A brush with the Fringe

is possibly the way to do it.

On a whim, Will and I made a rendezvous for 8pm and headed down through Princes Street Gardens. We passed a floating restaurant, people in drag, a big top, castle-hill lit up in the summers evening sun, people impersonating a Monet painting by sitting on the verge beneath trees, the floral clock, dutch camper cans and their passengers making stalls, the calm throngs around Waverley, miles of bill posters taking us over the High street. Finally we passed the Cowgate and rose a little to the Pleasance.

picture © joshhowie.com

The Pleasance, for me, is August in Edinburgh. For others it may be George Square (what did happen to the Speilgel tent?) or even the Book Festival but I like the Pleasance. The courtyard is stunning - these days you can hardly see it for all the bars, seats, people, laughter, chatting, the dutch tiled roofs surrounding you - the craw's steps. The atmosphere is electric and is helped by some much needed blue sky above.

We are bombarded by still eager youth who deliver flyers to the tables. Moments later venue staff come and empty them into a bin - such is the ferocity of marketing at the fringe. We drink our Heineken and debate levels of weight, finish and general design of the flyers. As well as how nice the young person who delivered it happened to be. We discuss how they look so happy and enthusiastic and how, in merely 28 days they will be reduced to bitter, short tempered adults - just in time for University.

We choose the comedian Josh Howie. There appears to be hundreds of venues at the Pleasance - an exaggeration for sure but narrowing down a show to watch is like trying to find an article amidst adverts in a fashionable magazine these days. We strike lucky with the Hut where Josh is playing - he's very Jewish but we don't hold it against him. He hams it up like every comedian does - working the self deprecating stereotype for laughs. We laugh almost constantly for an hour and go home after a final beer. Very much content.