Maybe a slightly misleading and exaggerated title, but, I am now clean shaven for the first time in about 8 months – and I am immediately regretting the decision. Using the classic scale of ‘number of times I got ID’d in Tesco’ I would say that with beard I looked somewhere in my mid-20’s (which is good, as I am) – Without beard I think I now may struggle to get in to How To Train Your Dragon 2 without my Mum.
Next week see’s the start of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and for the first time in three years, I won’t be attending. This makes me sad – but for the time I have available and the amount that it costs for a few days it seems hard to justify. In an attempt to make myself feel a little bit less sad about the fact that I’m missing out on the fringe I’m going to post up a few videos from the best acts I have seen over the last few years, hopefully you enjoy them 🙂
So in no particular order I’ll kick things off with…
David O’Doherty
I saw David O’Doherty in 2012 and he was bloody great and despite being one of the acts I tried to pre-buy tickets for the following year, he had already sold out – poor planning from me. Sadly he often doesn’t get the airtime he deserves because, by his own volition, his comedy doesn’t always work on the panel shows etc. which are so rife at the moment. Here is a song from his 2012 show ‘Seize the David O’Doherty’
Chris Ramsey
I first saw Chris Ramsey when he was the support act/MC for Russel Kane at a comedy night in my home town – at the time (about four or five years ago) Russel Kane was not a particularly huge name, and Chris Ramsey even less so. Since then Chris has enjoyed massive success, having a Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated show, starring in a BBC sitcom (Hebburn) and regularly appearing on a host of TV shows like Mock the Week, Celebrity Juice and 8 Out of Ten Cats. A little out of date now but a short clip of his Edinburgh show from 3 years ago…
Nick Helm
One of the most divisive comedians I have seen, but having been to see him 3 times now it should be obvious which side of the fence I sit. When I first saw Nick Helm (at the same event as Russel Kane and Chris Ramsey as it happens) I had no idea what to expect – and neither it turned out did many(if any) of the other few hundred people who were filling the quite packed theatre. I could try and explain his style, but instead I’ll just let you watch.
This first video is a short set he did for Russel Howard’s Good News :-
And secondly, because I love him and to show his slightly softer side, a poem :-
Josh Widdicombe
Another comedian who I have seen a couple of times at Edinburgh, and another who has made it big on TV in the last few years, especially on shows such as ‘The Last Leg’ – which was one of the highlights of the Olympics/Paralympics in 2012, and subsequently got his own show on XFM and now also presents ‘Fighting Talk’ on Five Live.
Soooo there we have a few brief highlights of people I have enjoyed over the last few years. When I am at the Fringe I also like to take advantage of the ‘Free Fringe’ – shows that are ostensibly free but rely on donations from the audience – and in general most of them are well worth a few pounds of anyone’s money. In the Free Fringe I have seen a huge variety of acts from an ex-prostitute (who happened to be a BBW), the Cambridge Footlights and Porky the Poet (Phill Jupitus’s alias before he got famous).
If anyone was thinking about going to the Fringe for the first time then I cannot recommend it enough – whether you can only go for a few days or a whole week the whole place is teeming with things to do and places to see, and more importantly places to drink. Some of my best moments from the Fringe have been sat in some random bar off the Royal Mile with a pint of Innis and Gunn listening to some impromptu traditional Scottish music, whilst watching people in various outrageous outfits traipse past on there way home from a day flyering.
More G, Less T 