Things are hotting up on the Adelaide Festival fringe circuit - Vladimir McTavish

Vladimir McTavish on the Laughing Horse Comedy tour of the Adelaide Festival which runs until March 17

It’s a comfortably warm 30 degrees here, which is a good deal hotter than it is at home obviously. Who would have thought that 30 degrees would seem cool.

Out here we are onto the second weekend of the Adelaide Fringe. It’s the second largest arts festival in the world after Edinburgh and the vibe in the city is very similar to August back home.

I see a lot of the same faces on posters, I bump into a lot of old friends from around the world, many of whom I last met six months ago and I see a lot of discarded flyers with my name on them in venues where I’ve been performing.

But the similarities end there. The streets are not teeming with tourists like they are during the Edinburgh Fringe. Adelaide is a one-hour flight from Melbourne, two hours from Sydney and a three-hour journey from Perth so audiences tend to be people who live here. And they only come out at the weekend.

Hence midweek shows can attract fairly small crowds. I’m fortunate in that there would appear to be enough Scottish expats living in the city to make a Wednesday evening show viable. Others have not been so lucky.

An English friend of mine had an audience of two on Thursday night, and they were both there to review the show. I guess it will be a couple of days before she will find out whether either of them liked it!

Here’s another difference from the Edinburgh Fringe. On my day off on Monday, I met up with some friends at the beach in Glenelg.

We had a swim in the sea, and then had drinks at a beach bar as we watched the sunset over the ocean on a lovely balmy evening. Totally unlike an August night in Portobello.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Porty, but I can’t ever imagine sitting on the beach in my shorts and T-shirt in late summer at ten o’clock at night.

Bizarrely, tickets are now on sale for my Edinburgh Fringe show, six months before I actually perform it – and roughly four months before I even start writing it.

Having said that, playing the festivals out here does give me a sneak preview of what will be worth seeing in August.

And I can heartily recommend expat Scot, Gill Cordiner.

Gill is one of the fastest rising stars on the Australian comedy circuit and will be bringing her new show to the Free Festival this summer.

I saw the show in Perth and it’s brilliant. You can already buy tickets for it now too. She’s at 32 Below at 7.30pm.

I read on The Scotsman website that Edinburgh Airport are warning of continued problems with baggage handlers this coming summer.

Just in case this situation becomes acute as early as mid-March, I will be filling my suitcase with all the stuff I know I definitely will not need when I get home.

Such as several thousand flyers with my name on them.