I think Edingburgh's Fringe festival is something you have to see yourself to really understand what it is like, but I will do my best to convey my experiences. First the setting: Edinburgh is a beautiful city, very old, and very Scottish. The castle on the edge of the cliff dominates the town. The whole city is made of stone and easily walkable. During the Fringe festival some streets are closed to traffic and street performers come out to play. Some are musicians, most are jugglers / circus stunt type stuff. Many are marginally skilled at best - if you've seen me juggle, I'm a couple months practice away from the lower tier of performers here. Also if you stop to see some guy's trick, you'll probably have to wait through 20 minutes of crowd coaxing build-up. Yet the highest qualities guys are really good, and regardless it creates a unique atmosphere for just walking down the street.
The indoors shows are the main reason to go to the Fringe. There are hundreds of fairly cheap (often free) shows going on all day long for a month, so below is the list of shows I saw along with brief commentary.
Outside of the entertainment I had a good time in Edinburough. I got to see my parents for the first time in over a year, and my aunt and uncle for the first time in several more. I got reintroduced to greasy western cuisine, and I was loving it. I stayed in a backpackers which was not so entertaining as my Japan ski lodge, but I did have the pleasure of sharing the room with a young Korean lass whom I was able to take out on the town and impress with my (childish) command of her native tongue.
1. Forgetable comedy show - on my first night, since I was alone and the show wasn't sold out, I was offered a free ticket (8 pound value) to a comedy show. The guy had jokes and songs but most were referencing British pop culture from the past year. So they mostly went over my head, but the crowd seemed to dig it.
2. "Freestyle Standup" - a free show featuring a couple different comics. These guys were pretty hilarious, and quite daring with dirty jokes directed at the audience.
3. Doug's one man show - this was a depressing experience. I went to the show because I needed to kill some time and it was free. I was shocked to find that altough the venue was a very classy looking pub, I was the only guy in attendance! I couldn't walk out at this point, and I still expected the best, but the guy was a train wreck. He did some one man sketches that mostly fell flat on the audience (of one)
4. Literary pub tour - Edinburough has been home to a vast array of wordsmiths from Robert Burns to Robert Louis Stevenson. The pub tour was hosted by actors playing an academic and a drunken sot who had a battle of wits using literary quotations and history to discuss the lifestyles and inspirations of Scotlands best writers. It was a lively exchange that took us through history and also plenty of Edinburough's best watering holes. A good mix of performance and down time to talk with my fellow tourgoers.
5. Richard Feynman is my Hero - a few scientifically influenced standups. Funny enough, although the venue was oppressivly hot.
6. Rebel Cell - This was one of the best shows I saw. The show was performed by a couple rappers. The premise was that in the near future England has become totalitarian - the govt has merged with the major corporations - one of the main characters is a figurehead of a rebelious movement. Whether or not the premise is cliched is a non-issue in the face of the tight lyrics these guys have constructed. They also display freestlye skills crafting rhymes from audience suggestions.
7. Some long form improv show - halfway decent improv. I don't have much to say about it, apart from to say it was a troupe only marginally less talented than various shows I've seen my brother perform in. If you're reading you should look into coming out one summer!
8. One-man drama - an interesting show, the man took us through the drama he faced being the son of a con-artist / compulsive liar of a mother. He seemlessly shifted between characters with abundant talent. I only wish he spent more time talking about his mother's many grifts instead of the heartbreak it caused his family.
9. Circe - This was a bunch of incredible gymnasts dancing interpretavely. They demonstrated poses requiring incredible strength, such as the man who let a woman dance upon his outstretched arms. It was a very impressive display
10. Topping and Butch - a duo of gay comedians. Very blue comedy, and very funny. Again some cultural references that went over my head, but enough timeless humor to keep me chuckling in the mean while.
11. Death of the Samurai - the last show I saw and maybe the strangest. The show was high octane! It was billed as a Japanese manga interpretation of a story inspired by Shakespeare. To give this production justice I would need an entire post for a review, so let me just say that the energy of the cast, costumes, soundtrack, and broken english / japanese dialog combined for an unforgetable and exhilirating time.
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