Nothing like getting a flyer from a six-foot Korean sea monster - Susan Morrison
Week one of the Fringe down and if the crush on the trams and buses is anything to go by, we’re back to seeing the same numbers of people hit this city than rock up to see the Olympics.
At least we don’t have an interminable opening ceremony to sit through, although there are times when I think we should mark Day One of the Fringe with some sort of ceremony. There used to be a Fringe Parade. People dressed up and had floats. I once escorted a walking mobile phone along Princes Street. Mind you, this was back in the 90s. Given the size of handsets back then, I could just have been walking along with a mobile phone in my hand.
It was a great day for the flyering teams. Everyone in one place. Get the flyers out. Like Mardi Gras, but with shiny paper instead of beads. It was another fabulous reason for the venues and the acts to get the gladrags on and get involved. It marked the start of flyering season on the High Street. Acts came out in costumed force.
There’s nothing like getting a flyer from a six-foot papier mache Korean sea monster/dragon flanked by two tiny gymnasts doing something gravity-defying to make you think, yes, this is the show for me.
You just couldn’t refuse a flyer from an entire American high school choir belting out hits from Rodgers and Hammerstein, not with all that Midwestern optimism washing over you. A French mime artiste in full white face once handed me an invisible flyer. I politely gave it back, miming my fear of mime. He mimed his apologies for alarming me. We parted as friends. Y’see? Talking things out really does work.
Not seen many dragons, cowboys or men miming this year. In fact, I haven’t been accosted by anything bizarre at all, if you discount walking through the Kirkgate to get to the tram stop. Perhaps I’m just in the wrong place, but I miss seeing the crazy fun on the streets. Never thought I’d miss an impromptu chorus of Oklahoma! though.