It’s a funny business having a début show at Edinburgh. Or at least you hope it’s a funny business, otherwise what is going on with your show? (Ha ha, let me just pick myself up off the floor.) No, it is a strange thing because hardly anyone really has a proper début show which can properly be called their Edinburgh “début” as in “first time ever”. Because in order to have a properly defined début you would surely need to never have been to Edinburgh ever before in your life. And I would not recommend doing any kind of show at Edinburgh if you had never been to Edinburgh before in your life.
I have built my way up to a “début show” (my first full run of an hour-long solo show) in increments. One year I came and observed. I did not perform at all. Instead I made the terrible mistake of going to see Denise Van Outen’s show which, unintentionally on her part, featured a man shouting from the back row throughout the entire show, “I love you, Denise.”
Another year I came and performed in a competition (and did not win £5,000 and did not meet Ruby Wax – not that I’m bitter or have remembered any of the details or anything). Finally the next year I felt ready and performed for – count them – two whole nights. The year after that I did a two week run on the Free Fringe. And now this year I’m at The Stand for the whole month.
Could I have gone straight from nothing to that début month? No way. This is my fourth year at Edinburgh as either a punter or a performer. I know more than I knew before I came. But I still feel as if I know nothing. I know that it’s not a good idea to treat the whole thing as a party. But you have to treat it a little bit as a party otherwise why bother? I know the parts of Edinburgh I love best (The Meadows, Stockbridge, the right-hand sofa at a cafe called Treacle where you can order waffles). I know where to get a swanky drink at 1am. (G&V Hotel.) And I know there is loads more to learn.
As the (wonderful) comedian Mary Bourke puts it, the best advice she has ever had about Edinburgh is that it’s not a race, it’s like a game of golf. That makes sense to me: walk the course first, practise your putting, play nine holes before you play eighteen. Then you really are ready for your début. And don’t even try to score a hole in one, by the way. It only means you have to buy drinks for everyone.
Viv Groskop’s show Say Sorry to the Lady is at The Stand 4 (venue 12) from 7-30 Aug at 8.20pm. Tickets: www.edfringe.com.
