Edinburgh Day 23

There are lovely small moments or events in Edinburgh that make the festival special and different every year. Last night two of these moments occurred one after the other. The first was while sitting in the bar at the GRV. I had been to buy a drink and had feebly asked for a cup of tea as my throat has reached truly bad levels. Imagine if Tom Waits and Macy Grey had a kid and forced them to gargle glass. Its kind of sore, dry and tickly all at once. Its annoying how a tickly throat is not remotely a pleasurable experience. I have not laughed once at the sensation. Had Mr Tickle spent the whole Mr Men books walking round tickling throats, most of the Mr Men would've just been very irritated. Although I'm surprised they weren't irritated by Mr Tickle anyway. Of all the Mr Men, he sounds the most like a sexual offender. The sore throat has no also been accompanied by a snotty nose and lots of sneezes where more projectile escapes than is anticipated. They feel like a small spray of sneeze might escape but I have too often been awkwardly caught out with large amounts of nasal bungee which I then have to try and dispose of before everyone thinks I am the king of disgusting. Anyway, I had been denied the tea as the girl said they were sorry but couldn't make one, and instead I got a diet coke, made some comment about how I wanted beer but my throat said no, and sat back down, sniffling and coughing like a plague victim. After about 5 minutes the girl popped up at our table with a big cup of ginger tea. She said 'that's got ginger in it and should help' and then just walked off again. That was quite possibly one of the loveliest things ever and I said thanks so many times it was probably embarrassing. She single handedly restored my faith in society and the tea stopped me coughing for about 30 minutes which was nice.


The second was the event I was going to see which was a screening of 'Mr Jollie Lives Next Door', a Comic Strip Presents film. Michael Legge had organised the screening as it was one of his favourite films and he had managed to arrange for Nicholas Parsons to do a Q&A about his role in the film. I knew very little about it all and had spent most of the hour or so prior to the film hearing James Hingley, Rich Sandling and many others constantly repeat slogans and catchphrases from it and giggle a lot. Normally this is the sort of activity that is prone to put me off watching anything. I had a small fear that Sandling would sit next to me throughout, pointing out when the best bits were about to happen and mouthing along with the words. When a film is built up that much, it tends to be shit. I have had several films ruined for me, due to large anticipation of what will occur. Admittedly, it hasn't helped that most of the films have been bad to begin with, such as Phantom Menace or Indy 4 (it still hurts Lucas, it still hurts), but also films such as Silence of the Lambs, which I saw far after my contemporaries. By the time I watched it I had heard the fava beans line repeated in a poor Hopkins accent so many times that it became farcical during the actual film. So I was worried that I was going to spend an hour watching a film other people thought was a lot better than I did. I shouldn't have been worried. It was brilliant. Completely anarchic, insane and hilarious. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before and there were quite a lot of laugh out loud moments. On top the excellence of the film, it was so nice to sit and watch a movie. You forget how great it is to not be in a bar drinking or watching other people's shows with a cynical eye and to instead, relax and enjoy something. Not everyone that had bought a ticket enjoyed it. I heard some people walk out saying 'what the hell was that?', although I think they had bought a ticket to 'The Secret Gig' without knowing it would be the screening of Mr Jollie. I'm really pleased I went and thanks to for sorting it all out.


Prior to that was a lovely Comedy 4 Kids where myself, Elis James and Paul F Taylor were all shown up by 11 year old Preston who stormed the gig. He was truly brilliant and will either be very big in a few years or completely bonkers. He's doing Wednesday too, when he says he will be doing a dance, and I can't recommend it enough. Following that there was grub with parents which was very nice and then I went to see Jimmy McGhie's show which was very good too and if he hasn't sold out all week then I would highly recommend it.


Off to meet my Dad for lunch then I only have to do my show today, so the rest of the day will be spent watching lots of other shows then another early night till my throat stops rebelling. Only 6 shows to go!