Karen Koren: Monahan’s Highlands Happyness

The Highlands are a bit starved of good comedy but we are planning to bring them some of the best on the last weekend of May this year.

Patrick Monahan, winner of reality TV show Show Me The Funny, came up to help launch the event and very funny he was too.

He has a terrible habit of hugging everyone he meets – which means that whatever he is doing always takes longer.

When he does shows at the Gilded Balloon he regularly runs over, but I think his charm makes people forgive him. I do, all the time.

Anyway, we drove up and back on the same day, easier than training it - some trains to Inverness take longer than the London train. Patrick chatted nonstop, telling us of his recent exploits – which cannot be repeated in a newspaper column. Safe to say he is a good boy, but gets himself into some scrapes.

It is mayhem in the office just now as the Fringe have their ‘early bird’ deadline for shows going into the programme and every show wants to save the £100 that is saved by putting your entry into the brochure early.

On top of that Sharon, my office manager, has arrived back from Adelaide, brown as a berry and jet-lagged to hell. She still wants updates. At the same time, I have performers screaming at me for slots. It’s not easy being popular. I just wish some of the shows were all sell-out winning shows. Alas, they all can’t be.

It’s the letting them down that is so hard. If only I had more space. . . I would give them all an opportunity if I could.