Vladimir McTavish: It’s Fringe time – so the annual signal to dig up Ferry Road
Even if I wasn’t doing a show, I would know by now that the Fringe is in full swing. On Thursday morning someone started digging up Ferry Road at the Goldenacre traffic lights. It happens at this time every year.
Our house guest, who is staying for the month, asked why this could happen at the busiest time of year. It’s anyone’s guess.
As a permanent resident of the neighbourhood I had to tell them it is a regular, year-round occurrence. I’m guessing this year, with Oasis at Murrayfield, the council decided it made sense to just get all the traffic disruption out of the way in a one-off, three-day window
As for Oasis, the long-feared impact on festival audiences would not appear to have happened. My show last night was pretty busy, only slightly lower than an average Fringe Friday. Only a week ago, fellow performers had been predicting a total wipeout this weekend.
However, a well-known comedian on the PBH Free Fringe took to Facebook on Wednesday evening to bleat about getting zero sales for her two shows that night. She blamed this on Oasis.
Pull the other one. They weren’t in town for another two days. She then went on to say she was glad she hadn’t wasted money by registering her show with the Fringe.
If you don’t register your show, you don’t feature in the printed programme or on the EdFringe website. Maybe that’s the reason for her zero sales the other night?
I love the round-the-clock nature of the Fringe. Scottish comedian Ross Leslie is hosting a show at the Gilded Balloon at 11am called “Bring Your Bairn” where the audience are allowed to bring their you baby to the gig.
I did it yesterday morning, and managed to do my contracted 15 minutes without a babe-in-arms crying. Unlike a show I did at Adelaide Fringe earlier this year where the audience were encouraged to bring their dogs, and I was barked off after five minutes.
The only disconcerting thing was being on stage at that time of day, when I am seldom out of the house during the Fringe.
However, given that the audience consisted of young parents, I was definitely the least sleep-deprived person in the room.