Saturday Sadness

It's coming to the end, and to misquote Oscar Wilde "Fringe love is the beginning of a life long romance" I imagine that sort of misquote would really upset Oscar, yes he'd be wild! Boom.

I'm sad in two ways today, and although I perhaps should start with one sadness I shall continue to take it from the top and let yesterday unfold.

I talk in the Mambalsa show about breaking through barriers. Closing something, stopping, ceasing, all have a tinge of sadness. As I come to the end of this amazing run my mind starts to make little notes of conclusions, lessons learned, little pats on the back and kicks up the arse.

Today was the last day of the Edinburgh Mambalsa strut in the street. The four from the yesterdays show came along and we were joined by another lady. What worked especially well was having Fliss there to Flyer and chat while I led the dance.

 Camden Comedy, penultimate Edinburgh show and what should be a banker, i.e. a good take in the bucket and a seamless show.

11am send out reminders to acts. This is a great way to gather all the excuses into one lump of disappointment and frustration, which I never let show to them. Occasionally if they've rolled in drunk in the wee hours (it's been known!), they'll almost certainly have left their phone on, and they're pulled into consciousness, I imagine their salutations to the Irish god of comedy- O'Shite!

It's 11.15am it was clear that three acts out of four had bailed, and one had car trouble.

'Welcome to my solo show :-)'

I posted help posts in certain facebook groups and messaged acts I thought were around.

11.30 David Mullholland confirms - Hero! His tenth year of the Fringe and he's loving every gig he can get.

11.50am So with my two handed show do I have enough material to survive half an hour?

My pre-Fringe brain shouts noooooo!

My Fringe brain says Helllll Yeah! Tons and Tons of material. I can chat and riff the audience easily for twenty mins. I've 20mins of stand up on Edinburgh alone, 20mins on teaching dance and 20mins of topical stuff like the Bob Marley groaner set and the Jelly fish.

12.01pm  The show prior to mine finishes. I exit flyer and David Tsonos (car trouble) arrives.

David has been my hero several times this Fringe, but he excels this time with a simple suggestion. "Why not ask the acts from the previous show?" Booom!

Damian Kingsley, my first ever facebook comedy friend, Richard Pulsford and Maxine Jones.

12.05 on stage with a full line up!

What a show.

My warm up was full of joy (I wonder why?)

Damian smashes the opening set.

Richard does an awesome tight five of one one liners followed by Maxine.

David Mullholland nails it! Finishing on his 'no more nails' joke which I've heard many times before by for some reason it had me corpsing off and on stage. We finish with David Tsonos who's so suited to this kind of gig. His cat/x-ray joke totally rocks!

Like we say on the flyer 'Camden Comedy - It's Awesomely nice'

Mambalsa Show 3-4pm

At two 2.45 there was just one older couple who had come from Glasgow just for the show. They had danced all their lives and their daughter was a Ceroc teacher in London. Mum and had recently taken up 'Ballet for the over fifties' which is a fantastic idea!

Two other couples got willingly roped in and a post marriage stag party? That's right, he got married the day before and then has his stag party the next night.

It was the last show and I had a heap of fun ending in nearly all of them up and dancing Mambalsa.

A familiar face arrived during the show. I could place her until after the show. It was Sue a journalist and often plus one (for bringer gigs) to Nigel Roberts.

Sue had come in person to tell me that Nigel had died suddenly two days earlier.

Nigel had performed many times at Camden Comedy and many other open mic nights and had become a personal friend. Last time I saw him was in a coffee shop in Muswell Hill where we had chatted about comedy and the show's narrative curve. I will miss him.

After a tea and cake Fliss and I wandered back and had a pub supper where I had Haggis Tatties and Neaps. Yummmy

Had a good old blether with Helen into the wee hours.

Nigel Roberts