OK, where did I get up to?

Edinburgh...arrival...flat...OK, I'm with it. I got six shows during my time up there, and four more out on the Royal Mile, the main road running from the castle through the Old Town. To imagine the Royal Mile, consider packing the entire population of Ecuador into a small satchel, and you've got the idea. It's marketing central for everyone, and it's also a brilliant place, providing you know you're going to be inundated by flyers after three seconds. If not, you may find yourself slightly confused.

The stage shows were so much fun: I've never done any street theatre before. Of course, this accounts for the fact I've not done anything on stage for ten years up to this year. Do Run went down well, and brought some great crowds in. Nothing rhymes with Bartholemew. Car follow you? Maybe.

So in between the shows, and the flyering, and the walking (did I mention the walking? My thighs look like the entire population of Uruguay packed tightly into a plastic carrier bag), I went to see some shows. Stand-up first. Pick for me was Brendon Burns and Dave Fulton. Both are great comics because they actually have something to say. I was so blown away by the Brendon Burns show I bought his entire CD collection. As in, the collection of his shows, not his collection of music. He's a angry, intelligent comic out of the Hicks, Bruce, Carlin etc mould and I can't recommend his shows enough. US comic Dave Fulton's show is about how hard it is to be American, how there are still good parts, and how we, liberal ol' Blighty, have to watch out. The show becomes incredibly heartwrenching when he talks about his dying mother and the bill from Medicare. Comedy is so much more than laughter sometimes.

I saw three sketch shows. I liked the Oxford Revue least, I'm afraid. Mainly this is because The Boy Who Cried Whale and the Durham Revue's shows were so good. The Whale show managed to bring a whole series of sketches together into something resembling a plot, while having killer jokes The Durham Revue were not afraid to use short, Fast Show sketches and quick randomness between the other stuff. That said, Upper Class Rap Artist (inspired by E-Mine-Em) was the awesome.

And there was good plays. I watched one Mamet, and a play called the Watcher, and another called the Altruists. There was also Terry Pratchett's Maskerade, which wasn't a great show, but I'm too much a fanboy to care. Turns out I'm actually the worst critic in the world, because I like almost everything that I get any enjoyment out of. I think it's because I'm not literary enough to judge theatre properly, so finally my analytical brain switches off and I just watch. It's interesting.

This hasn't been all that interesting. More a list of things that occured. Never mind. Next time, any more random Edinburgh thoughts I haven't got to yet. And a couple of days in Manchester and Cardiff. All this, and more things packed in than my rucksack squeezed into the entire population of Antigua.

Love.