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On this day in the trip things had reached a critical stage. There are no more Tuesdays left in the stay. The festival is starting to wind up and the party will soon be over. There are various shows on at the same time and not enough nights to plan to see them all. The cost of seeing these shows is starting to rise and the cost of staying away from home is not insignificant. Perhaps a mild day was in order, but then why miss out on the fun?
Two more events shaped the day. Steve Lewis, an old friend, was visiting the area and it was my last performance in the fantastic 5065 lift. My hosts were going to attend the lift gig, as was Steve.
I started the day with a plan - I wanted to go and see the Naked Voices, an Acapella group I saw last year and whose CD has been played a number of times since the festival. I particularly wanted to see them, since I had bought a ticket for their show and it would have been a waste to miss the show. After another late morning, though my late return to my bed was a good excuse, and I did update my diary before leaving the house, which is a just reason for having a late morning, I got onto the streets with my guitar and "gig bag" in hand. I was to drop these off at the lift before getting some lunch and watching the show I'd planned to see.
After dropping off my stuff, I found out that they wanted me to cut down the size of my set. I was disappointed that my last show was to be a shorter one, until I found out the reason - the special guests were to headline and were the Flight of the Conchords. I'd gladly cut myself down to give them more room to perform. The guitar part had to go - I wasn't going to show them how shit I am on the guitar when they epitomise how good one should be on the guitar. I trotted to lunch, forming a plan on how to do a half-size show and make it good.
Lunch was a relaxed affair in Starbucks after a rather stressful queue, formed largely of children and annoying parents, trying to force their children to want the unnecessary sweet things that are found gracing the chiller of that lovely but naughty shop. Then the Naked Voices... I bought their CD, which I'm listening to as I write this.
Over at the Pleasance, before the gig, I met up with Steve and sat and traded stories and even played a few songs in the corner of the courtyard. The guitar had travelled so far and might as well have some use, even if it was purely for our own amusement. Then it was time to perform. I got changed and met the Flight of the Conchords. One of them - Jermaine (I've no idea of the correct spelling) - made my hour by remembering my name from the brief chat we'd had 10 days previously. I then made my own day by doing a pretty reasonable hatchet job on my routine to get it down from 16 to 7 minutes and getting plenty of laughs from the lovely last audience in the lift. I let them do the work and had fun with it. More importantly, I satisfied my three objectives for doing stand-up:
Make them laugh
Have fun doing it
Meet performers I admire in the process
Not bad for an afternoon's work.
After the gig, it was back to the flat to drop some stuff off and then off for a meal - the first restaurant sit down meal I've had all fringe. Then we wandered over to the Pleasance courtyard to see Gavin Webster. We also chatted to various staff members and leaflet givers, since chatting to people is a wonderful thing to do during the festival.
Since Steve had to be up for work, we took the option of an early night - that's early in fringe terms, not actually genuinely early.
Show: The Naked Voices
Performed by: The Naked Voices
When: 15:30
Where: C Main
Cost: £9.50
Hard to describe. A range of different styles of music performed acapella. A significantly different repertoire from last year's show. Just superb. They have a superb group and excellent arrangements and choreography.
Show: Gavin Webster
Performed by: Gavin Webster
When: 22:55
Where: Pleasance Cellar
Cost: £9.50
I've seen much of this act before. I've enjoyed it every time. This is probably the first time I've seen Gavin work a small audience. It was marvellous - he is a master of his art. Some excellent set pieces and good audience interaction. As Steve said, he owned that stage, indeed he owned the room.
I had promised him that I'd come and see his show, I was pleased to fulfil that promise.
Spent £22, saw 2 shows. At the day's end:
Total shows seen: 51
Total shows performed: 8
Total spent: £345
20 August 2003
Ashley Frieze