Veni, vidi [to be continued]

Here I am, sitting on a sofa in the Pleasance Dome, at the heart of the Fringe! I have being looking forward to this for so long that when I got off the train I was almost tempted to kiss the platform. Pity that, after what everybody told me was a week of sunshine, my arrival coincided with a day of proper Scottish pissing down weather. The queue for the taxis was too long, so I decided to walk to my hostel in Cowgate, where I took a couple of wrong turns, so when I arrived I was drenched. I found the room quite nice, but I just left my suitcase and went straight to the The Counting House, my venue. On the way I met Paul Foot, a well known and brilliant circuit comedian, so I said hello. I kind of remembered reading on the his website the sentence "I don't have fans, I have connoiseurs", but the word "connoiseur" failed me, so I found myself shaking his hand while saying simply: "I'm not a fan". Fortunately he is a clever guy, so he understood from my embarrassment that I was looking for something else to say and he volunteered the second half of the sentence. Not much later I met Robert Comminskey, an American comedian from my London entourage of open spotters. He was very nice and told me that he would come to see my show. I asked him if he had done any gig and he replied that he performed in a showcase run by two common friends, who after quite a few reminders from me had failed so far to offer me a slot. Well, I did write in my very first post that this is starting to feel like a community but that this doesn't mean that there will be no envy or jealousy! Grrrr. But meeting two people I knew in my first hour in Edinburgh was a nice welcome.

So I went to the Counting House and I really liked the place! In the bar I met the performer of the show "Katrina and the Wifes" and I decided to go and see her show in the Lounge, the very same room where I will perform mine. It's a little room but quite nice, "intimate" I guess is the word. It was quite full, but I was very surprised by the composition of the audience. They were mainly regulars of the pub downstairs, Scottish and probably enjoying their retirement. I hope I will get more festival goers. The performer was very good in the audience banter and made the most of the heckles, again something I hope will not happen too much during my show. I enjoyed the performance, even if her character material didn't really talk to me. I then flyered the audience of Lewis Shaffer and of another couples of shows and I put few posters on. Then I came to the Pleasance Dome to flyer here, I had a curry in one of the bars and decided that I was running like crazy and I needed a break, so I started to write this post. I really feel the buzz of Fringe. The next post will be after my first show... keep your fingers crossed.