A low point
Tuesday August 7th, 2012

It started this morning, when Neal realized he'd forgotten the tie for his costume at his PBH Free Fringe venue. I handed him two pounds, and asked him to go to the nearest thrift shop to find a replacement tie. Then minutes later, it was me swearing (a bad swear) when I realized we didn't bring along the prop bottle of wine I use, while we were putting up our set for 'The Property Known As Garland.' I drink fake wine during the show..... nearly a whole bottle. The fake wine, is mostly water, with a little bit of white grape juice to make it look like wine. Today, the fake wine didn't get packed. It's two minutes before we have to start the show. WE HAVE TO START ON TIME. Every show that follows us would get messed up if we didn't start on time and ran late..... So, Glenn took the full unopened bottle of Blue Nun wine we did have, and ran out of the venue (theatre), to dump most of it out and fill the bottle back up with water. It's generally not a good idea to drink a whole bottle of wine while you're performing your play. From then on, it was like domino's falling. The sound system wasn't turned on, a vase got tipped over, a prop cigarette went missing, a sound cue got messed up, someones cell phone rang. But by golly...... we got through. No one asked for their money back and other than the technical gaffes, and missing stuff, it was still a good show.
Last night at the pub we'd met two guys from the Can-Am Pipe Band. (Pipers from Canada and America). They were really nice and very excited about this trip they've been on. Performing and touring around Scotland. One was a piper, and the other was a neighbor who came along because there were extra seats available on the flight. Anyway, as an afterthought, when we were leaving the Abbey Pub, I handed them each specially marked postcards (flyers). "Here's two free tickets to my show, in case you'd like to see my show."
Walking up the street to our apartment (flat), I told Glenn that "those guys are never gonna come to see my show." Well. Guess who was there in the front row? Two of the Can-Am Piping Band group, and their wives! They loved it, and took a stack of postcards for the rest of the band.
I was kind of frazzled after the show, and really really glad that Tuesday is Neal's day off from 21A.
We all had lunch together at a place that Neal found called The Redbox Noodle Bar. Very near Nicholson Street, not too far from the Mosque Kitchen. It was really tasty.
You choose your noodle (rice, ho-fun, egg, udon, etc.), and then 3 different veggies, (I had carrot, bamboo shoots and broccoli), and then you choose your sauce.... black bean for me. There's also things like cilantro, and garlic and whatnot that they can add. They stir fry it and bring it to your table. Immediately after lunch we high-tailed it to Venue 36 for a 2:05 P.M. play called 'Blakes Doors'. We'd met the director and the playwright at the SpaceUK media launch, and promised them we'd attend. Since Neal's 21A starts at 2:35 P.M. every day (except Tuesdays), today was a good day to go to their show. We did like the show, but we'd had a big lunch, and we were in a stuffy/warm dark room, and there was a lot of narrative. The acting was excellent, and it's always nice to see something original and new, even if you are struggling to keep your eyes open because you had a tough morning, a big lunch, and a lot of walking. We decided to walk up the Royal Mile after seeing Blakes Doors. Quite the carnival atmosphere. Lots of human 'statues'. Mirror man, ghostly white lady, invisible man guy. There were jugglers, musicians, and many many people handing out flyers (postcards) and saying to come and see their show. Before leaving Minneapolis, I connected with a guy named Brian Sostek (Twin Cities actor), who has performed at a couple of Edinburgh Fringe Festivals... and his advice to me, was "hang out in the pubs and give some tickets away for free the first week." Good advice I think.
On our way back to the apartment we had supper at 'The Elephant Room'. A coffee shop made famous because JK Rowling wrote some of the early Harry Potter novels there. It's a cool place. The service was really really really slow. As in, someone probably called in sick to work and one young guy was taking care of way too many tables. 2 hours later we left. I had visited the bathroom many times. Not because we were there so long, (or because of some illness or condition), but because the bathroom was hilarious! The women's anyway. All over the walls, the toilet the mirror, were written heartfelt and funny things. For example, someone had written on the toilet, 'flush once for Moaning Myrtle'. Then there were the 'I solemnly swear I am up to no goods', and many written allegiances sworn to Dumbldore's Army, some rude things scrawled about Umbridge, and 'Weasley Is Our King' of course.
I left a 'nitwit, oddment, blubber, and tweak', and signed it Sandy Thomas, August 2012.