I can't take it any more.....

please please please make the rain stop....please

i'm so so so so tired of being damp

I can't handle being moist anymore

Departure Lounge

Last night I saw a musical called Departure Lounge by Dougal Irvine. In a word.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I know thats not technically a word but its what it made me do a lot. Its basically a coming of age story wrapped around a Brits abroad theme. 4 lads stuck in a departure lounge (thanks to Ryan Air) end up exploring the ties that bind them together as friends. This show was hilarious, poignant and touching by turns.

Oh and there's a fit blonde in it!!!!

American Dad

So the mile is a mile long road on which many street performers do their thing. During the festival it is also overrun with performers promoting and flyering for their shows, so it becomes increasingly difficult to find new ways to persuade people to take your flyers.

I have settled on singing amongst other things, such as complimenting women. Now bear in mind that this is a street with a multitude of performers on it one must expect the unexpected.

However....a family is walking past and i start to sing to a girl while reaching for a flyer. i'm singing - "By the look in your eye, I can tell your gonna cry is it over me..." I convert the next line into somethig that results in the need for the targetted person to take a flyer; But before I can get there American Dad barges me in the chest and drawls "Get Lost Pal".

Seriously, there are ways and ways to deal with stuff, here's a suggestion.
1) Smile and think 'those crazy performers'
2) Take a flyer
3) Say "I'm sorry, We are not interested"
4) Ignore me
5) Here's a good one - Teach your daughter how to stand up for herself

I swear these people are gonna give me anger issues

Loving it ......

Man I'm loving this festival. Had a grreeeaaatttt show then went out with some of the cast. Around 4am everyone starts heading home...but guess what...I'm not ready for that. Louisa one of the casts friend isn't either, so turning our backs on the crowd we head for The Gilded Balloon, to grab some drinks at the Library Bar. Apparently though, it turns out you can't get in without a performers pass after 4 and mine was left at home. So after some serious blagging we get in and hook up with the aforementioned cast of Funk It Up About Nothing and a grand old time was had by all; although I had to inform a girl, who shall remain nameless, that its not the done thing to talk about me when she's in bed with her man!!!

So it hits 5 and I decide to walk Louisa home and on the way we discover a really talented singer playing a medley of hits on his guitar....Its freaking 5:30 in the moening and there's a crowd around this guy singing and dancing.....where else in the world man!!! Of course the police shut him down eventually...
but you know what I'm loving this city.

This is me and Louisa as dawn is gracing the sky. And this is the view of the castle on my way home through the Meadows at 6:30am.

Silent Disco

The picture is myself and the wonderful Julia, she's hardcore! Everyone else in the cast had gone home after the show and we were the only two that wanted to go out. So Julia suggested we go to the Silent Disco. The more perceptive of you may have noticed that in the picture both Julia and I are wearing headphones. Its that very thing that made this one of the most bizarre clubbing experiences of my life.

The concept is that when you go in you pay a £5 deposit for a pair of wireless headphones with 2 channels on it. The venue has 2 dj's that are transmitting to their repsective channels so if you don't like what one dj is playing you can switch to the other one.

It was all good until I noticed that Julia and I were dancing seriously out of time to each other, and we realised we were listening to different channels. Its a weird experience when you take the headphones of and your in a club that is relatively quiet apart from the odd few people singing out of time, out of tune and with little knowledge of the words to a song that you cant hear. At least it makes it a lot easier to chat people up.

The funniest part of the night for me was when a fire alarm went of but no one could hear it because they were wearing the headphones. We spent 15m outsides having a laugh with the other clubbers and then back in. Julia went slightly mad and our half an hour of clubbing turned into a night that ended at 4am discussing theatre with a bloke called Will whilst eating crepes (I had bannana and nutella - oh yea baby!)

A good night which could only have been improved by a consistently better music choice (I really didn't like the techno song that kept going on about penis) and a snog with Monica Belluci.

Samurai Spirit

It's probably because I've just finished reading the 28 volume manga series Lone Wolf and Cub ( a Samurai drama set in Japan during the Edo period) that what happened today at the festival excited me so much.

I went to see the acting group of sword fighting specialist Kamui doing a show called Samurai Spirit. The exciting thing about this ****WARNING GEEK MOMENT APPROACHING***** is that it was directed and starred Tetsuro Shimaguchi who not only was the lead member of the Crazy 88

Let me tell you people this show started good and finished excellent and my major aformentioned excitement came from the fact that I actually recognised some of the moves from Lone Wolf and Cub and was anticipating some of their responces. My one regret was that when they got someone out of the audience to do some moves as that it wasn't me...I could've kicked it man!

More Shakespeare - and its funky

Just got out of seeing Funk It Up About Nothing, which is a rap version of Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing. Now this could have been seriously rubbish, but OMG this was a phenomenal show. The actors were sharp, the rhymes audible and funny...I thoroughly enjoyed myself and they got a standing ovation. Well worth seeing wether you know the story or not. You can check them out here, be warned though the video clip just doesn't do them justice.

Shakespeare, Dr Who and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

So I'm on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, which is a road on which you can find various street performers and people promoting the various plays and shows they are doing. Its an interesting place that has involved me scaring the hell out of random people with my joker like visage and my Harley Quin companion(the lovely and slightly scary Helen ); Conversly it's a also a place where I've made a lot of new friends and collected an inordinate amount of hugs.

Anywhere I'm talking to a family trying to get them to come and see one of the Shakespeare productions I'm in (the vaguely kiddy friendly one) and the little boy in the family asks the question
"Who's Shakespeare?"
I look at him and ask him the most obvious question I could think of , "Do you like Dr Who?"
"Yes," he says
"Well," say I "Do you remember the man the Dr met in the episode with the Carrionites who used to write lots of stories."
"Yes, but I didn't watch it all because the witches scared me so had to turn it off"
"Fair enough," I said in agreement " they were pretty ugly...but the man who wrote the stories was a real a man whose stories were really good and we still read today".

So, a triumph for science fiction as thanks to Dr Who I was able to educate a young lad to the best selling writer in history.

This is one of the reasons I get riled when people say "its just a kids show" - Kids shows shape the minds of our young, conciously or subconciously and should not be underestimated. For some it is the kind of shaping that can help decide future careers and in this case was the genesis of an education in the classics.