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Enjoyable show by the man the brought us Star Wars Trilogy, you guessed it, by one man in one hour. Picture is of Paul sitting in a massive astroturf chair in the bar outside…

Other than an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s ‘As you like it’ a couple of weeks back, my festival going has been a bit non existant this year…

So today it was off to the Foodie Festival for some fine food – and meeting up with Nicci Kitchin before seeing brother Tom doing a cooking demo. Then off to see Pippa Evans followed by John Bishop at the Pleasance.

Then to top it all it was a fine bag if chip on the way home from the bus stop

Friday night saw us at the Chinese State Circus in a big tent at the Meadows.

Wow, its a long time since I’ve seen such amazing acrobatics. I was in awe at some of the agility and strength on display. So much so that I kept clapping, mesmerised by the performance!

That’s it for another year!

Saw some great comedy on the works night out at Jason Byrne. Good stuff – maybe I’m a cynic though as I’m sure his adlibs were rehearsed…

Mind trickery from Chris Cox beforehand was okay but nothing hugely original.

Maybe I’m getting old, but I was hugely, and unexpectantly entertained by Giselle at the Edinburgh Playhouse last night. Now it wouldn’t normally be my first choice to go and see ballet, but this classical piece was captivating. Reading the programme was a must though otherwise I would not have had a clue why the beardy guy did what he did, and who was the bloke with a cloak or without a cloak…

Not being an officiando meant that it could have been the worst performance of Giselle ever, but to me it was amazing. Don’t worry dear reader, I’m off to see some comedy next week – two in one night to be exact!

This year has been a bit of a slow start for our Festival Fringe going this year. Just seem to be busy doing other things!

Anyway – we have seen a couple of things so far with a few more booked in too.

First off at St George’s West was Capoeira Knights. Some amazing martial art, gymnastic type dancing to South American Rhythms. Very good – fit Brazillian chaps for the lasses…

Then – once we found it was InvAsian Festival: Skywalk which was an amazing mix of Martial Arts and Hip Hop dancing from Korea. The energy and agility of the performers was amazing! Funny too as it was all done in the style of a competetion between the two families – one doing hip hop and the other doing Martial Arts.

More to come…

We’re getting to old for this. A day of cycling followed by a chinese – great that we can justify it after the cycling – followed by getting a taxi into town at quarter to eleven! Nearly didn’t go because we were both a bit bushed.

Was well worth it though. Craig Hill compered 3 comedians at The World Stands Up starting at midnight. Don’t think it was the delirium of us needing sleep but all three were hilarious. Kitty Flanagan from Oz, Mitch Benn from the UK and Steve McGrew from the US had a small audience in stitches. Mitch was musical comedian  – tunes about hating James Blunt and how everyone sounds like Coldplay. Burt Chewbacharach too LOL.

The other two I would go and see again if they come back. Kitty’s name rings a bell – maybe I’ve seen her on something before, or had fliers pushed into my hand for her show – anyway, she was excellent. Steve McGrew telling stories about his dog being sick, or him being sick, pretty gross at points but funny – the denver accent, whatever that may be sort of adds to the humour.

Thats it for the year though.

Perhaps Edinburgh will be back to some sort of normallity, a few less tourists attempting suicide wandering across the roads, hotel prices back to normal, taxi fares just pricey instead of extortionate, pub opening hours reduced to 1am instead of 3/4/5am. Lorraine thinks Edinburgh always feels a bit flat for the next week or so. Lets see if its true.

Blm

Dunno, she was funny but not as funny as I had hoped. Maybe because she didn’t do many of her characters from Chewin’ the Fat – of which I’m a fan.
Maybe we’ve been spoilt by all the great international comedy available that when it comes to one of our own she seemed a bit old-fashioned or something.
The crowd was definitly of an older average than I’ve seen at other events – maybe this is a reflection of her appeal?
Strangely enough it was in the same venue that our chums Luke and Linda had their wedding reception!

Blm

One-man Star Wars Trilogy does exactly what it says on the tin. Charlie Ross whizzes through the original 3 Star Wars movies in about an hour. A must for Star Wars fans as you will marvel out how he can bring such a vast cast of characters, vehicles, droids, aliens, and spaceships together. Wait til you see Jabba the Hutt, better than any CGI
Luke, Paul and I laughed throughout the performance and chatted about it when we came out like seeing Star Wars for the first time.

It might be sold out, dear reader, but we managed to get press tickets that get re-allocated to general public 15-30 mins before the show starts.

Thanks Linda for the tip!

Blm

Broadening my horizons yet again with the fusion of traditional Korean dancing and some stunningly acrobatic, gymnastic dancing from Myosung.

A troop of about 20 performers did dances like sketches in a fast paced TV comedy show – one minute there would be 4 hip hopping street performers spinning on their hands, the next a scantily clad female and her partner energetically going through as many sexual positions as they could – all to some pounding beat.

There were also some more ‘traditional’ pieces – where the same people would be more balletic, showing amazing strength and poise.

A couple of times in the show there were short 5 minute intermissions where the audience were shown slides of the effects of war – I guess in Korea – and of people marching against war and being anti-Bush. Not entirely sure how it gelled with the rest of the show but I guess they wanted to get their message across.

Worth a visit if you think the bits between the BBC2 programs where guys hurl themselves off park benches is cool.

Blm