Star Spotting

Last night we went to see the free show Bilingual Comedian, when who should appear and walk right past the queue but Reginald D Hunter. He went on to apologise profusely, and once inside the venue gave up his seat for someone and sat on the floor. Which was a pretty good save, to be fair to him.

Becky Donohue (the comedian we were all there to see) was good if a little patchy, as is free fringe's wont. The theme was to continue Eddie Izzard's idea that everyone in Europe should be bilingual, and the prevailing messages I took away were that spiders love lesbians and Catholics are prone to melodrama. So there you go, progressive, educational and star studded fun. For free!

TMWRNJ

In honour of the Fringe, I am developing a version of bingo based around the comedy series This Morning With Richard Not Judy which drew my family together in front of the tellybox as only one other show could (that show was Buffy The Vampire Slayer, bizarrely enough).

In this game, every time a player sees a cast member from TMWRNJ they mark off a square on their bingo card. Naturally it doesn't count if you've gone to see a solo show by one of the performers - it needs to be a spot in town whilst they or you or both are going about some sort of daily business.

So far gameplay is limited to me and as it goes, I am winning. I have seen Paul Putner (The Curious Orange), Kevin Eldon (Unusual Priest, Simon Quinlank, The Actor Kevin Eldon etc) and some crows that were almost certainly called Histor and Pliny. I considered inviting Captain Tact to join in, but he'd seen Lee and Herring before I even invented the game, and because I am concerned that they might warrant more points (having written the show), that basically makes him a cheater. Poor show.

In other news, as Free Fringe goes, you could do worse than A Calculated Risk and All The King's Men, both at Espionage and both with some very good moments.

Museum of Childhood

Have you ever visited the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood? It's on the Royal Mile, and free to wander round. It's also quite interactive - there are lots of things for kids to do including dressing up, lego and guessing what's the thing in the box. Multi-sensory-tastic.

Having said that, the core achievement of the place is actually to highlight the fact that childhood in the olden days was utterly terrifying. And now I shall show you for why, through the medium of photographic records.

Here you can observe that as a rich young person of yore, one of the must have toys was apparently a mad-eyed dog with real hair that will gradually fall out in chunks as the years go by. So what if it looks a bit like it might be able to exercise some kind of mind control? The constant headaches and horrible nightmares are worth it so long as you're cool.

Meanwhile as a poor child you'd be more likely to get an old shoe kitted out in a dress made from old hankies. You can't see it too well here but this thing has one of the saddest little faces you ever saw (which appears to be made from masking tape, although I'm fairly sure that cannot be the case. Will go back some time to check...)

If you were an EU child from outwith the UK back in the day, you might own a doll who has clearly seen something terrifying.

It could even have been this Mexican ghost doll.

Or the sinister decapitated pixie head pencil top thingy. See how it loftily sizes you up as it decides what will be the slowest and most painful way for you to be despatched.

And then for kids at the shows, there was Alf the satanic carousel horse. Would you allow a small child to ride on this thing? Maybe if you wanted rid of it for some reason I suppose. But small childs rarely leave behind a large inheritance, or even a will, so why would you want to do that? Ya weirdo.

I do think though, that one too many rides on Alf might unlock some pretty serious voodoo, after which you might end up looking a bit like this:

Food for thought, innit.

Activities

Couple of free things to do in Edinburgh, courtesy of the libraries blog (for which I occasionally write things).

If you like graphic novels, or Burke and Hare, or both, then you might want to go to the launch of a new graphic novel about Burke and Hare. The writer and the artist will be there and everything. This is occurring at Central Library next Thursday (28th January) and although it is free you do need to book a place. Full details here.

Then almost a month on from that, one of the events for Carry a Poem month (which is February, by the way) includes a thing at Central Library with some songs being sung by Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap, poetry being read by Jackie Kay of being a poet, and general chat from author/musician Doug Johnstone of Fence band Northern Alliance. Again you need to email to book, but it sounds like that might be worth doing. It's happening on Thursday 25th February, and further details can be found here.

Free Gig

At a loose end tonight?

(That's Thursday 10th December 2009, people who are reading this tomorrow.)

Concerned that the monotony of your own company may finally tip you over the edge?

Text MILL57K to 82500, or go here, where you will get FREE tickets to see Homework and Kid Canaveral at Caberet Voltaire.

Drink some booze, have a dance, and become part of the delicious indie sandwich you have always dreamed of. Fantastic.

Happy December

It is properly cold likes. Just check out this frosty bus shelter if you think I'm lying, which I am not.

Other than that, a free stuff to do in Edinburgh is occurring near you tonight (if you consider Hanover Street to be near, or merely just accessible).

It is an indie club night of sorts held downstairs in Jekyll and Hyde, where you will be dazzled by the mad DJing skillz of Marcus Forealius (who has been on that Eggheads programme) and DJ Very Friendly (who hasn't). Free food, free music, free entry - what's not to check out at least this one time and see what you reckon? Make yours a Club Sandwich from 8-12. You might enjoy yourself.