Saturday 2 August and we walked across the Meadows in the rain to Summerhall, to meet Mad. It wasn't quite open for business and the number of art exhibits seemed to be down on last year. Particularly liked the Meteorite room (Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez), full of mechanical things moving and screens with stop motion animations on. Genesis P Orridge had a show too, in the Hope room where Michael Nyman was last year. After a pint of Barney's beer, we put Mad on a bus to the borders and sheltered in the Green Mantle where I had my first Mac and Cheese, and American version of macaroni cheese only not as cheesy.
Sunday 3 August I spent most of the day indoors watching the Commonwealth Games road race in Glasgow on tv. Then it was over to the Zoo venue near the Pleasance for The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote by Little Soldier Productions, three Spanish women and an Englishman who clowned out scenes from the book on a small stage with trapdoors, swopping roles as they went along. Spanish guitar was played throughout and there was only mild audience participation.
That evening we had more free tickets to see Rhys Nicholson (Clover, 20.05), a dapper Australian who made jokes that sounded somehow shocking coming from such a young mouth! The narrative was based around a guard llama. At least there was no audience participation, apart from a dig at someone who left in the middle of the show.
On Monday 4 August we saw the biggest show so far: Reduced Shakespeare Company's Complete History of Comedy (abridged) 13.05 at Pleasance One (free tickets!). They were American, which came as a surprise, but were very amusing, except when they invoked an imaginary (?) clown Rambozo, it did tend to go on a bit.
We met Mad again at the City Art Gallery and had coffee there then at 16.25 it was Stand 3 for Robin Ince's Blooming Buzzing Confusion. He'd already said on Facebook that he'd lost his voice, but it didn't sound too bad, though he stopped a couple of times to complain he couldn't do his Brian Blessed impersonation. The show was about the amazing brain and I enjoyed it a lot. We caught the tram to the West End, had a pint in Aubar and a pizza next door at La Piazza.
Last show of the day was David Trent back at Pleasance Courtyard (21.45). He used a video slideshow to dissect the sexist Robin Thicke video and a Nick Griffin of BNP fame cookery show (yes, it really exists!). This was Sam's favourite show, so far.
Tuesday 5 August was my last full day and we visited the Talbot Rice for Counterpoint, a group exhibition, including a confetti cannon that will only be fired on a Yes vote. The last show of my stay was Simon Munnery, back on stage at Stand 1 (15.55) with Sings Soren Lierkegaard (half price tickets). Munnery is a banker and never ever disappoints. Stewart Lee is another but we were taking a rest from him this year. We were going to have a Chinese fish meal, but it was shut so we had a very filling African tapas at Indaba.
On the way home on Wednesday 6 August, I got the bus to the Mound and popped into the Fruitmarket for the Jim Lambie exhibition. I wasn't expecting much more than stripes on the floor, but it was worth a visit, especially for the maze of mirrored ladders downstairs. Edinburgh to Kings X was a breeze (at York I'd seen 46115 Scots Guardsman on the way up, but only the Harry Potter loco was outside on the way back). The Thameslink train from St Pancras to Brighton was another matter, it was packed, it being just after 5pm, and it went a very circuitous route, via Herne Hill, Tulse Hill, Gypsy Hill and Crystal Palace! Should have got the bus to Victoria…
PS. It has always been a tradition that the first pint in Edinburgh is a glass of 80/-, but this year it was nowhere to be seen. Deuchars IPA is more or less everywhere, but no Cally 80… On my last say however I finally got a pint of heavy at the bar in Stand 1. So now you know.
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