Adam Hills
An early start this week. The usual suspects, Tony, Alan and myself, arrived in Edinburgh late morning, leaving ourselves just enough time to grab a pint of very refreshing strawberry cider and get our seats for the first event of the day, 'Stu and Garry in the Lunchtime Show'. Alan was sitting too close to the small podium, so we shuffled along a few seats to get out of the line of fire. Not that we had much to worry about. Being improv-comedians Stu and Garry needed suggestions from members of the audience for their different sketches but they are not the sort to single anybody out and make fun of them. They proved to be a very likeable and funny double act, playing games similiar to those in Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Despite being relatively unknown they were funnier than some of the big name comedians we saw last week. They deserve a much larger audience and more exposure. We left The Assembly Rooms well satisfied and in the mood for more good laughs. A quick greasy pie on route to the Pleasance Grand had to suffice for lunch, we didn't want to be late for Sandi Toksvig's 'My Valentine'. For those who don't know Sandi Toskvig is a Danish/English radio and tv personality, writer, and comedian. She is a bubbly little character and bounded onstage to the aptly chosen 'Ode to Joy' by Beethoven. For the next hour she regaled us with funny anecdotes, stories, jokes, off the cuff wit and general merriment. Her big finish was to invite us to conduct the final few bars to 'Ode to Joy', which she lead with great enthusiasm and energy. I was tempted to join in but I didn't want to embarrass Tony and Alan. After the show we had several hours to kill until Adam Hills so we hung about the Pleasance for a few pints of Bulmers Cider (this blog is beginning to sound like it's involved in cider product placement). It was nice to just sit to there, chatting and slowly drinking, letting the alcohol kill our brain cells one by one. We moved on after a couple of hours, bumping into some of my cousins in the process, and eventually found a nice enough pub called The Hebrides for more cider. I managed to embarrass myself when chatting to a friendly guy from Liverpool and asked if he was from Poland. Maybe cider kills more brain cells than ordinary alcohol. As far as I remember, it's all a bit blurred from 5pm onwards, we wolfed down some fast food from Burger King before making our way to The Assembly Hall for Adam Hills. His show, entitled 'Mess Around', was not routine stand up, going from one joke or story to another. He basically just messed about with members of the audience, mostly to good effect. He possesses a bright and quirky personality and this helped him to interact well with the public, although to be honest I was hoping for more prepared material. His add lib jokes were generally quite funny but did not have me bent double with laughter. Our next show, also at The Assembly Hall, was Marcus Brigstocke: The Brig Society. The title of the show was a reference to David Cameron's famous Big Society speech, which was meant to inspire a generation of upstanding citizens to fill the void created by the present Governments regime of brutal cuts to public services. Brigstocke really got tore into David Cameron and George Osbourne, to the extent that comedy and entertainment were often pushed to the side. His political rant was punctuated by moments of laughter but it was few and far between. His show finished just after ten pm, so there was still time for one final pint. I can't remember the name of the pub but at least this time I didn't confuse a Liverpudlian with a Pole.
Sandi Toskvig
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