Wilting Wednesday

I'd been warned about Wednesdays before this point. Midweek in Edinburgh isn't the white heat of the festival and there are plenty of shows who take the day off. However, at Mirthquake we don't believe in slacking off so we went ahead as planned. More on that shortly.

Waking at the almost sensible hour of 10am I was out to Whistlebinkies for the second time to perform at the lunchtime showcase hosted by Katie Pritchard. Like the previous time, the room was really busy and a decent audience of forty or so welcomed Katie on stage. The bill was a mixed bag with some real stand outs including someone dressed as Repunzel satirising gender stereotypes in fairytales and Bear Jokes alumni Taco shooting the shit at the end. Craft Fair went down really well and once again I saw people laughing at all the points throughout the song as well as giving a hearty clap at the end. Exit flyering was painless and successful.

Well, perhaps not that successful as come 4.30pm we had just six people in The Southsider. Mid-week blues and constant rain had battered down the figures. It said a lot that even at this level we still had more bums on seats the either of the shows flanking us. The diminutive audience did their best though and things went totally off piste when one Australian farted on his hand and waved it in his friend's face. James got a good five minutes out of it and soon enough it was my turn.

The show was now already in a very weird place but things got a whole lot more unusual when three drunk old men stumbled into the back row upon hearing the opening bars to Phones. They shouted and mumbled throughout and at one point I freestyle rapped at them about their annoying presence but they didn't actually notice. Once I'd finished the track we were treated to some rapping from one of them which was a revelation. It had rhythm, flow and grace. Unfortunately it was also delivered with such a strong Scottish accent no-one understood a word of if.

I moved onto West End and after a couple of failed attempts by them to join in at the right points they shuffled out whilst I pointed in their direction on the "I'm surrounded by morons, boneheads, tits and arses" line. Small victories.

So the show concluded and we made small change. One CD did walk out the door though so it wasn't all bad. The noise from the bar was bad though and the tape holding up the flimsy cloth covering the entrance has now fallen down so often its taken half the wall paint with it. We're working on a solution before Friday and the real noise starts.

Post-shows Richard and I went on a bit of a pub crawl. Many intriguingly named ales were drunk and I ate my first haggis in the form of a particularly decent burger. En route we passed an Indian restaurant (pictured) that Mel and I ate in last year and served us frozen veg in a tomato sauce as a dip for poppadoms. Best avoided.

Tomorrow is a long day with a 1:15 show at Opium kicking things off and Matt Duwell's midnight variety show at the now infamous Hanover Tap to end - with Mirthquake in the middle.

Bear Jokes shows now added!

Shows Performed: 2 (13)

Bums on seats at Mirthquake: 6 (+3 drunks who don't count) (104)

Money in the Mirthquake bucket: £10.05 (£133.52)
Steps walked according to my pedometer: 18,983 (161,543)