Festival Fun
The 0645 train from Inverness gets me into Edinburgh just after ten and I dash up to the Speigelgarden at George Square in time to catch the last half hour of MacAulay & Co. I can hear laughter from Fred's tent while I'm still walking along the street outside. A good sign, and as I creep in the side door I can see comedian John Bishop getting huge guffaws from the audience. He's been talking about his son's leg injury and how he persuaded doctors to keep him in plaster for an extra week because he'll qualify for better seats at Anfield. Fred spots John's other children in the side booths and urges them to flee to safety while he's distracting their Dad.
The show's finale features former Monty Python funny girl, Carol Cleveland, who doesn't quite hit her stride and so decides to stake the farm on an impromptu and unaccompanied song about "a woman without a womb". It doesn't really win over the audience, some of whom are still sitting open-mouthed with shock ten minutes after the show finishes.
After lunch I'm back in the tent to watch Clare English present the Festival Cafe. Her guests include actor Jamie Bell. He's the star of the new film Hallam Foe and he entertains the audience with details of the steamy sex scenes which feature in the movie.
The Festival Cafe concludes with a discussion about film adaptions of books and Scotland on Sunday literary editor, Stuart Kelly claims that Muppet Treausre Island was one of the best. Talking to him after the programme he explains that any story that can survive Kermit and Miss Piggy must have something to commend it.
The day ends back at the Spiegel Garden where I fork out good money to watch the Australian comedy trio Tripods. Great songs, laughs a plenty including a short but inspired routine about would-be super heroes such as Married Man. He responds to pleas to save the world by saying "I'll just have to check."
Well, it made me laugh.
