The Last Night

Sunday 20th August

The last day. I went through late in the afternoon. I intended to go see Whisky Galore at Augustine’s but it was sold out, so we had a wander around the town before the last show.

When you’ve seen a guy on an 8 foot unicycle wearing a black hood on his head juggling machetes and sticks that are on fire you know you’ve finally seen enough street performers.

For the last night we had 17 in. It always amazed Graeme and I that we had decent numbers both nights. If you consider that some shows really struggled to get an audience then we did alright in getting folk through the door.

Graeme’s Dad came back for a second time and brought his Mum with him. Something Graeme was none too happy about. “I’m going to say ‘masturbating’ in front of my Mum”.

We had suggested swapping the parts around for the last night, but decided against it. manly cos we had only a flimsy knowledge of each other’s lines.

The audience seemed to go for it for the most part. You could see that a few people weren’t into it, but there was a decent percentage of the room laughing.

To mark the end of the run Victoria presented me and Graeme with a bottle of malt whisky and Caroline with a Zippo lighter. Caroline is starting at RADA next month doing, I think, a lighting design course. I’m sure she’ll do very well as she’s been very professional and diligent with us.

As a venue Greyfriars Kirk House has been all right. The facilities have been good. The dressing room is fine, the stage, curtains, sound and lighting have all been decent. As a forty seater capacity we never really troubled the fire safety regulations though.

I toasted the end of the run with a Mississippi Mud Pie vodka in Bar Kohl. We made Victoria buy us all something from the chippie in Corstorphine on the way home. A single fish was £3.60.

You will also be glad to know that I have found a new flatmate. She moved in today, immediately taking the vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard and reorganising her room.

The last batch of photographs are up on my Flickr page.

All in all it’s been a fun two weeks. Although the show wasn’t the best and met with some heavy criticism it’s been a good experience and I’ve learned a lot over the fortnight. I do plan to come back with You Owe Me Glue and perhaps something else in 50 weeks time.

Tom’s Fringe in Numbers

People who came to see Trans-Canada Highway – 179
Number of walk outs - 2
Times the staff in Greyfriars Kirk House café got my order wrong – 20 (conservative estimate)
Times I saw Big Keith from The Office playing the puggy in Rush – 6
Times I saw Big Keith from The Office somewhere else – 1 (on Leith Walk)
Times I saw David McSavage insult passers by while doing his show on the street – 4
Stand-up gigs I performed – 2
Times I played a rabbit – 1
Times I played a polar bear – 13
Times I was asked to ‘get me the polar bear costume’ - 3