Edinblog day 4&5

It's been a hectic few days. The shows have been going well - more and more people coming to the show each night, which I hope carries on. I'm in a huge room - and it's not going to sell out, but it's nice to reflect that every night so far has had at least 15 more people than would have sold out my room last year. Which is good.

Day 4 was a day of many promo spots, from bigger crowds to very edinburgh style small audiences. Day 5 was a bit lonely - not that I had less work but that I didn't really feel like company but also felt a bit fragile and like I needed some comfort. I think I'm going to head to Phill Jupitus' drawing-in-the-gallery activity tomorrow morning. It's not a show, you just go and draw a thing for a few hours. Something like that is likely a good idea for my general sense of thin-skinnedness at the moment.

The word on the street is that reviews are particularly harsh this year from a few publications. I'm not reading any at the moment (unless they're 4 stars or above, ha), so I don't know if I'm among them. But I've had bad reviews before and I know that feeling of sad dread when you find out that someone really didn't get your work, or worse, got it but didn't like it.

I'd rather take advice from someone face to face, if you think of reviews as possibly helpful reflections from the outside world, it's better to get the advice in a way that isn't being announced to the world. Even a well written critical review is a bit like getting a performance review at work, but in the kitchen in front of all your colleagues. You'd prefer it to be all praise.

Day 5 was lovely in terms of professional stuff though. My show was lovely - that kind of quiet audience who could go either way but came on board in a real way. The glitches in the show are smoothing out, and I'm finding ways to weave it into itself more and more tightly each night. I ran straight from my show to the late night at the museum show, where you have to pretend to be an historian and speak to slides of the exhibits they have at the museum. It's a delight. Very silly history based improv. What could be wrong with that?

Then I dropped by Massaoke to wave at the lovely band.

When I got home, I spilled double cream down my leg getting into bed (look, it's fringe. I can eat cream and honey on crackers if that's what I have left in the fridge) and then my lightbulb suddenly exploded onto my bed, wringing out the last of my adrenaline from my poor heart thumping glands. Cream and glass-shards. The only good thing about cleaning cream off yourself is that you can lick your fingers, which is sort of off the table when you introduce glass.

Til tomorrow, friends.