Done.

...and that's it for another year.

What a month it's been.

We are broken, but we leave with some fantastic memories of another successful Fringe. We were really proud of the show this year, it took a lot of time and hard work to get it to a position where we felt happy with it, so we're really glad people have enjoyed it. We seemed to divide the critics this year more than ever, which we don't mind, and we know we'll always be more popular with audiences than critics. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks to all the venue staff at the Pleasance, to Ryan for having us, to everyone at Phil McIntyre for looking after us, to Steve Marmion our brilliant director, to all the gimps' girlfriends (the gimpettes as they don't like to be known) for putting up with us, to Tizzle and Alex for their technical heroics and finally Thank you to everyone who came to see the show. The audience's reactions have made it all worthwhile. It's a great privilege to have such an enthusiastic and loyal fan-base and we're very grateful.

We've got a few days time off now (detox, anyone?) before gigs at Bestival, Ireland and Kent in September. We will of course be doing the Edinburgh show in London at some point, so look out for that. So all that's left to say is thanks for reading this blog- we hope you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun to do.

Until next time...

David, Lee, Matt, Paul and Richard.

LNGF.

x

What a Weekend!

Where to begin?

So, on Friday night after the show we had the final of The Great Big Sketch Off, a huge success, it was won by Swagger Jagger, a team that included our very own Matt Ralph, with Max Olesker (on crutches since The Wrestling), Tom Hensby and Paul Dunn (who gained a black eye in the process). Well done to all the teams though, it was a great night.

We got home about 2am and were up four hours later to get a Taxi to the airport. We'd all just about managed to shower and get out of the house and into the cab in time... only to find it wouldn't start. The driver slumped over the wheel head in hands and said we'd have to get a black cab (it was raining) unless we wanted to give him a push to start it? The next thing we know the gimps are all out of the car (except David) and pushing it over a box juntction. It was like something out of Little Miss Sunshine... except in the rain. And in Scotland. Anyway, it worked, and we were off!

We got our flight and met up with the ever reliable Matt Tizzle, our London-based diabetic tech hero, at the airport and got in a hire car. That's where the troubles began. Chris our agent was valiantly driving us from Luton to Reading but we ran into traffic, like, a LOT of traffic. We only had about an hour to get there for our sound-check. In the end we missed that by some margin and only arrived at the Festival - we had to drive right up to our stage - with five minutes to go.

We quickly got mic-ed up and before we knew it we were on stage in front of around two and a half thousand people singing about Bestiality. The mad rush meant we didn't have time to get nervous and the adrenaline meant our half hour set felt like it was over in about five minutes. The crowd were amazing, really responsive and loud and the largest we had played so it felt amazing.

We got off stage and just had time to check out our dressing room. Being possibly the least rock n' roll group to have ever played Reading Festival, our rider as you can see is less about champagne, lap-dancers and heroin... and more about lemon and ginger tea... and a curlywurly. That's the way we roll.

We grabbed some delicious non-battered food (a novelty this month) in the artists' catering tent and then we were back on the road to the airport. Chris by now was giving Lewis Hamilton a run for his money and he got us to the airport in good time, we certainly met our part of the bargain. Easyjet... less so.

The flight was delayed by an hour, which made things pretty tight back in Edinburgh as we had our own show to do that night. We just about made it in time though and stumbled through a red-bull fuelled performance on Saturday night. We got home and ate dominos into the wee small hours and then collapsed.

The next day went a lot smoother in all fairness. We got up early and got into the hire car Chris had sorted as we were driving to and from Leeds. It started, which was nice. We made really good time and the journey was much more relaxed. Too much so for Richard, who fell asleep almost immediately only to be woken at regular intervals by Matt screaming into his ear. Good times.

We sampled the limited delights of most service stations along the A1(M), played travel games, listened to the football and thought up new ways to wind Richard up.

We got to Leeds Festival in time and sound-checked properly and made some changes to the previous day's running order. We got to catch the end of one of our favourite comedians, Mark Watson's set and sneak a look at the crowd. It was huge.

Mark, as you'd expect, went down a storm and made us feel suitably petrified of messing up and ruining everyone's afternoon. Thankfully though, it went well and the crowd were very nice to us. Also, by finishing both days with our Strip sketch, we worked out that Lee had showed his penis to over five thousand people this weekend. That's a lovely statistic to take away from the experience if nothing else.

We stopped by the catering tent to grab some much needed fruit and vegetables then it was back on the road again. We got back to Edinburgh in good time and turned in a respectable performance in the circumstances, despite Richard's voice being all but gone.

At this stage the sensible thing to do would have been to get home to bed. But of course we ended up in Brookes bar till gone three, expect David who fell asleep on a sofa in the Library bar and was duly taken home.

I'm not quite sure how we did it looking back, but it was a hell of a weekend. Thanks to Chris for all his driving, and a huge thanks to the audiences at Reading and Leeds, you were incredible.

Right. One more show to go and then that's Edinburgh done for another year, and we can all go to bed.

One final push.

Well we're getting very near to the end of the Festival now and as you can probably tell, the lack of sleep and the frantic desire to see all the shows left on our lists means the blog entries have fallen a bit behind. Sorry about that.

If I'm not around to chivvy the other gimps into doing the blog they don't get done as they're all too busy seeing stuff, sleeping off hangovers... or wrapping Richard up in carpets.

Anyway, to being you up to speed. We ticked off another gig on the fringe wishlist by playing the Udderbelly (the giant upside down purple cow) at Spanktacular! the other night, and we loved it. Great crowd, great gig, headlined by the superb Sammy J and Randy.

I saw Tim Key's show Masterslut which was fantastic. Every bit as funny and inventive as you'd hope. He's just announced he's doing a month-long run at Soho Theatre in December so if you missed the show up here, be sure to see it in London. I'm going again.

We saw Adam Riches' tour-de-force Bring Me the Head of Adam Riches. An unbelievably energetic, fun, anarchic and hilarious hour. I don't know how he's survived the month keeping up that energy. He deserves to win the Comedy Award for that alone. Brilliant.

This afternoon I saw Alex Horne's hilariously shambolic annual show, Taskmaster. It pits comics like Key, Watson, Long, Atkinson etc against each other in a year-long competition where they have to fulfil delightfully odd and creative tasks and this afternoon's show saw the results play out. Josie Long triumphed in the end, by stuffing 16 grapes into her mouth in a tie-break with Stuart Goldsmith. Other highlights included Key losing his comedy award and a young child winning a Ferrari. You had to be there, but it was great.

Back to our own show and we've had some great audiences this week and a nice review in the Metro. After tonight we'll have just three shows left. Some tickets are still available for the Sunday and Monday here.

Which brings me on to the upcoming weekend. This weekend has loomed large for us for a long time and now it's finally upon us. We're playing Reading and Leeds Festivals on Saturday and Sunday respectively, then travelling back to Edinburgh each day to do our own show in the evening. You heard that right.

We finish tonight's show, then have the final of the Great Big Sketch Off, which should finish around 1am, get to bed, get up at 6am to fly to London, jump in a hire car, drive to Reading Festival, soundcheck, do a half-hour set on the Alternative stage, drive back to the airport, fly back to Edinburgh, get a taxi to the Pleasance, do our show on Saturday night, get to bed, get up the next morning and get in a van and drive to Leeds, play the Alternative Stage, drive back to Edinburgh, do our show on Sunday night... and then collapse.

I'm getting the sweats now just thinking about it.

Still, we like a challenge.

We'll report back after this weekend, if we survive. In the mean-time follow us on twitter for live and -inevitably- increasingly panicked updates.

Good luck everyone.

David.

The Big Day

We've reached that time of the Fringe again. Sore throats and fatigue are setting in, every bar in Edinburgh is being drained as performers feel the return to normality is just around the corner and, most annoyingly of all, we're all desperately trying to see all the shows we've put off seeing until the last week. Recent highlights for me have included Matthew Crosby's AdventureParty (a really enjoyable show which left Rich and me desperate for Nando's), Joel Dommett's Neon Hero, a fantastic debut show, and Ford and Akram's Humdinger in the Pleasance Hut. Try to catch these if you haven't already, as well as Joe Bone's stunning third part of his Bane trilogy.

The big news of the day came at about 3 in the afternoon when the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards nominations were announced. The fact the announcement was delayed by several hours is testament to the quality of the shows under consideration, and we were personally happy to see Gimp favourites Adam Riches, Andrew Maxwell, Chris Ramsey and Totally Tom all up for awards. It really doesn't seem like a year since we got our nomination, and we offer our Gimp congratulations to everyone nominated.

On the subject of nominees, I managed to sneak into Josh Widdicombe's show tonight. I really enjoyed his set and, having never seen him before, now understand why he's being spoken about in the same breath as Michael McIntyre and Jerry Seinfeld. A really entertaining hour.

Right. I'm tired, I'm hungry and it's raining outside. This can only mean one thing: time to go flyering!

Til next time,

Baggles

The Home Stretch...

Well, the final week of the Edinburgh Fringe 2011 is upon us! Only 7 performances to go...

For those of you wondering, I managed to make it back from the wedding (which was excellent by the way) in one piece and in time for the show. It was rather like an episode of Challenge Anneka except far more stressful and I wasn't wearing lycra. I had hoped that a train journey back to Edinburgh would be uneventful with the only stress being whether I could find a seat that didn't have a ticket stuffed in the back of it. Sadly the train broke down, the buffet car ran out of crisps and I was sat near a girl who was certain the man behind her was from the tv show The Only Way Is Essex. I know she was certain of this because she called 3 friends telling them as much. But apart from that, it was fine and it was nice to be back in the buzz of the fringe and the Pleasance Above. The show went really well and the day off hadn't completely erased the show from our brains. The night was finished in Central where my friends Nick and Herbie ate battered mars bars for the first time. It was a sight to behold but I fear their life expectancies may have suffered a massive blow...

While a wise person would have seen as many shows as possible at the beginning of the fringe when they were cheap and not selling out, I am now foolishly packing my days with as many shows as possible, shelling out lots of cash and being turned away from many. Just a few quick recommendations that I saw with Paul today: Skittles is an excellent one man show spoken mainly in verse that covers a relationship, really funny and touchingly sad. Also saw the excellent Matthew Crosby in Adventure Party. It was a wonderfully feel good show that reminded me it is alright to be a geek/nerd and was reassuring to find out that I'm not the only one who fights to open train doors first! I could happily listen to Matthew for hours. Catch it in the Pleasance Courtyard, it's excellent! And Brett Goldstein is also great, I hope he writes a book based on his strip club adventures, it sounds like there are way more stories to tell than his hour show permitted.

Well, it's almost time for our last Tuesday show. I have downed some Buttercup Cough Syrup and swallowed about 12 Vocalzones. It is going to be off the hook!

Bye for now

Richard

Arthur's seat.

Just climbed Arthur's Seat.

Worst idea ever.

I'm exhausted.

Half way through the fringe is not when I'm at my physical peak. My legs are still shaking an hour later.

Oh well.

In other news, Richard, who went to a wedding yesterday and was meant to be back in good time for the show today... is still not back.

He was meant to get a plane at 5pm. But he was worried about delays so he booked a train... that gets in even later than the plane was going to. 8.15pm. Idiot.

Now he's just texted to say the train's stuck outside Durham.

Will he make it back in time?

Put it this way, the other four gimps are spending the evening working out how to cover his parts in every scene in the show.

Good luck everyone.

Day off.

Finally, our day off.

An odd decision to take a day off on what would have been a sold out Saturday night... but Richard's going to a wedding. So there you go.

The rest of us have pretty much been in bed all day. Which is fair enough.

I'm off to see Tim Key tonight then the four of us are doing a set at Spanktacular! in the Udderbelly, which should be even more riotous than a normal Spank. Can't wait.

david.

and another...

Saw two more really great shows today, both of which I'd highly recommend.

First Matthew Crosby (of Pappy's fame) AdventureParty. Matthew has such a likeable and easy manner that the show flies by, with loads of really memorable moments (his line about Wifi is f***ing priceless). Also, if you're a Nando's fan (and if you're not, you have no place reading this blog, seriously, what's your problem?) then seeing this show is a bit like coming home.

Then Joel Dommet's fantastic Neon Hero. I don't know how this show isn't completely sold out, it deserves to be. Joel weaves his best stand-up with an unbelievable story of what happened to him over one week of his life. It's a true story that tugs at the heart strings and leaves you feeling so warm and happy, it's definitely the most uplifting show I've seen this fringe. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Then as if that wasn't enough I came home to find Matt's girlfriend Milly, who'd been staying with us for a few days, has left us quite the most chocolatey cake I've ever seen. Proper heart-attack chocolate goodness. I only had one slice and I already think I'm having a stroke.

Yes, those are slices of Mars bar on the top.

Amazing.

David.

Productive day all round...

Today I got up early (well, eleven) so I could finally cram in a lot of the shows I've been wanting to see.

First up was Kieran and the Joes, a very fine sketch show on at Just the Tonic at The Store. They use the audience really well- which I'm always really impressed by as in the gimps we're such a 'fourth wall up' no audience interaction kindof group so it's really enjoyable to see a group completely unafraid to involve the punters, and these guys do it brilliantly.

Next was a double-act I hadn't heard of but took a punt on, after being recommended by Dan from Delete the Banjax, called Ford and Akram... and it was a really pleasant surprise. The two girls are naturally very funny and have such confidence with their material that you can relax and just enjoy an hour of unusual but really entertaining double-act.

Then was Isy Sutie's Pearl and Dave, my favourite show of the day. Just a really, really lovely show. Heart-warming and heart-breaking in equal measure, delivered effortlessly and in such an engaging, likeable manner. I thoroughly recommend you see this show. It's selling out so don't miss it.

Finally, fellow sketch pals Delete the Banjax with this year's Pigs and Ponies. A really entertaining, fast-paced hour which makes great use of multimedia. I feel like I could watch Dan go off on one (as he tends to do) pretty much all day, it's very, very funny.

Pretty impressed with my tally of four shows I headed home after a productive day, feeling very pleased with myself. But what had the other gimps been doing I wondered...?

Seeing shows?

Cooking dinner for us all?

Going up Arthur's seat perhaps?

Ah, no.

They'd wrapped Richard up in all the carpets in the hall.

Of course.

David.

Never Let Lee loose on the blog...

Well hello there!

It's Lee here today writing the blog and guess what? I've got no idea what to write about! Nothing! Not a jot!

So let's see what happens. I'm just gonna type and see what comes out...

Things I've been thinking about.

I'm at the worlds largest theatre and comedy festival and yet I'm still obsessed with watching Bargain Hunt. Watched it this afternoon. Ace. Didn't watch the end though. Not sure who won. Not fussed. Might watch it on the Iplayer after I've finished writing this.

I keep falling over.

Footballs back on. That's lovely. I support a terrible team.

Pauls in the shower at the moment and he's singing. It's horrible. He has a good voice but is a terrible human being.

puntuaction speling and proper, grammar are over rated

I seriously keep falling over. I don't know why. It thankfully only seems to be when I'm on my own so people haven't begun to talk about it behind my back but I can't stop it. I even fall UP stairs! How can you fall up! Gravity is fucking with me and I don't like it. Life would have been much more fun before Isaac Newton invented gravity.

David just brought me in a coffee. I told him I didn't know what I was doing with the blog and that I was just writing whatever came into my head and he just shook his head and walked away.

Am I the only one who misses Saved By The Bell?

I must buy some more paint on Ebay before I go out this afternoon.

Weren't the riots terrible? On plus side my housemate Greg has text me to say we have a brand new 42 inch tv set and dvd player.

Wasn't Crystal Maze good? It was much better though when Richard O'Brien did it. That other guy that came in wasn't so good. Didn't like him as much. I did like Mumsy.

I fell over a flat piece of pavement last week. Wasn't even cobbled.

I've got a card at home I got when I was working in a special needs school. It is a card that the children use to tell the teacher when they need to go to the toilet. I put it in my pocket by mistake and forgot it. I feel very guilty about this.

I may try and introduce a similar system into my sex life.

Am gonna have to wrap this up now because there is an incredible piece of life affirming theatre which is supposedly one of the greatest things you will ever see on a stage starting in ten minutes which I need to ignore because there's a generic home improvement programme starting on ITV in five.

If anyone finds out who won Bargain Hunt let me know.

Lee