Day 2 Edinblog: 4 Aug: Redemption

Oh man! The show! It's back!!!

I woke up on the morning of day two... actually that's a lie. I didn't properly sleep after my opening night - being wracked with doubt and also having a few work bits to do in the wee hours of Australian time. So I opened my eyes from a patchwork of naps feeling a bit shaky and then went to do some Edinburghing. 

I went to a fancy press event at my venue The Gilded Balloon, where they were handing out fancy cups of something and people were trying to persuade one another to meet their (performance/editorial) needs, and also everyone was trying to steal the fancy cups. 

Then I got a message from a friend, who is doing her performance in a big fancy room and had a reviewer in. I left the fancy event and went to do some flyering to help her out if I could. This was a good thing, as I don't think I would have done any flyering for myself. Without the hour of on-ramp practice that selling someone else's excellent show had given me, I don't think I'd have had the chutzpah. 

It's quite the ask in the face of self doubt to shove a slip of paper into the hands of strangers, particularly if the point of the paper is a slip of paper with your face on it and words that tell them to come look at YOU. 

AND PAY MONEY TO DO IT. MONEY.

IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. 

Saying "you can't miss this! She's great" is a lot easier when you're saying "she's great" and not "I'm great".

Also, it's nice to know that even when you're in a big fancy room, you can still worry about numbers and reviewers and things. Or do I mean nice? Maybe I mean terrifying. 

Once her show went up, I handed out a few flyers for myself, and headed back to my venue to get into the pre-show headspace. Which is to say, I went into the little cool library/bar next to my venue space in the Gilded Balloon Teviot (see picture) and completely rewrote my opening song. And tried to learn it off by heart again in a little less than 43 minutes. 

Then my door girl was tapping me gently on the shoulder and I went next door and did the show. 

Win number 1 - a family I'd flyered was sitting in the front row. So that was a good reminder that no matter how nerve-wracking it feels, the whole paper-face thing works. 

Win number 2 - I remembered how the show is funny, or this audience helped me do that. I had a blissful hour of The Resistance as I feel like it's meant to be; laughter, faces nodding, a few welling-ups of tears. It wasn't anywhere near perfect (which is good! Room to improve), but the *heart* of it was there again, in a way that I haven't properly felt it for a few of the recent previews. 

I guess changing the opening song did the trick, because that show's my baseline now. 

Then I went and had dinner with the excellent Tiff Stevenson and "Team Tiff", and then off to do a spot at City Cafe for the charming old-jewish-jokes'ter Ivor Dembina. 

Then I went home and wrote my SBS Article for this week about why Islamophobes want Atheists to lie on the Australian Census. Because I'm a party girl, that's why. Got to sleep late, but satisfied.

Bring on Day 3!

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Alice is doing two shows at The Edinburgh Fringe in the month of August:

The Resistance, 8.15 at The Gilded Balloon every night from 3 - 29 August

and 

Savage at The City Cafe, Midday every day from 22-28 August