28/08/07 Ho Hum

I was watching a great play on BBC2 last night ; Gregory Burke's "Black Watch".
It was very cleverly directed and Burke's written dialogue was fantastic.
He has accurately captured the language of "Fife working class male" in all it's foul mouthed glory.
It'd be fair to say he makes Irvine Welsh sound like PG Wodehouse.
The play certainly contained the greatest intensity of "cunts" on television in the history of broadcasting...
Or, at least since the last Conservative Party Conference (aye thang u!)
The play didn't say anything particularly groundbreaking ; just pointing out that Scottish working class people have been the mainstay of the British Empire for the last 300 years, and that little has changed...and that basically, war is shit, and the campaign in Iraq is a questionable venture.
But it was still great to watch, and will certainly shake anyone up who was under the impression that military life is accurately reflected by the Soldier Boys featured in "Trumpton".
I rounded off my Fringe stand-up with a real belter of a gig at The Stand in Glasgow.
Nice to finish on a high.
In terms of being part of the "Free" Fringe, I'm not sure if I'd do it again.
As of last year I didn't get a review, which is a pain as one of the main reasons behind doing the Fringe is trying to get a bit of recognition and get a little further up the ladder.
But in spite of this disappointment, the Fringe gives you the opportunity to do loads of gigs in a concentrated period of time, and by doing so get better at the stand-up game.
There have been a lot of great acts on at the Free Fringe/Festival, but I get the impression that the media remain unconvinced.
Loads of shows haven't been reviewed at all, and I know a lot of people in out-of-the- way venues who have had pitiful audiences and have found the whole experience very dispiriting.
We were lucky because our venue was so central and we had big crowds every day.
In the olden days The Scotsman used to attempt to review every show on the Fringe ; but this is no longer viable...
There were 600 comedy shows alone on at the Fringe...
I wonder what percentage of them got a review?
Reviewers no doubt enjoy the privileges of getting freebie tickets for expensive shows and probably won't be as enthusiastic to trawl around all the Free shows...
But don't get me started on reviewers....!
The Fringe thrives on reviews and will always need them, but there have been so many complete plonkers who have wrongly been given the license to determine whether someone has a good or a bad festival...
I think it's fair to say that if you're wanting to use the opportunity of doing the Fringe for career advancement you're going to have to splash the cash and book a spot at one of the bigger established venues.
So anyway, I symbolically crushed a packet of fags and chucked them into the bin, and I am now "on the wagon" for a while as well, perpetuating the classic yo-yo lifestyle regime (debauched then pure then debauched etc)