You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Is timing.

Went to a couple of things at the Festival today, and booked to see Flight of the Concords and a musical version of Terry Pratchett's "Only You Can Save Mankind". (Quote from Mr Pratchett: "If I had know it was going to be such a good musical, I would have written a better book.")

The first thing I saw was Classical Graffiti, a string quartet that had all been buskers when they met. A woman and man on violin, a woman on cello, and a guy on double-bass - I started watching because I overheard them doing the Jeeves and Wooster theme tune, and stayed because they stomped, high-kicked, and generally performed while playing really well. They've done music education things, and as well as the CD I bought, have done a Norwegian children's stories CD. Well worth watching if you get a chance.

***

I never really realised, while I was at university, how funny the people I knew were. I mean, I just assumed that when people yarned, they were funny - I didn't see other people being funny because I didn't chat to them in that way.

I now realize how wrong I was.

Morgue and I went to see "The Contractors". Now, I feel that I should say right off the bat that the audience seemed to like them, and they had 3 or 4 good lines ("Tim lives wherever he lays his hat, and is currently living in a hat-box.") and a number of potentially quite funny situations. But... they often seemed to do whole gags that had just one bit of funny, and all the rest was set-up.

For example, there was a ballad, four or five verses long, that was all set-up for a single joke. It was a good ballad, too - it rhymed, and made sense, and everything. But... it was only one joke, and I can easily think of ways to wring four or five more laughs from exactly the same material, with maybe thirty seconds more time.

Morgue pointed out to me that all of the humour could easily have been shifted to the 1970s without changing anything, and that this was the kind of humour that comedians like Ben Elton and Rowan Atkinson came from. And with that in mind, I think it was actually a valuable show for me to go and see.

But it's somewhat sobering to watch something that is being presented professionally, and think, "I could produce funnier material than this."

***

Nearly went to the castle today, but the lines were mega-long. Maybe I'll make it in tomorrow, before the shows I've booked for. I'll also be trying to fit in some Haunted Edinburgh tours, and maybe walk up to Arthur's seat if the weather's fine.

Oh, yeah - put my washing out on the relatively sunny morning. It started pelting down early afternoon. Two positive things, though - I had the umbrella that Ellen bought for me, and the flatmate who still hasn't appeared saved the washing from the rain! This more than makes up for the "not so great comedy" thing.

***

I've now had a cup of tea at the same cafe that the first Harry Potter book was written in. In fact, I wrote a couple of postcards there, while Morgue was doing some novel-writing. I wonder whether any of the postcards I've sent home so far have arrived yet?

Posted by svend at August 18, 2004 12:27 PM