based on a novel by American author Carl Hiaasen. The play is about racism, stolen lottery tickets and cooters (which are snapping turtles) and, although the production was excellent and the performances were strong, the adaptation didn't seem to work completely. The whole thing just felt a bit melodramatic and long-winded. Just because a story makes a good book that doesn't necessarily mean it will translate to the stage.

I also saw 'The Adventures of Butt-Boy and Tigger'. which was a two-hander by Australian theatre group, Out Cast Theatre, about the seedy world of gay online 'networking'. There were quite a few things in the script that I could identify with and I could see this show going down really well at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.

Last night, I saw Camille for the third time in as many weeks. Some ignorant tools sitting behind me detracted somewhat from my enjoyment of the show by saying things like 'oh look, she's actually going to sing a song' and 'this is so clichéd' throughout her performance. This was made up for by the fact that I got to meet her afterwards and we posed for a photo together (which I will post here later.) Amazing.

Ok, I'm gonna go try and nab a ticket for Enda Walsh's play this afternoon. I've probably hindered my chances of securing a ticket somewhat by sitting her blogging instead of going straight to the box office.

Oh well.

Edinburgh Diary: Day Twenty-Four

I've only a few days left in bonnie Scotland. I can't believe how fast the time has passed. I'll be sad to leave but, at the same time, I don't the front of house work is starting to become a bit boring and I'm in serious need of some of Mammy Kavanagh's home cooking if I'm to avoid developing scurvy.

Admittedly, I've spent a lot of my time (and money) partying this week. I've been out post 4am the past four nights. I even made it to the infamous 'Penny Black' one night, a pub that opens at 6am. Yes, I'm just that hardcore.

I've managed to catch a few shows as well, including 'The Mozart Question' by Michael Morpugo, which was a fantastic one-man show based on a children's book and a fairly awesome Brazilian dance and physical theatre show called 'Balé de Rua'. I've also seen a few more comedy variety shows, featuring the likes of Russell Howard, Alun Cochrane, Jason Byrne and Stuart Francis. I plan on seeing a couple more shows over the weekend, even if it means denying myself a few hours sleep.

Yesterday, I went to the Tracey Emin retrospective exhibition in The Museum of Modern Art, more out of curiousity than anything else. Emin became famous in the 1990's as part of the Young British Artist movement. Her most famous work includes 'My Bed' (an unmade, dirty bed with condoms and blood-stained underwear strewn about it) 'All The Men I've Ever Slept With 1963-1995' (a tent that was destroyed in the Momart warehouse fire of 2004) and her appliqué bedspreads, like the one below.

Emin has experienced some pretty horrific times in her life and the autobiographical and embarrassingly honest nature of her work made me feel a bit voyeuristic. It might seem a bit self-indulgent for her to make herself the main subject of the overwhelming majority of her work but there's no denying that her catalogue of work makes for interesting viewing.

I met up with my friend Marie and her boyfriend briefly on Sunday night as well, which was cool. Originally, I was hoping that a few more of my friends from home would come visit but I reckon that was sort of borne out of a concern that I wouldn't make any friends and would be bopping around by myself for the duration of the festival. Thankfully, that wasn't how things worked out.

I really think there's a lot to be said for travelling alone, under the right circumstances. The fact that I was relatively familiar with Edinburgh was obviously helpful and working in Assembly Hall allowed me to get to know people. It's all worked out very well.

A little too well if you ask me...

Edinburgh Diary: Day Nineteen

Good news. My free wireless internet has magically re-appeared, which means I no longer have any excuse for not making posts.


I've just left Eimear to a taxi after our weekend of fun here in bonnie Edinburgh. Unfortunately, because I was working a couple of shifts, she had to entertain herself a fair amount but there are far worse places to find yourself left to your own devices than Edinburgh at this time of year.

We caught a couple of comedy shows together (Stephen K. Amos and Adam, Jason & Friends) and she went to a few others while I was working (Maeve Higgins and Ed Byrne). We also went to the Camera Obscura, the café where J.K. Rowling wrote the early Harry Potter books, saw a great independent film called 'Breakfast with Scot' and checked out the various street performers on The Royal Mile. 'Twas really cool that she came. She's been the first (and potentially only) visitor I've had since I've been here. I just wish I'd had more time off work so we could have gone out properly and partied up a storm.


This week I've seen at least one show a day including a strange dance/performance art/experimental theatre show called 'The Blank Album' (see above), a hilarious character-comedy show called Count Arthur Strong about a fictitious sixties British television personality and a wacky production called 'Pot Noodle: The Musical'.

The best show I saw this week though was 'Scaramouche Jones', a one man show, written and performed by Justin Butcher. The story is hard to describe but its basically about a strangely white-faced boy born to a gypsy woman and the seven white masks of his lifetime that include, among others, being enslaved to an African snake-charmer and working as a gravedigger at Auschwitz. Butchr's turn as the tragic hero was honestly one of the most powerful theatrical performances I've ever witnessed and director Guy Masterson certainly seems to deserve the reputation that precedes him. This production previously played in Ireland so, if it comes back, you must go see it.

I've tried to catch a few of the many exhibitions taking place around the city. The Vanity Fair Portrait Exhibition was awesome. The photos of artists, writers and vintage Hollywood icons of the 1920's and 30's were great to see and all the more impressive when you consider how much more arduous the photographic process was back then.

Gloria Swanson

Louis Armstrong

I was obvlivious to the fact that Vanity Fair actually ceased production in the late 1930's, only to make a comeback in the 1980's and provide us with these iconic images:

Sean Connery and Michael Caine


Hilary Swank

Julianne Moore

I also checked out the Andrew Grassie and Kay Rosen exhibitions. My knowledge of art terminology is somewhat lacking but I think I'm right in saying there was a touch of post-modernism to both exhibitions.

Grassie's work comprises mostly of paintings of other exhibiitions (both factual and fictional) that are painted in such fine detail so as to look like photographs. I found it quite interesting but some of the notes left in the comment book were very critical of his 'self-absorbtion' and 'smarminess'. Different strokes, eh?

A painting by Andrew Grassie of other artworks.

Kay Rosen's pictures are generally based around playing on words, using colour and shape. I thought some of the pieces were very clever but seemed a bit limited or gimmicky to base a whole exhibition around this sort of thing.

Blurred - Kay Rosen

Edinburgh Diary: Day Thirteen

Wow. It' hard to believe I've already been here almost two weeks. The free wireless I was picking up in my flat has mysteriously vanished so this particular entry is coming courtesy of an internet 'café' (there's not a cup of coffee or muffin in sight) down the road.

I'm not in work until nine o' clock tonight, which is probably a good thing as I was ridiculously hungover this morning. A few of us from work went to 'Silent Disco' last night, which was great drunken fun. We had to pay £10 to get in and drinks were a rip-off but I think it was sort of worth it. It's so funny when you take off the headsets and hear people singing along to the song with gusto, forgetting that sneaky people like me can hear them.

Will Young turned up at one point and I actually felt really sorry for him. People just started following him around the club and I think that was probably the reason he left after around half an hour. I ended up getting in a silly argument with somebody who claimed 'he brought this on himself by entering Pop Idol'. Those of you who know me it all, probably appreciate how stubborn I am with a few drinks on me.

I've been trying to see as many shows as I can. I saw Peter Dineen in 'St. Nicholas', written by acclaimed Irish playwright Conor McPherson. It was a great one man show about vampires and theatre critics (I wonder what McPherson was trying to say...) but the audience consisted of about six people, which was a bit of a shame. I also saw a couple of comedy variety shows, 'Best of the Fest' and 'Adam, Jason and Friends', which seem to be a bit 'hit or miss' depending on your own idea of what's funny.

My favourite show I've seen this week was 'Clockheart Boy' which was a great play devised and performed by Dumbshow Productions. I suppose it was a kids' fairytale but sometimes the simplicity of childrens' stories can be far more affecting than 'grown up' ones. I think it's possible for productions to lose track of the main idea by getting bogged down by subtext and such. Anyway, it was a lovely little play and some of the devices they used, like shining a lamp against a blanket to make a puppet show of sorts, were really clever.

I'm hoping to catch a few of the Irish plays over the next week or so. Some of them have been getting super reviews, especially 'The Electric Ballroom' by genius Irish playwright Enda 'Disco Pigs' Walsh, which has already won a prestigious 'Fringe First' award for new writing.

Ok, I think I'm going to try and get me some dinner. Somewhere cheap preferably as my financial situation is a bit... concerning. I set up a Scottish bank account and was promised that my card wouldn't be sent to Ashbourne. Low and behold, a few days later I get a text from mammy saying that my bank card has arrived. So, I won't be able to access my wages for a few days and will have to try and survive on what I have in my AIB account, which isn't a lot.

Eek.

5 Things I Like About Edinburgh

The Scotsman - Not quite a broadsheet, not quite a tabloid but quintessentially Scottish. Rather bizarrely tends to devote Page 3 to an environmental feature but its Fringe reviews pretty much make or break a show.

The Bus Network - Dublin Bus could stand to learn a lot about efficiency and fare-pricing from Lothian Buses. And let's not even mention that Bus Eireann shower...


The Pub/Nightclub Opening Hours - Pubs that open 'til 3am? Amazing. Clubs that open 'til 5am? Doubly amazing. Other pubs that open at 5am when the clubs close? Amazing-o-meter explodes.

The Artiness - Aside from The Fringe, there are so many other festivals, exhibitions and culture-related things to see and do.

The Abundance 0f Green Areas - On the rare occasions that it's not raining, there's always some nice park or 'gardens' nearby to go and eat your sandwiches.

Edinburgh Diary: Day Nine

The most invaluable purchase I have made during my time here has been the lovely £3 umbrella I bought in ‘£-Stretcher’ (my new favourite shop). The rain the past couple of days has been pretty relentless but I haven’t allowed it to dampen my spirits (hoho!) and I’ve been continuing to milk my Fringe experience for all it’s worth. (I’ve never been quite sure whether it’s correct to write ‘all its worth’ or ‘all it’s worth’… meh!)

Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen loads more shows. Des Bishop’s ‘Tongues’ was pretty good fun. He didn’t have me rolling in the aisles or anything but his canny observations on Irish culture and ‘shiny’ (as Eimear would say) personality won me over. I arrived for the gig a bit too early and decided to nip out to pick up a chocolate and raspberry muffin (I’ve been eating SO badly) just as Des was arriving. He ended up holding the door open for me even though, once I’d realised who it was, I tried to insist he enter first. No airs and graces about this chappie, I’m sure you’re glad to hear.

‘Circus Oz’ and ‘Feast of Flesh’ are two variety shows of Australian origins that are heavy on human acrobatics. Although, the latter is considerably more ‘adult’ with willies, boobies and bare bums on show throughout. ‘Circus Oz’ is on in the venue I’m working at and I actually got to be involved in one of the acts in a very small way. (I had to make sure that balls being juggled didn’t bounce off the stage. Maybe not very exciting but it was cool to be part of it.)

‘Feast of Flesh’ is in the vein of ‘La Clique’ but with less of an emphasis on spectacular stunts and more of an emphasis on eroticism. One scene, which I actually thought was pretty sexy, involves a woman starting off completely naked on a turntable before being completely wrapped in cling-film by two muscular men as she spins around. Hey, at least it’s slightly more dignified than doing porn!

Finally, I forked out £15 for a second-row seat at Camille O’ Sullivan’s ‘Dark Angel’ cabaret show but it was worth every last over-sized penny. The woman makes me want to use all manner of faggoty words like ‘mesmerising’ and ‘entrancing’ and she radiates this incredibly intense energy throughout her performance of songs by Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Jacques Brel. Each song is delivered so differently to the one before and the one after that I’m tempted to make some godawful pun about her being a ‘Camille-eon’ (oh look, I just did!)

Throughout the show, she swigs from a bottle of red wine and, at one point, breaks down in tears during ‘Look Mummy, No Hands.’ As she prowls along the front row, climbing on some patrons and snarling at others, she turns to one man and says, ‘You look scared. I’m scared too but, sure, that’s what it’s all about.” I’m not sure how much of her drunken, emotionally vulnerable persona is staged but I guess it doesn’t really matter when the performance is this good.

Right, I think I’ve enthused about Camille quite enough. I’ve discovered that the flat I’m staying in is around the pool from a 50m swimming pool. I’m sure that any of you that know me will realise that this is like all my Christmases come at once. I think I’ll head over for a quick splish splosh before work.

Edinburgh Diary: Day Six

I retract my mildly critical analysis of Maeve Higgins comedy set.

I've just been to see 'I Can't Sleep', which is a children's show featuring the Cork woman and David O' Doherty and it was brilliant. The show is based around David's difficulty in going to sleep. He wakes up Maeve out of sheer boredom and then it remains for the audience to help the two of them to get back to sleep. Genius.

I also saw the Soweto Gospel Choir this morning and they were equally fantastic. Admittedly, I probably wouldn't have gone to this show of my own accord, but a few people from work wanted to go so I tagged along. The choir are from South Africa and they sang a mix of familiar and not-so-familiar gospel tunes whilst lepping about the stage like nobody's business. My friend Susan would LOVE this show.

I meant to write about my accommodation situation yesterday but ran out of time. The housemates I've met all seemed really nice but there seems to be a bit of tension in the house. I arrived home late on Friday night and one of the two Asian guys, Colin, told me there had been a bit of an incident with the American guy, Spencer. 'I just hope his bad behaviour isn't extended to you' he rather ominously said to me. I've decided it's probably for the best just to keep a low profile in the flat so I'm pretty much just sleeping and washing there. It's not so bad though because I'm pretty much on the go the whole time.

I've been getting on really well with the people I'm working with (mainly the girls, it has to be said) so I think I can officially say I'm no longer Joey-no-mates. Which is nice. It's great to have other people to see shows with because I think, even moreso than at the cinema, you really need somebody to turn to and say stupidly obvious things like 'oh, that's funny' or 'that was really good' at a comedy show or play.

God, these recent blogs are so long-winded. As if anybody even cares about my opinions on shows they're unlikely to ever see. I reckon it'll be cool for me to be able to look back on this a few months down the line though.

Edinburgh Diary: Day Five

So, the last few days have been hectic.

The only reason I've actually had time to go to an internet booth is because the show I wanted to go see was sold out. My employee pass only gets me into shows for free if there are seats left and apparently this particular show got a good write up in 'The Guardian' yesterday which resulted in a surge in demand for tickets and depriving me of a viewing. Bummer.

I've already managed to see six shows and, believe it or not, I was actually disappointed by a couple of them...

Maeve Higgins was the only show I had to pay into (only £5) and, as much as I hate to say it, she wasn't as good as I'd hoped. When I first saw Maeve two years ago at The Fringe, I was extremely hungover and she had me laughing so hard that I thought my poor dehydrated body might actually explode. This time around, she was pretty funny but not to the same degree. I reckon it might have been better to check out her show later in the festival because I got the impression she was still testing out her material.

'The Magic Tree' was quite literally one of the worst plays I've ever seen. It started off with three inner-city knackers plotting to rape a more well-to-do woman on her way home from a night out in Dublin (she was also 'Irish' but didn't even try to conceal her blatantly English accent) and finished up in a graveyard in Cambodia. The first twenty minutes or so were pretty tense but it was all downhill from there. Truly heinous.

Right, I've waffled on for far too long about the shows and run out of time on this here internet booth. Gonna go grab some food before I head to work.

Watch this space for more, more, more...

Edinburgh Diary: Day Two

So, Ryanair screwed me over...

When I booked my flight to Edinburgh, I was semi-outraged to have to pay €15 each way for my checked-in bag. So, you can imagine how objectionable I found it when I arrived at the airport on Wednesday morning and was told I would have to pay €15 PER KILO that my bag was overweight. My bag was 17.8 kilos, which apparently is 3 kilos too many for Ryanair (rounded up to the nearest kilo) and warrants a surcharge of €45.00.

Would. You. Be. Able?

I forked out the cash (well, put it on my newly-acquired credit card) and decided that I was not going to let myself interpret this as a bad omen for my four-week stay in Edinburgh. To Ryanair’s credit, I made it to Edinburgh safe and sound, and on time for my 10am training session.

The training was daunting to begin with. I sat in a room upstairs on George’s Street (which is slightly more grand than our Irish equivalent) and watched as beautiful, trendily-dressed, arty-looking person after beautiful, trendily-dressed, arty-looking person filed into the room. I wished to myself that I had managed a few more exercise sessions before I came or given a bit more thought to the clothes that I’d packed but The Assembly Staff addressing us were really nice and their scatty introductions helped me to relax a bit.

The venue that I’m working in is fairly awesome. It’s a bit like a mini-castle or a church. It has it’s own courtyard called ‘the quad’, lots of portraits of people I can only assume were important at one time or another and seems to play host to Edinburgh University’s School of Divine Studies when not being used as a Fringe Venue.

There are 24 Front of House staff, a lovely, Australian Venue Manager called Gabby, and two Front of House Managers, one of whom is mildly attractive but, rather tragically, has a girlfriend. The pretty people I’m working with all seem friendly enough. I’ve yet to establish a ‘crew’ but hopefully that will happen in time…

In the short time I’ve already seen three shows. The first was ‘The Gala Assembly Press Launch’, which was basically a variety show and featured an onstage meltdown by Michael Barrymore. I wasn’t sure whether to feel sorry for a man that’s clearly still haunted by his spectacular fall from grace or to boo and hiss when he told us not to see his show until we’d ‘learned to be a proper audience’.

‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ by Samuel Beckett, performed by Peter Dineen (who apparently was in ‘Father Ted’) is appropriately described in the Fringe programme as ‘a work of peculiar beauty’. To put it simply: it was weird but I liked it.

Lastly, I saw Jason Byrne tonight performing his ‘Cats Under Mats, Having Chats with Bats’. Byrne’s humour is as silly as the name of his show and I never really liked the stuff I’d seen him do previously. That said, I was definitely impressed with his performance tonight. I liked the way he could speak to someone in the audience and make up something funny off the cuff as well as make something rehearsed look completely spontaneous (like when he conveniently 'tripped over his words' the exact same way he did at the Gala Press Launch to set up a sketch.)

I reckon I’d be a fairly desperate reviewer because I’m far too easily pleased. I’m hoping to see two more shows tomorrow after work so maybe I can ‘get the knives out’ then?

Probably not though.

Edinburgh Diary: Day One

I'm at the airport. It's 5am. Yuck.

Starting my job in 5 hours' time. Ryanair better not screw me over.

Right now, I'm a funny mixture of nervous, excited and tired.

But mostly tired.