Flyers and Fires

So, yesterday was the first day spent flyering on the mile - something I really enjoy for at least the first two weeks of the festival - after that, people seem to get irate if you even look like you're about to offer them a brightly-coloured piece of paper. But as the festival kicks off, people are genuinely interested in what shows are about and take the time to listen to your pitch. Plus the sun was out (which is quite a rarity in Scotland), and that makes everyone happy (which is quite a rarity in Scotland). We have a few extra people flyering for us this year - a couple from the venue and Matt from East to Edinburgh, and this means that with Willie looking after press people and Tom schmoozing the promoters, I am taking charge of the street team - or my 'footsoldiers' as I like to call them. I always wanted to have footsoldiers, like a mafia boss or the commander of a paratroop brigade. But what title to go by? 'Don Andreas', or 'The Brigadier'? Answers on a postcard.

The first preview of the show was a mixed bag - we had a good crowd (thanks to the attendance of many representatives from the Clan Kitty) but the show was pretty rough around the edges. We got most of the laughs we were expecting, but it seemed more like a dress rehearsal than a polished performance. Still, if we're gonna have a creaky show, best to get it out of the way first. The only way is up, and so on.

Afterwards, Tom and I took in the first shows we have so far seen this year, starting with Richard DeDomenici's lecture Plagiarismo, which was a very interesting discussion of intellectual property rights, Rupert Murdoch, and Whigfield. Or it was, until the fire alarm went off after half an hour, making the audience traipse outside to be asphyxiated by buses. To his credit, Richard gamely attempted to give people their money's worth by continuing the show from atop a yellow concrete soapbox, until his memory failed him and he ended up showing us videos of his performance art on his iPhone. I'm gonna try and go back and catch the second half of the show as some point because Richard is a very clever and engaging performer. I won't have to pay, because he gave us all a special knock to be let into the room. I'd tell it to you all here, but I don't wanna.

After that, we took in Puppet Grinder Cabaret, a hugely entertaining collection of ventriloquism, adult puppetry, animation and object manipulation, expertly compered by the very funny Dave Gibson. We're going to be doing five guest slots for them later in the run and I'm really looking forward to it. Shitty Deal will fit right in. Except for Willie, who's a butt-munch.

Speaking of the illustrious Mr Averill, the show that he and Kitty are doing opens today, and they still have no flyers, due to what can only be described as unscheduled gayness by ParcelForce. So everybody go to Bannermans at half twelve today to support them or they'll probably have no crowd. And no crowd means no pocket money for the pair of them.

I'm back to the mile to hand out flyers and work my Etnies one day closer to destruction. Back soon!