#bbcedfest

Having had quite a casual morning, I fell upon a lovely vintage fair on the Grassmarket, awaiting my first show of the day. I then had a friend ring me to tell me that someone was giving out FREE TICKETS to a play called HOLES which was something I circled and ticked a million times in the Fringe brochure.Therefore, I then went on a wild goose chase trying to find these freebies, nonchalantly placing myself in front of the freebie man then to be told he'd run out of the tickets. He told me to go to Pleasance to find his friend. I then spent the following half an hour stalking a chap bearing a strong resemblance to Eddie Redmayne. I did succeed in the tickets and BONUS OF THE DAY, found a plaque in the Pleasance Courtyard dedicated to Alan Rickman from 2008 when his play 'I am Rachel Corrie' was performed at the fringe.

I then dashed to my first and only 'proper' show of the day: THE EDINBURGH REVUE SKETCH SHOW. Now, I will warn you, this will be incredibly biased as I am a loving member of The Edinburgh Revue, and one of my sketches was used (so I feel proud of my wee baby [the sketch being about a checkers match]). I was really pleased that there were a surprisingly good amount of people who attended the show with it being the first in their fringe run. The show started with a strange summery montage interspersed with funny little lines which, however, were unfortunately drowned out by the overpowering music. Hopefully that's been turned down a little. The troupe then went on to perform an hours worth of lovely sketches which showcased the University society's talents over the past year. It was quite nice to properly stand back and watch the show, particularly as some of the sketches used I'd completely forgotten about because they were either used right at the beginning of the year, or had developed so much from their first form they breathed a new lease of life into already good sketches. The cast are all lovely (I have to say that, they're paying me [they're not]) and play are various amount and type of roles to a good standard. 

ALL IN ALL: Go see it and you'll find out how much potential comedic students have. Although not all sketches are suitable for all audiences (the end of Hate Date - I still cringe a bit even though I've seen the sketch performed multiple times), there are definitely people in the vicinity of Fringe which will love it!

RATING: A bajillion POLLYS (again, not being paid. Also the checkers sketch really sold it to me). 

After seeing The Revue, I went for a drink with a couple of the people and then watched half of The Oxford Revue (which was alright but feel that I can't review it due to not seeing it in it's entirety) before attending two free events put on by the BBC's site at Potterow. Firstly I attended an event named WHO'S AFRAID OF AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION. I presumed it to be a little more of a workshop than a panel but it was interesting enough, featuring a good mix of performers on at the Fringe, including Pippa Evans known from SHOWSTOPPERS, a chap named Sanderson Jones; an interesting guy who personally gets to know every member of his audience by selling them tickets himself, as well as a magician and mind reader who reminded me so much of Brian Cox my mind just called him Brian Cox Man. 

ALL IN ALL: Perfectly fine event which gave an insight into the many forms of audience participation. I did, however, think about the irony that the event in itself had less audience participation than expected.

RATING: 2 POLLYS.

Finally, I returned to the BBC's blue tent to watch THE BRIGHT CLUB. Now, they are performing every day at the Fringe at the Assembly Rooms, but I do know some of them and therefore feel like I've been to a Bright Club gig before; but apparently not like this one. All of the comics, besides the compere Eleanor Morton (who I've met previously and told her that she has a nice ukulele [not a euphemism, her uke really is very nice]), were over 30 and were primarily lecturers. However, the idea of Bright Club is that their comedy set has to be based on their own field of research/study, meaning to people like me, the set about Theoretical Quantum Physics meant absolutely nothing and I seemed to be bombarded with jargon which a handful of other people found funny. The first few acts kind of went over my head, but that's because I do English Language and Linguistics; nothing to do with Physics, Chemistry, Anthropology etc. The final three acts redeemed the previous by actually being applicable and understandable: one included a rap about software freezing to the tune of Eminem's 'Without Me', a Poet who performed a poem regarding 'Why did the chicken cross the road', and finally a really loveable lady who chatted with use of funny graphs.

ALL IN ALL: Great for audiences with amazing and varied knowledge, however not great for someone who knows buggar all about sciencey things (aka me).