fresh from the fringe
I made my exit from a surprise; surprise rain soaked Edinburgh Fringe Festival yesterday and after a relaxing night in London that didn’t require criss-crossing Scotland’s capital on foot, in taxi or on bus (don’t even think about the tram) in another vain attempt to get into another sold out show, I Eurostarred back to an overcast Paris where at least it isn’t raining.
I’ve been to the Fringe at least half a dozen times and yet to experience it with a dry pair of feet – but 2010 was at least a marked 50% improvement on 2008 meteorologically speaking – see http://www.youtube.com/kareljbeer#p/search/0/RuNuT63hJ48 my diary of two years ago and check out the final face. More about who that belongs to later.
Shortly after my arrival on Thursday evening I was able to present cabaret queen Meow Meow and her pianist John Thorn (in whose apartment I would be staying) with a bag of French Fromage – a better time to have made the presentation may well have been not just after Meow’s entrance on stage but hey she did ask if anyone in the audience had come with offerings and seeing as how I had, out came the Rebluchon and 4 other varieties. If Meow didn’t incorporate the cheese into her show she did have an enthusiastic nibble with a bap on the side after her dynamic and very amusing performance. In case you weren’t aware, Meow & John will be appearing at La Java on Wednesday 1st September along with The International House Band – (more about them very soon) – but let me just say that the combination of Meow Meow and the IHB will make for a great evening of musical fun, games and mayhem – you can book tickets which will cost 15€ by return email.
Check out http://www.meowmeowrevolution.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/meowmeowrevolution for more on Ms Meow…. Who is a big star with an even bigger voice in her Australian homeland and was recently though briefly seen in Paris as part of La Clique show.
Come Friday it was time to start seeing some stand-up comedians which is no easy task when all of the shows are sold out but I did manage to catch a Best of the Fest
late night show featuring a great spot by Arj Barker who we haven’t seen in Paris for far too long. He would love to come back but since his appearances in The Flight Of The Conchords TV show have turned him into a BIG star in Australia, where he now owns a house, I kind of doubt that it will be easy. Hopefully an easier act to bring to Paris will be Andrew Maxwell who was also on the bill and also made an impressive impression.!!!???
On Saturday I managed to get my hands on the last ticket for John Bishop’s sold out show in the 1200 + seat McEwan Hall – now John, who I’d first seen in 2004 when he impressed me playing in one of the smaller venues aptly called “The Hut” ‘cause that’s what it is. A f*cking hut! John looks and sounds like he comes from Liverpool which is just as well because he does, so I tried to book him as a total unknown later that year. An extended skiing holiday got in the way but I tried again in 2008 when he had progressed to being a relative unknown – that’s John by the way who you see at the end of the above linked video – he’s enthusiastically saying that meeting me “sounds like a booking” – I thought I was in with a chance – that is until I got to Edinburgh this year and saw his posters all over town –
As you can see from above flyer he’s on tour in the UK from October to April stopping off midway to play Wembley Arena!!! The way you do when you have one of the best selling DVD’s out and on sale.
His show was tremendous, the best thing I saw in fact, and If I can claim the satisfaction of having brought Michael McIntyre or Russell Howard to Paris before they went ballistic (yeah you probably didn’t go see them when you could) I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to be moving this Bishop onto my comedy chess board even if “technically” he has owed me a show for 4 years. Later I saw John in the Assembly Rooms “VIP” bar where he was having a jar with Jason Byrne and their respective wives. After congratulating him on a splendid performance I reminded him that he owed me a show and he looked at me in a gracious manner with an expression that seemed to say “don’t hold your breath Karel I’ve got 3 boys to bring up and a 6 month tour to honour.” Good on you John you deserve it and so I go back to the bar where a series of hugs from the likes of Ardal O’Hanlon, Tommy Tiernan, Adam Hills and Jason Byrne seem to indicate an eagerness to come back to Paris at the earliest opportunity.
Amongst those who I didn’t manage to see perform nor hug were Shazia Mirza and Josie Long (short listed for the big prize) but they are both coming to Paris soon so they are excused, also missed out on Al Murray, Chris Addison, Stewart Lee, Brendon Burns and Reginald D Hunter (who has the biggest hug of all) – though I did spot Reginald on his way into his 400 + seat venue. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry which was understandable since I had heard he was still in bed the previous night 35 minutes into what should have been his show. Sacré Reg – that reminded me of when he last played the Java and forgot to put his watch forward an hour. Yeah he was still in bed when the curtain should have gone up at 9pm – he thought he had bags of time. He’s gone ballistic too – be doing 5000 seat open air show next summer like Eddie Izzard & Dylan Moran. Catch ‘em while you can boys and girls!
Amongst those I did manage to see, though not necessarily hug, were Chris McCausland (blind, Liverpudlian, very smart and funny), Sarah Pascoe, Stuart Goldsmith, Jimmie McGie & Carl Donnelly + the winner and runner up of the Amused Moose Laugh Off Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan who were both young, talented and crack on.
And if you have read this far then I’m sure you’ll be delighted to know that I’ll be bringing a surprise memento from this year’s festival in the gangly shape of Emo Phillips who will be doing a show at la Java on either the 8th & 9th September TBC – he’ll be in town for a couple of weeks starting 31st August. Not the most forthcoming of huggers but as ever a unique and hilarious stand-up who also plays the clarinet, though not in his show. But that doesn’t mean he won’t get to play it whilst he is here and that’s another good reason for coming to la Java on September 1st.
Hope you enjoyed the ramble and that we’ll be seeing you at our shows.
Karel