Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2023

Steph and I caught a morning train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverly, which was amazingly convenient. The ride was pretty smooth, with power outlets and wifi. Although the wifi was spotty and terrible.

We got to Edinburgh around 1:30 and checked into the Airbnb, just a 12 minute walk from the station. We had a few shows lined up for that day, and we made our way to the first one, which was actually an escape room. The escape room with Agent November was pretty good, although it also had a murder mystery element that we weren’t as interested in, and failed at. Our small team did find all the clues, we just didn’t have time to piece together the mystery.

We then went to some parks, got some boba, and had some ramen for dinner. We walked over to The Meadows, where our next show was. Steph wasn’t feeling well so she went home. I went to the show anyway. The show was Clique, a burlesque circus show. In line I met an older woman and her daughter. She was very talkative and they followed me after I had my ticket scanned and I went to the ‘sirloin’ line. We got front row seats and it was more than worth it. The show was exactly what I was hoping for from Fringe. They had some normal acts of pole dancing, rope/silk dancing, and skills of balance. The blade swallower did one blade, then two, then six. She also swallowed what was effectively a lightsaber and the glow could be seen through her neck.

The strangest act was a woman handing out popcorn wearing a helmet with a popcorn maker on top. After handing out all the popcorn bags she got a bunch of kernels and put them in the machine, then plugged it in. She started hula hoop dancing some while the kernels were heating. After the first kernels started coming out she took her top off and covered herself in butter. Then she did about twenty hula hoops at once while the kernels were really popping. After that she made a sign like she needed salt. She crouched down and pulled a salt shaker out of her vagina and danced while spreading salt everywhere. It was the strangest performance I’ve ever seen, but really well choreographed and paced.

Some of the other performances were strange, if not as strange as the popcorn performance. One woman had her hair around a clamp that was used to hang her from a wire. She then did a dance while hanging from the wire by her hair. On the same wire they hung a coat rack that a guy did a pole dance like strip routine. Another woman danced with an eight foot tall balloon, which she slowly climbed into, then she stripped inside and popped it from the inside.

The last group of performance was a man/woman team that did comedy skits. They did a quick change skit where the woman changed outfits really quickly, then the guy went in and came out nude. He then climbed around the audience for a bit, while she convinced an audience member to give her a sock. The guy came back by and grabbed the sock and used it as his only clothing. Later they had another bit where they were biting off bits of banana and spitting it back and forth, they got an audience member to try as well. The guy did some juggling/spitting of the banana bits, and then it got too strange for me to record here…

I went to a sexy circus show later, around midnight, as Steph was still tired. I sat in the front row again, as these are mostly small venues and I’m showing up early to many of them. I’m also wearing my Captain America shirt, so I get called out a lot. The MC of the sexy circus called me up to the stage to help with the juggling and spinning objects show. He had me put on a bowtie, then a sequin hat, then a pink strap-on. He had me lay down and he used the strap-on as one of the things to hold spinning soccer balls. I then handed him more and more knives as he juggled.

The second day we slept in and went to the Audio Deepfake exhibit at the university. Then we went to an amazing a cappella concert put on by the student group Norther Lights. The beatboxing was especially impressive.

We found some good gelato and then took a rest for a bit. After resting we grabbed dinner, and I tried to go to a sing-a-long pub quiz, but it was full.

Friday evening Steph and I went to Showstoppers, the Improv musical where they did a great performance. They had the theme of a puppet convention titled ‘No Strings Attached.’ They had musical numbers based on Queen, Sondheim, Annie Get Your Gun, and Avenue Q. A few of the songs were decent, but most were surprisingly good. They lost the plot for most of it, focussing on characters, but it actually came together in the end. The way the director broke in to make people do different things was great.

Saturday, our third day of Fringe, started out with sleeping in. Around 10 we headed out to another escape room experience, which was a lot of fun and we did really well on it. This one was out of a case, which was pretty well done. We had about 2 too many people I think, but they managed to get some parallelization in the case, which was impressive.

We grabbed some Thai for lunch then I found a few shows I wanted to see.

The first was a pirate themed comedy show, Max Norman: A Pirate’s Life For Me. The guy running it was one of the best improve comedians I’ve seen. He kept the narrative together and had wonderful pacing and timing. He had lots of audience participation, asking for a word from random audience members.

Steph went to the Little Black Dress exhibit at the Scottish National Museum and I went to a show called Lane Kwederis: Sex Job. It was well done, with lots of interesting information and views that I had never been exposed to. I thought the mindset that she has is far healthier than those I’m normally around with regards to sex and sexual desires.

Steph and I met up and headed to Aloft for some more circus like performances. They did some hula hoop dancing, and more of the silks and pole dancing. One of the most unique performances was a poetry reading while juggling.

The last even Saturday was too late for Steph, Bubble Show for Adults Only 2. It was a fun experience where I could tell the performers were loving it. I got pulled up on stage and they made a giant bubble penis on me. They then had one of the bubbles with vape inside on top they they put the wand over and popped the bubble inside the wand, which made the vape gas come out the top. She also had me pop lines of bubbles with vape in them with my nose off her chest and leg. They had a few other funny sections, one with shadow puppets, and another with bubble guns.

Sunday Steph and I went to the castle in the morning, then had a nice lunch at a Spanish tapas place. The afternoon started off with Steph taking a break while I went to the show Calling in Love. It was strange and interesting, but it was certainly the worst show of the weekend. The performer did a great job performing, but the jokes took the self deprecation too far and it made it more sad than funny.

We then went to another improv musical, but this one wasn’t nearly as good. It was done by students, and the format they chose for audience suggestions made it much harder to get characters that were interesting. They had the audience give the setting, title, and two characters. The first musical did setting, title, and musical genres; leaving the characters to be created by the actors.

We skipped one show, to relax for a bit, then headed to the AI Improve show. It was hilarious, especially because I could understand what they were using and doing. I talked to the organizer afterwards and will reach out to him, as he works across the street from me.

We had a lovely dinner at a Japanese restaurant, then saw the last show of our run, Sex Ed: Revisited. It was the first show the actor was putting on and she did a really good job. I think the science she was presenting could have used a bit more rigor, but the points she was making and the parts she did present were great. I learned something, which I wasn’t expecting.

We caught the train back to King’s Cross the next morning and it was a smooth ride the whole way home.