Edinblog day 17-19

I can't believe we're in the last week. I feel like I've lost some days in this blog, but I can't figure out where.

Edinburgh is very absorbing - it feels like a sort of Jetlag, in that days are very long but they melt into one another. One day you might be doing six promo spots, the next day, none, and somehow they feel like exactly the same day.

This last week has been strange because Scottish schools have gone back, which means the streets are a lot quieter, and that inexorable build of audiences from day to day stalls. That said, there hasn't been a day this month where I've had fewer people than would have sold out my room size last year by quite a lot. Which is lovely.

Last night might have been my smallest crowd yet with about 40 or 45 people in, and it was probably the most relaxed and fun version of the show I've done. The audience was really lovely and warm, and I had a man sitting right in the middle of the front who was what I'd normally consider my kryptonite demographic (mid 50s to mid 60s, if you really want to know) laughing his head off. I was worried for a minute there because I thought he was going to choke. It was joyous.

Then there was this channel Dave industry party, which I promised myself I would go to, and said I'd stay for at least an hour. It's an annual bash, in a reclaimed church, so the space is beautiful, but the noise levels of a revved up DJ in a space formed for acoustic amplification, layered with the desperate networking of a couple of hundred comedians, television people and industry types makes you feel like you've put your head into a biscuit tin and let a child drummer practice his beats.

I lasted the hour. I can't say how well I did at industry finger-gunsing, but I had a nice (shouty) chat with some good people, and waved at a few others. Then I went home and slept til 3pm. It's the first proper late-night-outing I've done this fringe and I spent the first part of the day wandering around in a bit of a daze.

Tonight is likely to be quiet again, but I'm hoping it'll be as friendly a crowd as yesterday, and there are a few friends coming in on comps that I'm excited to see.

Less than a week to go, and then I have to decide what I'm going to do with my life. Oh man, anyone in the UK government who can advise me on a visa would be much appreciated. I've run out of my under thirties one (with the whole inexorable march towards death), so let me know if you have good advice...