A Gameshow Host, A Politician & a Man Laughing

Tuesday 15th August

We started off by going to Devlin's Daily at The Stand. First on the bill was Fringe favourite Simon Munnery. He was okay, but was only on for about ten minutes. I saw him several years ago, when he was performing The League Against Tedium and I really hated him, but on today's showing he was quite good.

He was punting a small book of his jokes that had been put together. It was amusing as he picked several of them to tell, "No. I'll find a funny one...No, this one...no...ah this one..."

Next up was Frank Sanazi and the Iraq Pack. This was a guy doing Hitler as Frank Sinatra. He was then joined by a guy in his pants doing Saddam Hussein as Sammy Davis Jnr. I don't think I need explain more.

The we had Network of Stuff, a theatre company who acted out scenarios with mime and big sound effects. They were miming along to what appeared to be a backing track, but at the end when we discovered it was an offstage cast member doing all the voices and sound effects, it was more impressive. What I found notable was that the two guys onstage looked completely like cartoon characters.

After that we had Scotsman Vladimir McTavish on to do his twenty minutes. His best bit, for me, was about the woman having to stand outside the massage parlour to smoke.

The lunchtime show at The Stand is free and is well worth a pop in.

From there we went in to Mark Watson's Seemingly Impossible 36-Hour Circuit Of The World. It started at noon on Monday. For £4 you can wander in and out as often as you like. The format of the show sees Mark 'visit' a country and do some material on each one.

The audience, who Mark seemed to know all by name, join in on various tasks throughout the show. One such task was sending an audience member as far away as possible and back again during the course of the show. He would call in to update his progress and Mark and the audience would advise him on the best train route to take or the cheapest rail ticket to buy.

Some of the hard-core members of the audience (a few folk were in for the duration) and members of Watson's little team of helpers had put bets on a number of horse races throughout the day. And at regular intervals we would get the racing results.

Lots of other comedians and guests wander in and out willy-nilly. In the time that we were there we saw Adam Hills, Brendon Burns, Tim Key from Cowards, Karl Spain and Arthur Smith. Cook Momma Cherrie popped in and Popworld's Simon Amstell was also in the audience.

There was also free Red Bull given out by a couple of Red Bull promo girls and free lollipops provided by an American girl claiming to be Lithuaniann promoting her own show. Adam Hills also ordered a pizza to be delivered to friends in Melbourne.

The big task in the time that we were there was how to track down Les Dennis. It was unclear for a while where he was and if he would appear. Tim Key tracked down a comedian who was with Les and suddenly it was looking like it was possible. One slight snag we were told. Les came to see Watson's regular show and 'didn't really like it'.

A member of Watson's crew of helpers was dispatched to get hold of Les and bring him to the Pleasance Dome. In the meantime Tim Key worked on a song to greet him. It went "Les Dennis, Les Dennis, A Gameshow Host, An Actor and a Les Dennis. Les Dennis, Les Dennis, A Gameshow Host, An Actor and we hope he likes this."

When Les arrived he was greeted by a standing ovation and the entire room singing the song in his honour. The look of bafflement on his face was a picture. All throughout his appearance he seemed never to be sure if people genuinely liked him or were taking the piss.

Mark Watson had decided not to mention that he knew Les had seen him. But the former host of Family Fortunes jumped in, "I saw you the other night and you were fantastic." This had the room in fits of laughter and for several minutes Les looked, to quote Bill Hicks, like a dog being shown a card trick, as he attempted to work out what was so funny. He was happily game for a laugh, among other thngs, revealing that his real name is Lesley Heseltine.

Watson's show was unbelievably ambitious. The segment I saw went from being quite good to mildly diverting to hugely entertaining with the whole Les Dennis thing.

After here I left to head for The 3 Tuns for Get Up Stand Up. I've played the 3 Tuns a few times on their stand-up nights and although I've went over well a couple of times, it's an odd room and not one I would really except to establish itself as a top comedy club.

So I was a little surprised to find myself queuing to get in. The reason for the queue was that we were there to see Tony Benn. Richard Herring was also on, so I thought that a good double bill.

There seemed to be some confusion over how many people they could let in and how long they would wait for those with tickets to arrive. After more than half an hour the organisers announced they would let the next 13 people in and that was it. Luckily I was ninth in the queue and squeezed my way in. They waived the 3 quid entrance fee because we had waited so long.

The layout of the room has now changed with the stage at the right hand side of the room, instead of right at the front door. The place was absolutely heaving. Although he is now 81 Tony Benn is still a captivating speaker. He was of course speaking to a crowd completely on his side, but it was a very enlightening and entertaining half hour.

He spoke about his time in the Seocnd World War, of how governments keep people in fear in order to pass all the laws they want, and spoke positively about how today's youth has the power to end all the lies and the bloodshed.

He received an absolutely heroic reception and people stopped him to take pictures, shake his hand and get his autograph as he was leaving. Although a lot of people left after he did I decided not to bother hanging around another hour for 15 mins of Richard Herring.

As I left Tony Benn was stopped on the stairs by people wanting him to sign a petition and enter into an impromptu debate. Where else but the Edinburgh Festival can you see both Les Dennis and Tony Benn be hailed as heroes in the space of an hour?

Here's The Scotsman on Tony Benn's appearance at the book festival.

Victoria seemed only slightly put out by the scathing reviews of the last few days, but on the whole she seemed unaffected. The power of the press or not, we had 22 folk through the door tonight, the highest of the whole run.

It has to be said that they pretty much laughed throughout the whole thing. Big belly laughs in some places. I got some good laughs early on with some face pulling. An ad-lib from me though seemed to get the biggest laugh of the evening.

The 'trouble scene', which is actually scene 4. I think I said scene 2 previously. Scene 4 is better than before but just too short. It needs another couple of minutes.

The last major scene went over well, although someone (not naming names) forgot their lines at one point and although I felt that moment of 'Who's line is it?' I don't think the audience could see it.

One audience member in the front row must have been on his first night out for 20 years as he laughed his guts up the whole night. One of those kind of laughs that makes you think 'what the fuck is wrong with him?' But the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Just to remind all you readers, my Flickr page gets updated with photos on a daily basis as well.

No further prospective flatmate news for the time being.