Saturday 19th was the date chosen for July's photo an hour. Lily and Andrew were camping at a local steam rally so I had (almost) the day to myself. I say almost as my uncle was staying at ours for the weekend but heading down to the steam rally himself for the day. The reason I stayed home was that I had tickets to see Tim Minchin in Bath in the evening with a friend! It was a fabulous show and made even better by the fact that our tickets got upgraded when we arrived (there was an issue with our booked seats) meaning we ended up 4 rows from the stage!
This is a perfect example of one of my "bad blogger" traits...
I'd half written this post and planned for it to be published on April Fools Day - not as a joke or anything just a simple celebration of my favourite comedy people.
And yep, now it's Friday, a whole four days after April Fools Day and the whole point of this post has kind of past it now. Except that...obviously all these fabulous funny comedians are amazing to see all year round!
(see what I did there...smooth wasn't it?)
Anyway, we've seen a lot of comedians; at the last count it was up to about 40 and I think it's pretty safe to say, it's one of our favourite things to do. I reckon 75% of the shows we see at the Edinburgh Fringe are comedy and we're fairly lucky that quite a few local small venues seem to attact fairly big names.
We're both fans of the observational storytelling type of comedian (as opposed to the one-liner gag merchants) so if you're looking for some people to go and see, in no particular order, here's our top 10 recommended comics (all people who have you crying with laughter so much that you almost can't concentrate on the show)...
We saw Seann for the first time in Edinburgh last year and he was so funny with his tales of surviving alone in London. It was one of the few gigs where I took photos (whether I was supposed to is another matter!) and his best sketch? What the iPhone TV advert should really be like - "sorry, battery's dead"
We've seen Josh a few times, the first time we saw him he was playing a room in Edinburgh that only seated about 30 people and it basically ended up being a free for all with the audience. It's quite amazing it didn't completely descend into chaos and Josh managed to hold the whole gig together at the same time as leaving us lot in fits of laughter.
His best sketch? I love his cash machine routine and his rendition of a massage chair at Exeter St Davids train station.
For starters, Marcus' views on society and the economy are spot on and he's incredibly good at weaving together current issues and politics into comedy gold. His show at Edinburgh last year saw him doing some 90s nightclub podium dancing during which in one of the first shows, he managed to injure himself and had to do the rest of the month on crutches. Fair play to him though, we saw his gig two days after did it and his dancing was still as manic as ever.
Best sketch? Teaching everyone how the banks made their money by using real notes from audience members.
I'm one of those annoying people ("I saw him before he was famous...") and first saw him back when he used to play in a tent at the Ashton Court Festival in Bristol. He was spectacularly funny then and when we saw him back in February he was just as funny now as well. He's so good at coming up with surreal childlike images and puns and has you crying with laughter all the time (plus his grandparents live in my home town!).
Best sketch? Far too many to list but telling a call girl "the customer is always right" ranks pretty high up there!
She's a delight to watch (and Andrew has a bit of a thing for her!), her stories about her darling little son and rocker ex-boyfriend are so funny. She didn't do a show at Edinburgh last year because she had her second child so her shows this year may well include tales about that!
Best sketch? A tie between teaching her son to eat his vegetables and her complaints to a dating website about their skin colour matching service.
Rich Hall is American (from Montana I think) but he's someone who has definitely been living in the UK too long; he has the same view that UK people have about Americans! His observations about differences between over there and over here are fab and he can do a pretty mean set of banjo songs, all written by himself.
Best sketch? Now Kraft own Cadburys, what they're going to do to chocolate in the UK!
The self-defined "third Russell of comedy", the amount of energy on stage is just unbelievable. His gigs always overrun (which can be a major problem in a tight Edinburgh schedule) and you end up leaving the place shattered just from watching him! His stories about his childhood and dramas in and out of love are really really funny and his enthusiasm is just infectious.
Best sketch? All his stories about how he won his fiancee Lindsey are fab.
Just a very very very funny man *and* he read out my tweet on stage last year in Weston Super Mare! He puts such a positive spin on everything and interacts with the audience amazingly well. Co-incidentially we've also seen his wife (she was a guest at Nicolas Parsons' show last year in Edinburgh) and she is an amazing singer!
Best sketch? It actually has to be his "you're being a dick" routines from TV's The Last Leg.
Danny is someone who should have a lot more TV exposure than he actually gets; I first saw him in 2003 at Edinburgh and then looked out for him over the next few years. When we saw him in 2012 his show (called Dear Epson) was all about letters written to different companies picking them up on the sort of useless facts which annoy everyone - things like "why does a new printer cartridge cost more than an actual new printer!?"
Best sketch? Pretty much all of the letters he wrote and talked about in his 2012 show.
If I had to choose my top 3 comedians I think Ed would be pretty much up there in first or second place (it's a toss up between him and Russell Howard). I love the way he interweaves stories and anecdotes; something you heard at the start of the show will be skillfully linked to something in the second act. I remember seeing him back in Edinburgh in 2003 when he was a bachelor with a drink in his hand and now he's making people laugh with his tales of married life and babies.
Best sketch? At the moment, his story of how you juggle looking after two young kids on a Saturday morning when you're both knackered!
And a couple of extras, not strictly stand up comedians, more musical comedy but still fabulous nonetheless...
Tim Minchin
I can't really express how much I admire Tim, he can do no wrong in my eyes! I know his views aren't exactly everyone's taste but his songs are so completely true, really hilarious and very cleverly crafted together. If you ever see him play live, you also won't be able to believe the speed and enthusiasm in which he plays the piano.
A favourite of Radio 1's Scott Mills, Frisky and Mannish turn your average piece of popular music into something a lot funnier and more witty. So we get things like Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' sung in the style of The Beegees and what Gotye's 'Somebody I Used To Know' would be like if it was a duet with Danni Minogue. Frisky also wears the most fabulous and outrageous costumes!
If you get a chance to see any of these, please please do! They're fab!
So tell me, who have you seen? Any recommendations?
So I have Tim Minchin for his views, his music and just himself; Deborah Devonshire (the last Mitford sister) as I bet she could tell some tales about debutantes and her sisters; Rowena Cade (reincarnated), the amazing woman who built Cornwall's Minack Theatre in the 1920's; Mike Shepherd, founder of Cornwall's Kneehigh Theatre Company for his theatrical stories from the last 30+ years; My lovely friend M, for fabulous company; Lorraine Pascale for the catering; Roger Deakin (reincarnated) for his stories of living in the countryside and swimming Britain's rivers; and Ed Byrne for comedy and laughs.
Hopefully Tim would provide some music, Ed would make some jokes and Lorraine would bring her Glam Mac and Cheese.
Not sure how everyone would get on, but hey ho, it's my party!
And here is Andrew's - looks a bit different to mine!
Best Friends are very special people in your life. They are the first people you think about when you make plans. They are the first people you go to when you need someone to talk to. You will phone them up just to talk about nothing, or the most important things in your life. When you’re sad they will try their hardest to cheer you up. They give the best hugs in the world! They are the shoulder to cry on, because you know that they truly care about you. In most cases they would take a bullet for you, coz it would be too painful to watch you get hurt.
I hope I'm fairly safe in saying that I have lots of friends, in the most basic sense of the word - I seem to know a lot of people who I would stop and chat to in the street.
At school I had a group of 8 close friends with two special best friends, all of whom have sadly fallen by the wayside going our separate ways as adults.
Using the Urban Dictionary definition above though, I do have one friend who fits the description perfectly.
I would class her as my best friend, even though I know she has several other best friends.
She's more warm-hearted and intelligent that she'll ever realise.
She shares my secrets and dreams, picks me up when I'm down and laughs with me when I'm up.
I know this isn't a particularly great picture of her - it was taken last summer when we shared a fabulous road trip to Cornwall to see the amazing Tim Minchin in concert at the Eden Project. One of the street entertainers at Eden made her indulge in some crazy linked-leg dancing and I couldn't grab my phone quick enough to take a decent picture.
But it think it goes a little way to summing up how much fun we had that weekend.
(Talk about being green, eco-friendly or ethical. What do you do to make a difference?)
We do always try and be "green" in whatever connotation that means. I know full well that the small things me and Andrew do may not change the world, but we can only try and do our little bit.
Nothing to do with recycling, we're just amazed that the blossom on our apple tree has finally flowered!
Anyway, these are some of the things we do to try and make a difference:
Shopping and Stuff
- we try not to buy too much in the first place
- with the exception of food, the majority of what we do buy is second hand
- a lot of our stuff is inherited
- 90% of the clothes in our wardrobe are second hand
- I mend clothes when they need fixing (although, I've never actually darned a sock...)
- things we don't need anymore either get charity shopped, freecycled or recycled
- through our local council we recycle: all plastic (except black plastic), tins, glass, batteries, foil, paper, cardboard and tetra-paks
- clothes that have no wearable use get made into rags for Andrew to clean the lorry
- we're avid supporters of our local library
Travel
- we only have one car between us
- we use public transport when we can
- we don't own Passports and therefore, don't fly anywhere
- our car has low emissions
- we car share to work (there's usually 3 of us)
Food and Drink
- we try and grow our own vegetables
- we make the most of our apple tree in our back garden
- we try to buy local and British where we can and support our local farm shop
- food scraps go in our compost bin and non-compostable scraps (such as bones) go in our Council collected food waste bins
- we have our bulk food shopping delivered
- all our meals are planned two weeks in advance so we shop online with a list
- we only cook as much as we actually need
- we only boil as much water as we actually need
- we take our own lunch to work
- we always take our canvas bags to the supermarket
It was only a matter of time before my favourite musical comedian, Tim Minchin, found his way onto my blog...
Energy and Technology
- we have an energy monitor to keep a check on usage
- unless something breaks it doesn't get replaced, and even then only if it can't be fixed
- although we do have a tumble dryer, it's only used when absolutely necessary (which is not very often) and clothes are usually air-dried
- we have a "turn the lights off when you leave a room" policy in our house
- everything gets switched off and nothing is left on standby
- mobile phones and print cartridges are sent off for recycling
- computer discs are sent off for recycling
- we don't have a bath in our house, so only use a shower for a few minutes at a time
- everything gets washed in the washing machine at 30 °C
- the heating only gets switched on in November andf switched off again in March, the rest of the year round if it's cold, we use extra jumpers and blankets
- where possible all our light bulbs are energy saving
- our house is double glazed and insulated all over (you can tell whether a house is well insulated or not by watching how fast snow melts on their roof!)
- we have an 'A' rated energy efficient boiler
Paperwork
- we're on the Mailing Preference List so we receive less junk mail
- we only print where necessary and refill our print cartridges by hand
- stamps are donated to Guide Dogs for the Blind
- where possible, bills, bank statements, electoral roll registration, TV licence and other utility services are accessed and delivered online
Special Occasions
- a lot of our Christmas and Birthday presents are either handmade or vouchers for experiences
- bubble wrap, packaging, wrapping paper and ribbons are all saved for reuse
- my wedding dress was a catwalk designer dress from the Oxfam Bridal Boutique
There is probably a lot more we could do, but whatever we are doing is a start.
And just for good measure, here's a couple of recommended reads about our unsustainable consumer culture...
Enough by John Naish
A fascinating read all about how to break free from the consumer culture - how to realise when we just simply have enough.
The Declaration by Gemma Malley
The first in a trilogy where Earth is over-populated, the life vividly depicted rings scarily true - unfortunately the storyline doesn't actually seem that far-fetched!
