The Late Night Gimp Fight Blog.

Done.

2011-08-30T05:39:00.000-07:00

...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.

What a Weekend!

2011-08-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-08-26T09:28:00.001-07:00

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

2011-08-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-08-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-08-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-08-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-08-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-08-18T11:57:00.001-07:00

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...

2011-08-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

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

The Wrestling

2011-08-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Wow.

Just... wow.

Granted, I’m no Fringe veteran, but I think I speak on behalf of the 800 or so screaming, sweating people who packed out the Pleasance Grand last night when I say that Max Olesker’s brainchild, The Wrestling, was one of the greatest experiences in the history of the Edinburgh Festival.

We arrived half an hour late after finishing our own show, and were escorted to our seats. Right on the front row, courtesy of the amazing Beth O’Brien who, along with Max and Ivan, had organised this insanity. This chaos.

We sat back, and were treated to just the most bizarre spectacle any of us had witnessed. Max, formerly Max Voltage, the Human Dynamo and the youngest ever professional wrestler in the country at one time, called upon five or six of his wrestling buddies (one of them the biggest man I’ve ever seen) and teamed them up with some of the best comedians on the Fringe to create two hours of comedy wrestling madness.

Team Kane, lead by Gimp fan Russell Kane (see how I slipped that in there?) saw the likes of Colin Hoult as Thwor, the God of Thwunder, teamed up with Dan “The Hammer” Head, and Patrick Monahan, who didn’t actually wrestle, but ran about a lot. They faced off against Team Riches, Adam Riches ‘Heel’ side, which included a surprisingly skilled Humphrey Ker as The Vinyl Solution and Tom ‘Explosenthal’ Rosenthal, who looked more like a gimp than any of us have ever done. Brendon Burns and Andrew Maxwell commentated, or at least took the piss out of Patrick Monahan. Matthew Crosby tried to keep order as did ring announcer Nick Helm.

The night culminated in Max performing what I believe is called a Senton Bomb, a sort of backflip off the top rope onto his opponents, and fracturing his left ankle.

The good guys won, the bad guys lost and the night was an unmitigated, mental, ridiculous success. Whatever happens to poor old Max for the rest of the run (I hear that his and Ivan’s show Holmes and Watson, which you should definitely go and see, contains a pretty vigorous Charlston. Not ideal with only one working foot) he can at least be happy with the fact that he has created what is sure to be an Edinburgh institution.

And we’re all genuinely proud to have been able to say “I was there”.

Paul

PS apparently my blogs read as if they were written by Alan Bennett. I don’t think he knows what a gimp is, though...

Hoff-Off

2011-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

Last night's show was fun. It was a little weird knowing two of our comedy heroes; Stewart Lee and Russell Kane were both in the audience. At least we know the latter enjoyed it after his very sweet tweet about it... I shudder to think what Mr Lee made of us.

The dreaded 'fringe flu' is threatening to rear its ugly head and Richard's voice is already sounding rather croaky so it was straight back home to bed for us.

Today was mainly taken up with filming for BBC at Edinburgh Fringe 2011. We were there to film ten minutes at the BBC Comedy Presents show this afternoon, it was all very glamorous. Here's Paul in make-up... she really had her work cut out.

There tends to be a lot of waiting around when you do any filming, so we spent most of the afternoon in the green room and today, we saw something extraordinary.

We were sat backstage with Tom Deacon and Joel Dommet talking about our shows when who should stride in but David Hasselhoff. That's right, The Hoff. As if the moment wasn't surreal enough who should walk in next? Ze Hoff! That's right, A Hoff impersonator! We watched behind fits of giggles as Ze Hoff met his hero and The Hoff got slowly more and more weirded out... it was a full on Hoff-off. Tom managed to capture the moment on his phone here.

My favourite moment was when the real Hoff, before leaving the room, turned to his double and declared: "May The Hoff be with you" and with that, he was gone. Legend.

The actual gig went well too (anything's going to be a bit of an anti-climax when you've witnessed a live Hoff-off) and you should be able to see our bits on BBC Three soon... watch this space!

We're sold out again tonight, but it's worth saying last night we had our first night that didn't sell out. So if you happen to be a Pleasance Pass holder and have been turned away, this could be the week we sneak you in as traditionally the third week's a bit quieter... so you may be in luck!

hangover

2011-08-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say after an epic Silent Disco last night, we've been too hungover to blog today.

We're saving any energy we have for the show tonight, but in the mean-time I'd point you in the direction of yesterday's blog if you've not read it, for a tale of David's thundering stupidity.

Normal Service will resume tomorrow.

Two nightmares in one night.

2011-08-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Helo. Injured David here.

So last night I did without doubt the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life.

I'd just put on a new black polo t'shirt I'd bought to wear for the show. As I was getting ready to leave I noticed that the collar was up. Not wanting to look any more pretentious than usual, or like I was trying to bring back the 'Cantona collar', I figured I'd need to iron it down. Most people would have taken the shirt off, gone to an ironing bored and done so. Not me. Not maverick Moon. I decided it would be a handy time saving -if incredibly dangerous- idea to just iron the collar down while I was still wearing the t'shirt.

I don't know how an idea like that could ever be considered good, but I pressed on. Literally. Sure enough, within a few seconds I'd missed the collar and managed to give myself a third degree burn with the iron. An hour before the show. Here is photographic documentation of my unparalleled idiocy:

Then to add insult to a very literal injury, last night's show was, to put it mildly, a bit of a nightmare. It was no-one's fault in particular but pretty much everything that could go wrong took it upon itself to do so. In style.

Some lowlights included the UV lights not working in our first UV scene. Have you ever performed an entirely visual sketch in total darkness before? No, nor had we, until last night. The reaction, as you'd expect, was utter confusion followed by a sympathetic (well, they had a go didn't they...) smattering of applause.

A number of sound cues played in the wrong order, and one of the videos we have between sketches decided not to play at all. This made a costume change between sketches impossibly quick for Matt so when he did almost make it onstage he caught his zimmer-frame in the curtain as he did so. It made for an absolutely chaotic finale. So much had gone wrong by this stage I think we were all openly laughing on stage. Oh well. We had to laugh about it afterwards... it was either that or cry.

Let's hope that's our nightmare show of the run done now. If you came last night we can only apologise! In the words of D:REAM...

A Good day

2011-08-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

Today was a good day.

We were taken to lunch at The Outsider by our agents. It's a great restaurant on George IV Bridge, the food is properly delicious. Half way through the meal we heard we'd been given a Five Star review by Steve Bennett on Chortle, which really made our day.

Chortle's basically the UK's official comedy website and if you work in comedy you tend to check it most days. Steve is the editor and wasn't that keen on our first show two years ago, so it was great to hear we'd managed to win him over with this year's show.

Here's the ★★★★★ review. It describes us as "A gloriously funny spunkstorm of bad taste" which, as quotes go, is a pretty memorable one.

We then toddled off to do a podcast for Xfm then I saw The Beta Males: The Train Job which I thoroughly enjoyed. A great piece of narrative comedy performed by four seriously commited, seriously sweaty young guys. Highly recommended.

I must also mention probably the best show I've seen so far this Fringe. Bane 3. Joe Bone is the kind of performer you could watch forever and it wouldn't be long enough. He and his guitarist Ben have concluded the Bane trilogy with a show that, remarkably, is even better than the previous two. Funny as f***, brilliantly performed and constantly inventive. Go see it. Now.

David.

One big damn puzzler...

2011-08-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

hey hey hey

its Matt!!!! you lucky things.

Yesterdays blog from Paul got a bit of a bad response, someone actually said that reading his blog was like reading an Alan Bennett Monologue, other people suggested we kick him out of the group altogether (me) so i am not going to talk too much i will keep it as snappy and interesting as possible.

So shows are going well blah blah blah. lets cut straight to the good the stuff, the stuff you really want to hear about, the real reason you started reading this, i am talking of course about Jigsaw puzzles.

Specifically the Jigsaw puzzle that we started and finished, 8hours later, yesterday. it is only 600 pieces but all the pieces are very oddly shaped. (as you can see from this typical piece) also it is a picture of earth which (assuming you are familiar with earth) you will know has a lot of sea that looks very similar to other sea.

So the puzzle fun began about 12:00 with just me and Rich and carried right through until 5 which we felt was a fairly good stint but very little was done and we knew we had a big night of puzzling ahead of us after the show. so we went and did our show and me and Rich both agreed that while the show went well it was a massive distraction from our puzzle building. so we all came straight home in a cab (rock and roll) ensuring we got a receipt (not rock and roll) and burst through our door me and rich headed straight for the puzzle, Dave and Paul poured the wine out that the Pleasance had kindly given us and Lee made himself a tuna Bap with a stone on the side (rock and roll).

Once the puzzle was about 50 pieces from completion at about 2:00 am who should suddenly show interest? the rest of the gimps! I was not happy but they outnumbered me, and rich (as always) was no help. so I let them join as long as i could put the last piece in. so the time came we had got to our last piece! this was it, with my palms sweating and everyone cheering me on I slowly slid a section of the Atlantic ocean into place and we were done! the room exploded into a frenzy of relief and excitement with a real sense of achievement, it felt like finally after 3 years of Edinburgh we had achieved something!.... then we looked up.... 16 Pieces! 16 Pieces were missing from the Jigsaw....i cried, Rich cried, Lee cried, Dave didn't care and Paul cried. another day in Edinburgh wasted.

The only good thing to come out of the day was the things we saw all of a great quality. between us we saw Lady Garden, Humphrey Kur, The Three Englishmen, David Reed and Colin Hoult. all very different and interesting shows that are definitely worth seeing this year.

Chow

Matt "the puzzle" Ralph.

Food, glorious food...

2011-08-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

We had possibly the most uneventful day in LNGF's Fringe history yesterday. A long overdue early night/lie in, coupled with the fact that we couldn't get in to any shows because everything was sold out and a performance last night that we felt went fine means there's nothing much to write about.

So instead, let's talk about something else that takes over Edinburgh-based peoples lives in August. Food.

I have never eaten so much crap in my entire life. I haven't had a vegetable in two weeks, unless you count the obligatory post show chips, on which we smother a variety of equally unhealthy liquids. I, being a Northerner at heart, always opt for gravy. Dave, on the other hand, goes for the mysterious substance found only in Edinburgh and known only as "soss" (sauce, in English).

Matt is certainly able to pack it away duri

ng the Fringe. I remember last year, when we shared a bedroom (and a bed) sitting up at four in the morning, watching aghast as he demolished TWO Rustlers microwaveable burgers, a huge packet of kettle chips and an entire Victoria sponge, all washed down with a litre of Coke. And when he had crammed the last slice of sponge in, he rolled over, turned off the light and went to sleep, as his stomach went into overtime.

One Fringe habit we always break is the group meal. It's nice before a show to all get together, sit down and eat a meal as a family. It relaxes us and gets us focused for the evening ahead. We also usually take it in turns to cook and wash up each day (except Richard, who, in reference to the mountain of washing up he had failed to deal with three days running, once uttered the now legendary phrase "Well, as long as it gets done.") Inevitably, however, when we begin seeing shows at different times of day and as friends and family come up to visit, the group splinters and the customary gimp Chillis/Bologneses become fewer and fewer. Cheers, Rich.

Another Fringe favourite is the Tatty Dog, a sausage wrapped in mash and deep fried. Actually more appetising than it sounds. We're also a stones throw from a shop called Choco Latte, the most ridiculously chocolate stuffed shop I've ever set foot in. Everything is covered in melted chocolate and chopped up Mars Bars. I had seven pints and two Jaeger bombs last night, more than enough for a lightweight like me, and yet felt better this morning than I did half an hour after eating three quarters of the muffin I bought from that shop. So nice, but so sickening.

Well, probably better wrap things up now. Just time to mention Tizzle, who is a dab hand at a Bolognese. Me, Matt, Rich and Lee are all pretty terrible in the kitchen, hence the dash on our allocated nights to put the frozen pizzas in the oven and claim we've cooked dinner. However, I suppose it would only be fair of me to say Dave is the best cook, as he usually does most of the cooking (and he's just made me a bacon sandwich in exchange for writing this blog).

It was a very good sandwich.

Paul.

PS- A nice ★★★★ review from Edinburgh Festivals Magazine here.

Minds elsewhere

2011-08-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

Afternoon all.

It was a great to wake up yesterday feeling like we finally had a suitable ending for the show (even if this feeling was accompanied by a splitting headache and Palmyra wrap sauce round our mouths.) But it was 2 for 1 day and we were determined to make the most of it.

The definite highlight of yesterday was the double act Totally Tom on at the Underbelly. I first became aware of their writing via their excellent YouTube video series High Rennaisance Man and David's been going on about them ever since we gigged with them earlier in the year. Sure enough, they didn't disappoint. Their characterisation was spot on with the 21st Birthday speech sketch was a particular highlight. Catch them as soon as you can, they are going to be massive.

Our show went pretty well - now we have the order sorted, we can start to relax and enjoy it more.

When we got back to the flat we tuned into the news for the first time this fringe and watched the heartbreaking images of London in flames and chaos. London is home for all of the gimps and we all suddenly felt very far away. It is difficult to articulate the atmosphere at the fringe but the insulated bubble has definitely been burst and everyone is feeling very concerned for those we've left behind and for London in general. This EdinburghIsFunny Article sums up the feeling up here very well. We all really hope some calm returns to London and that everyone is safe.

In slightly happier news, we got our first paper review today and it was a lovely one from the Edinburgh Evening News. "Their sheer verbal, physical and visual inventiveness leaves you breathless" ★★★★

Richard.

That's more like it.

2011-08-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

Great show last night. Really, really enjoyed it. The audience were bang up for it from the start and we felt like we did as slick a show as we could have hoped for. Let's hope we keep it up and the audiences continue to be as full and enthusiastic as last night!

The elusive early night still hasn't materialised yet... it was the legendary Matt Tizzle's last show before he heads back to London for his other job so we took him out and saw him off in style, then came home and ate leftover pizza at 4am.

Today we all had a lie in and have resolved to finally get out there and see some shows. I broke my fringe duck yesterday with Humphrey Ker's show Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher! A seemingly effortless yet brilliant bit of storytelling, and really, really funny too. Highly recommended.

Now off to take advantage of 2for1 day and see some bloody shows!

david.

Weirdest gig ever.

2011-08-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

Last night.

How to describe last night.

Let me start at the beginning. We noticed in our diary that we were supposed to be doing a late night show elsewhere. Not too bad we thought. We got to the venue. It was the same venue as our now legendary failure of a gig from last year.

Ok we thought. A good chance to put some ghosts to bed. Great. It'll be fun.

I don't think the word fun was uttered all night.

There were 14 acts on. That's right, 14 of them. It was as though they had got a copy of the brochure, set fire to it and rifled through the ashes to see what kind of disjointed show could be put together. And then decided to put us on 12th.

There were Shakespearean improvisers, there were singers in drag, there were acrobats and there was Paul Daniels.

That's the kind of night we were looking at. It was being held together by two performers who, in all fairness, seemed to have less idea what was going on then the performers did.

The show went up at about half past one and I can safely say the audience were outnumbered by the acts at about three to one. Acts were dropping out left right and centre. We felt too bad to leave so we tried to soldier on as things got weirder and weirder. This picture was taken of us at the interval.

The best thing about the photo was we asked the bar man who took it if it was ok and he said yes.

Yes?!?

We look like we've been taken through a hazy fog. Or through a window. Or in the 1800's.

This guy was certainly no Mario Testino.

By this point we were falling apart. David had eaten no less than five packets of crisps. He was trying to overdose on potatoey badness to get him out of there.

No luck.

It was almost our time to go on. Things couldn't have got any weirder.

Then a man walked in wearing a full Dorothy from Wizard of Oz costume.

Five gimp jaws dropped as the only sounds in the room were coming from a man murdering a musical classic and the constant friction of Judy Garland spinning in her grave.

Five minutes that we will never get back later and we were on. Fuck it we thought, let's do the bestiality song! They definitely weren't the crowd for it but by this point we were beyond caring.

It went pretty well! We did a good version and the people seemed to go with it. A good time to escape. They then decided to interview Matt and Paul. Here is a sample of that interview:

Weird woman host: "There are so many words. How do you remember them?"

Paul: "That's my job?"

***

Weird guy host: "You don't really do much do you?"

Matt: "Erm...thanks?"

Needless to say we then grabbed our coats, jumped in a taxi and never looked back.

And that's the tale of our terrible gig (number one!).

Did we exorcise the demons of last year?

Well the gig was just as bad this year.

At least this time it wasn't our fault!

Am off to try and buy a Judy Garland costume. If you can't beat them...

Lee.

Late nights, early mornings...

2011-08-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Paul, here.

6.15. AM. In the morning. That's what time we got in last night. The rock n' roll lifestyle of sketch comedians, eh?

The show had gone well, and straight after we had to set up for The Great Big Sketch Off, hosted by Lee. Happily, it was a Great Big success, raising a load of cash for charity and won by our very own Matt Ralph, along with The Three Englishmen's Tom Hensby, Max Olesker from Max and Ivan and Paul Dunn from Don't Trust Salmon (all shows definitely worth checking out by the way!)

Then it was off to the Courtyard to bid farewell to our director, Steve. Last year, his final night at the fringe involved about ten pints of Guinness, a heated political debate and a piggy back that nearly broke Matt's ribcage. Fortunately, this was a much more relaxed affair, and we stayed on the balcony at the Loft bar until it got light and depressing.

We were up at eleven (look, it's early for Edinburgh...), having relay showers, before heading to the Dome for drinks with our agents Phil McIntyre's acts and street team, all lovely people and a great way to work off the hangover.

Finally started seeing shows today. Caught The Beta Males and Zeus' Pamphlet, both great shows definitely worth seeing, and we're very much looking forward to seeing Lee appearing in Gimp-favourite Adam Riches' show every day of the Fringe!

So that's the guff out of the way. What you really want to know is just how many nicknames do I have now? I have to say it's getting ridiculous now, with new ones being added every day. So, just for you, I have decided to list all the ones I can think of...

Biggles, Baggles, Boggles, Bagglesworth, Bigglesworth, Biggleswade, Biggleton, Bigglepops, Baggleton, Baggins, Pauly Pauly Pigglepops, Snatchy, Thatchy, Patchy, Streaky, Leaky, Beaky, Beaker, Piggy, Pagu, Milky, Milky Biggin, the Milkman, Slugger, Slugworth, Sneaky Biggin, Champ.

If anyone can match that, there's a very special prize in store...

Baggles

Second show syndrome

2011-08-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

Hello.

We had our second show last night and it was our first sell out, which was lovely.

It didn't feel like our best show as we were having some technical issues (the dreaded projector failure...) that needed fixing so we went up a bit late. We'd also swapped things around in the running order and we feel like we're still looking for the best version of the show and not quite found it yet. But that's what these previews are all about and after our last one tonight I'm sure we'll have the show locked down.

It tends to take about four or five performaces for us to hit our stride at the Fringe, but having full and enthusiastc houses is making things a lot easier. Most of these changes aren't things an audience would really notice, it's more about us tweaking and re-working until we feel like we've found the perfect version of the show, so we're doing it justice. Cos it is a show we're immensely proud of.

All this extra work means we still haven't seen any other shows yet, which we need to rectify as soon as we can as there's so many brilliant acts, old and new, that we're desperate to see this year. (Sheeps, Totally Tom, Colin Hoult, McNeil & Pamphilon, James Acaster... to name just a few).

Finally, a little plug. After tonight's show three of us are taking part in Lee's brainchild The Great Big Sketch Off which will be a fun, if under-rehearsed sketch comedy extravaganza. Tickets are still available if you fancy seeing your favourite sketch teams mixed up into random groups and given a day to come up with ten minutes of new material, or fall flat on their faces. Either way it'll be entertaining.

Hope to see you there!

The First Night...

2011-08-03T06:40:00.001-07:00

So the first show went surprisingly well for a first night! Nice, big crowd and most of the sketches and songs seemed to work.

As we're still previewing for another two nights (tickets only a fiver!) we're still in the finding our gimp feet stage so we're rehearsing and tweaking this afternoon: playing with running orders, finding new punchlines, editing Paul out of the show, etc. But I reckon it was about a 7/10, which is good for a first night.

After the show, once we'd towelled ourselves down from the sweat drenching we'd given ourselves over the previous hour, the euphoria or surviving the first show carried us to the Just the Tonic party at The Caves, where we met up with the lovely Shappi Khorsandi, friend of the gimps and force to be reckoned with on the dance floor.

Matt Tizzle our techie was on a mission, and he quickly reached 100% humidity and 120% proof. My ears are still ringing this morning, not from the music... but from Tizzle's unique interpretation of previously popular floor-fillers.

To anyone we saw last night, we're sorry.

That's all.

Countdown...

2011-08-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

Two days in Edinburgh and we're already straight into the swing of things. Sleeping very little... panicking about the show... drinking till late... and getting soaked in the rain. But it's great to be back.

Yesterday we had a mammoth tech run which, while stressful, gave a good indication of how the show will run in the venue. Our show this year is much, much more technical than last year's which brings all kinds of new and head-scratching challenges and nervous clock-watching in the tech run. Luckily we have our trustee technical gimp Matt Tizzle with us for the first week (before he returns to London as he has "a dog"... "a wife" and "a life", apparently). The staff at our venue were also massively helpful and accommodating, so a big thank you to the Pleasance Above team.

Then we set off on the traditional props and costume buying mission, raiding all the pound shops and bargain stores Edinburgh has to offer. We managed to find a baby that looks exactly like Matt, so we bought it. As you do. I can't decide who looks more like Matt now, the baby or himself...?

In the evening Steve our legendary director took us all out for a curry, after which we came home and blocked all the toilets. (sorry)

The looming deadline is now very much in sight and whatever happens, the show has to be ready by tomorrow. Our first night. 10:30pm Pleasance Courtyard. Hope to see some of you there...

Good luck everybody.

david

Oh Hello again...

2011-07-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Haven't done this in a while have we?

Well fear not... we are well and truly back in the blogosphere.

We've arrived in Edinburgh and our flat "the gimp-house" is genuinely amazing. For the first time we won't have to share beds at the Fringe (I've woken up next to Richard's face one too many times...) and our flat includes some incredible and unique design features...

a telescope.

a giant lava lamp.

a painting of a child angel of death.

... and a larder that looks into the shower.

All true.

So stay tuned people, as we document what should be another chaotic, exciting and hopefully succesful Edinburgh Fringe. We'll be blogging every day and video blogging as much as we can too.

Better go now... we're up at half six for our technical rehearsal.

We open in three days!

david.

The Last Night...

2010-10-24T05:29:00.000-07:00

Help.

We.... feel..... awful.

Let me explain...

Last night we did our last show at the Galway Comedy Festival 2010 and it went brilliantly. We'd made some tweaks to the show since the night before, and the best surprise of all was that the room was full. About a hundred or so people turned up and were a fantastically supportive audience. If you were there- thank you. You made our weekend. A big Thank you to Kevin and everyone at the Roisin Dubh too for putting us up, looking after us and showing us the best that Galway has to offer, we loved every minute.

After the show however, is where things started to go wrong for us in terms of decision-making. Pappy's had come to the show so we decided to go drinking afterwards. Bear in mind it was now midnight and we had to be up and off to the airport to fly home in six hours. An hour and a few drinks later we decided to go to the silent disco... it is here the wheels really started to come off.

Between songs, Matt from Pappy's was inexplicably downing pints of Guinness so naturally, we all joined in. We were all stood in a circle (except Paul- who'd given his pint to Lee while he went to the loo) and were going round downing Guinness after Guinness like some bizarre alcoholic initiation ceremony.

Of course we all gleefully got on with the downing, pint after pint until it got to Lee. Now Lee was looking worried, but none of us knew why, we were all just shouting at him to down it, which after a moments hesitation, he did. As Paul returned from the loo in search of his pint Lee'd been looking after.... we all realised. Paul wasn't happy. Everyone else was in stitches. Still, minors* shouldn't really be drinking so fair's fair.

At half two, with three and a half hours till we had to be up, we probably should have knocked it on the head. Instead, we traipsed across town to the Raddison hotel as their bar was open till four. Of course. A few more Guinness and, regrettably, a kebab later... we got back to the apartment at five. One hour before we had to be up for our flight.

The hours of the morning between six and landing back in England are something of a miserable blur. All I know is I was in more pain than I thought possible, and I was tired. So, so tired. We were in a bad way, and as we slumped into our seats on the plane, we duly collapsed:

All in all though, it was all worth it. What a brilliant weekend and what a fantastic thing the Galway Comedy Festival is. Thanks to everyone to came to the shows, we hope we'll see you again next year!

Gimp-love,

LNGF.

*Paul's nickname is Junior.

The first show...

2010-10-23T04:41:00.000-07:00

So we did our first full Late Night Gimp Fight show at the Galway Comedy Festival, and it was a success, thank god.

We'd spent most of the day attempting to flyer and generally worrying that no-one would come as:

a) we're not exactly as The Beatles over here, and

b) only nine people had booked.

In the end, about seventy people made it down to the show so the room was pretty full and the reaction from those who came was really good. In celebration of this we decided to stay at the venue drinking guinness till four in the morning so today we are feeling a little worse for wear. Matt Tizzle has gone back to bed and Richard was last seen wandering down a road saying he was "Off to buy a postcard". That was three hours ago.

I think hair of the dog is the order of the day so we're off to have a pint and a chinwag with sketch legends Pappy's and then do our final show. Hopefully with a bit of luck the buzz after last night's show will ensure we get a good crowd tonight. Fingers crossed.

Our Irish debut...

2010-10-22T04:24:00.000-07:00

One word to describe last night's gig... awesome.

Phil Nichol did sterling work as MC, and Phill Jupitus and Karl Spain kicked the night off in great style. We were on in the second half and spent the interval worrying if our references to British TV shows in our closing song would be completely lost on the Irish crowd. Luckily, they weren't. Turns out they have Loose Women over here too. Our stuff was really well received, which was great as it was a packed house so that should get some buzz going.

The highlight of the night however was the finale, after the brilliant Dead Cat Bounce had done their set Phil Nichol came back on stage and brought back all the acts on with him for a rendition of I'm The Only Gay Eskimo, the memory of which will stay with us for a while.

This morning Massimo and I ate our own bodyweight at the breakfast buffet and now we're checking out of our hotel to move to an apartment nearer our venue for the shows. The hotel lobby this morning is like a comedians Who's Who... we just met Brendon Burns who's flown in from L.A. to be here and Andrew Maxwell just wandered in with his son. Looking round I can see Jimeoin and David O'Doherty too... oh, and there's Phill Jupitus getting out of a lift. Just a normal Friday.

We wandered out in the pouring rain to the university to flyer some students and spread the word of the gimp, then we went for coffee and muffins and then Matt dropped his bouncy ball in a canal.

Matt Tizzle and Campbell just arrived so we're off for dinner now and then the show. We'll let you know if anyone shows up.

David.

LNGF hit the Galway Comedy Festival!

2010-10-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

Hello from Ireland!

Our trip started off in rather alarming fashion this morning when we noticed our plane had propellors. Still, we survived the flight and arrived at Galway airport (more of a metal shed, to be fair) and found a taxi driver holding a sign saying"Massimo". Now, there is no Massimo in Late Night Gimp Fight. There never has been and there never will be. Still, when we approached the toothless driver and enquired if he was waiting for us he slurred "Are ye a band?" "umm... more of a comedy group" we nervously replied. "Whatever!" he shrugged, and we were on our way. And now Paul shall be referred to as Massimo for the rest of the trip.

Myself, Lee, Matt and Massimo are here a day early as we're performing in a mixed bill show tonight with Phill Jupitus, Dead Cat Bounce, Karl Spain and Phil Nichol. We're doing ten minutes that'll hopefully pick up some audience for our shows tomorrow and Saturday. We're staying the first night in a hotel, which is absolutely lush. We have two suites, on two levels and three bathrooms in each. That's right, more bathrooms than guests. Richard and Matt Tizzle will join us tomorrow, provided they don't miss their flight.

We went for a pint of guinness and a wander round the town, which looks like a lovely place, and we had a look at the venues we're performing at. Tonight's at a posh 400 seater Town Hall Theatre and our own gigs are at a cool 180 seater music venue, called the Roisin Dubh. We're on at 11pm on Friday and Saturday, after Rich Hall.

Right- better be off for tonight's show now- we'll let you know how it goes. Stay tuned for more gimp updates from the Emerald Isle.

David.

Hello again!

2010-10-17T04:52:00.000-07:00

Well. Haven't done one of these in a while have we?

What have we been up to you ask? Well....

Since Edinburgh a lot of very exciting things have happened. We're in the final stages of talks before signing with a management company- gimps with agents. imagine. We have done a LOT of gigs around the London circuit, We've planned what we'll be doing over the next twelve months, We've been mentioned on Channel 4 news (not in a piece about Rape, for once) and most recently, we performed at the Brighton Comedy Fringe.

We love performing down in Brighton, and this time was no different. The crowd down there are always really up for it; dark, smutty and drunk. Just how we like them. More importantly though, going down to Brighton means we get to go on the games and rides on Brighton Pier. Gimps love slot-machines and rides. Paul (who went to Disneyland Paris twice in twleve months. No-one's ever done that before or since) loves the waltzer, Matt (gambling addict) can't get enough of the slot machines and David lost five pounds trying to win a sweet that he could have just bought for ten pence. Still, you live and learn.

So we went on a ride. To give you an idea of just how exciting this was, here's a photo. Look at David's face. The ride hasn't even begun. The safety bar hasn't even been lowered. It was that fun. If that's wet your appetite then take a look at this video of us on the ride.

The two dates at the glorious Upstairs at Three and Ten went really well, the second particuarly so as it was sold out and the crowd were fantastic. We'll definitely be back in the new year.

So what next? Next week we're off to Ireland for the Galway Comedy Festival and the week after, on 30th October at the Pleasance Theatre we're doing the Edinburgh show in London for the very last time. Do come, it's bound to be eventful.

I think that's about all in the gimp news round-up. Oh- one more thing, Paul has a new nickname (which he hates, so definitely call him it)... "Junior".

Stay tuned for more gimp news soon- I think we might blog from Ireland actually, if the internet has reached that part of the world.

Lots of Gimp-love,

David.

LNGF.

Goodbye.

2010-08-31T02:17:00.000-07:00

Well, that's it.

The Edinburgh Fringe done for another year.

In all our years of doing the fringe in various different capacities, we've never had one quite like it. This year's was better, more successful and way more fun than we could have possible hoped for.

We sold out all but one of our twenty-five performances, received fantastic reviews and were nominated for an award. People who came to the shows were so enthusiastic and complimentary and the support from the other comedians and sketch groups was, frankly, overwhelming. Without wanting this blog to descend into some weepy Oscar acceptance speech, we would just like to say that we're incredibly grateful to everyone who had a hand in making this the best fringe on record.

A few individual thanks we'd like to mention. To all the staff at The Pleasance (especially reception, box office and of course the lovely venue technicians at the Beside), to our diretor Steve Marmion, to the Comedy Awards panel and Nica Burns, to our amazing technicians Matt Tizzle and later Dan Bennett. Gina Lyons' boundless energy, enthusiasm and support deserves special thanks as well - what a legend.

We'd also like to wish a full and speedy recovery to Will Hartley of the brilliant sketch group Clever Peter whose festival was cut short by illness- Get Well soon mate.

... and that's just about it from us. We've had a blast. We've also enjoyed doing this blog, so much so we think we might continue it, in some form or other, when we've recovered. As for the future, we start gigging again in London in a few weeks time before doing shows at festivals in Brighton, Ireland and Manchester and then an exciting thing we're doing in Autumn at the Soho theatre. So to stay in touch with all things Gimp, follow us on twitter and maybe check this blog when we've worked out what we're doing with it!

Thanks everyone,

Big Gimp Love,

David, Lee, Matt, Paul and Richard.

Late Night Gimp Fight.

what a day

2010-08-28T13:39:00.001-07:00

Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow.

What a day!

Today we had the privilege of going to the fantastic Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards ceremony, and it did not disappoint, there were lots of our idols there and we were awestruck for the whole time. Unfortunately we did not win but just to be involved was more than we could of ever wished for and to hear Tim Key and Al Murray both talk about our show was awesome. The free bar was pretty cool too!

We were all very happy to see Russell Kane win the best comedy show award, he really deserves it.

We also did a very good show today despite some of the gimps still being over the limit! (Richard) and all coped really well considering we were all up before 11 AM for the first time in a long time! (except Richard) It really is impressive that we are all still getting on and enjoying each others company after a whole month in a cold Scotland!............ (except Richard)

That's all for me, but i am going to pass over to lee with a great story involving a skinny sausage shaped, battered sausage and an equally skinny sausage shaped Paul

Peace out

Matt

Hi.

Lee here.

A great day etc etc but topped off by probably my favourite moment of the festival so far.

We decided to go for a couple of drinks after the show and, as I've been pretty good at not drinking thus far, only a couple of half arsed Fosters tops were enough to get me going. I mean I was on a real roll sliding around the bar making no sense as I tried to hold conversations. I think I probably seemed quite clever. I know that I probably didn't.

Then on the way home Paul and Dan bought some chips. I didn't. Why? My body is a temple. That and I knew I could steal some of theirs. This is the kind of forward planning that will one day see me sit on a quite considerable retirement nest egg with no one to share it with.

But I babble.

We were walking back and Paul was eating his chips. Every time I made a move to eat one he blocked me. How did he do this? He closed the lid. Very clever indeed. I had no way to get round this so like a magpie with a taste for deep fried potatoes I shifted my attention to Dan and dug in.

After a while Paul had realised that he had bitten off more than he could chew. He had gone into an Edinburgh chip shop and ordered a battered sausage and chips and lost. He wasn't man enough to get it down him.

Anyone who has ever met Paul will know that his physique is akin to that if a coat rack. Or an umbrella. Or a six foot two pepperami. Or a high standing lamp. Or a javelin. Or a telephone pole. Or a bony stick. Or a tall thin tub of pringles. Or any other kind of tall, thin thing you may be able to think of that isn't in our living room or out of the window (it's late and I'm tired!)

So Paul, with his thin, old man frame wasn't man enough to finish the chips and gave them to me along with a little bit of left over sausage.

Hello, thought I, chips eh? Good to see you boys. Can't wait to get you in my- Eh up! What's this? A Half eaten chip? A half eaten mother flippin' chip?!?

Now I've had some lousy presents in my time. Jumpers. Cds. Sex Toys. And those are just the ones from my mum last year but never had I been given a gift containing a half eaten chip.

This won't do. Justice must be served. An example must be made. But how? Strongly worded letter? A few choice phrases and expressions? Or to lob the chip at Paul's head.

Well I'm a man of few words so whoosh through the air went the chip... Flying higher and higher and... Smash! Right in the back of the head!

Like a trio of Shakespearian witches Dan, Dave and I cackled. Revenge had been extracted. The balance had been restored. Life could continue as before.

Right?

Not quite.

There was still the matter of the half eaten sausage.

But you can't throw a sausage can you? I mean Paul was annoyed enough at the chip after he had gifted you this wonderful late night deep fried snack and you had literally thrown it back in his face. He couldn't stand for that so be good right?

But a half eaten sausage and Paul about ten meters away, there was no way of making contact with him. So I threw it at him. The sight of a piece of battered pork hurtling through the air was beautiful. It really captured the beauty and the romance of the moment as the moonlight reflected off the sausage.

Until splat.

Right on the top of the head!!

To wrap up the story, Paul went for me, I threw the rest of the chips in the air in fear and ran like wind with him in hot pursuit.

Never again in my life will I throw anything as accurately as I did tonight. Never.

Was it a nice thing to do?

No.

Was it a grown up thing to have done? The kind of thing to make my parents and teachers proud of me?

No.

Was it worth it?

Oh yes. I will sleep well tonight replaying that moment of contact over and over and over and over and over again.

Best fringe memory of all for me?

Good question. Lets just say no amount of awards nominations will make that kind of sound on the back of Paul's head!

Ha ha!

Lee

The day after...

2010-08-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

Wow.

Safe to say that in our short history, we've never experienced a day quite like yesterday. Never.

To be perfectly frank, we're all still reeling from the nomination, and the messages of support and congratulations from friends too numerous to mention. Thanks guys, we are ridiculously grateful.

Safe to say it was a bit of a late one last night, as we shared a couple of celebratory bottles of champagne with our director Steve and our PR team (the amazing Claire Walker PR). Then it was off home to wash our coloured hoodies (now pretty shabby after twenty odd shows) for todays photoshoot. No prizes for guessing which lucky gimp got to stay up until 6AM to make sure they were dry...

After a couple of hours sleep, we were all back up and ready for the shoot (except Dave, who looked like death). We piled enthusiastically into the car we had been sent, and waited for the journey to begin, beaming in anticipation. Needless to say, we were all a little dumbstruck when the cab driver turned round to us and asked "Where to, pal?"

We had no idea.

However, after a swift phonecall we were shortly dropped off at our location and ushered inside. There we shared muffins, bacon sandwiches and tea with our fellow newcomer nominees Imran Yusuf, Asher Treleaven, Gareth Richards, Roisin Conaty and The Boy with Tape on his Face. We saw the main category nominees (Russell Kane, Greg Davies, Josie Long, Bo Burnham and Sarah Millican) having their group photos, and we followed shortly, accompanied by our gimp, whose identity, much like the Stig, shall remain a closely guarded secret.

Following that came the rather odd but all the same exciting individual shots holding the actual trophy, all of us trying to look like we'd won already. These are so the press are ready to publish the photos immediately, whoever wins. A few more photos, a couple of interviews (all with our ever present gimp) and then we were back home, and straight to bed. The Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle of sketch comedians...

Paul.

the day everything changed

2010-08-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

forgive the language, but f*** me, what a day.

in case you haven't heard today we were nominated for Best Newcomer in The Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier).

rather than be cool and coy about it, we freely admit this is the best thing that's happened to us and we are over the moon. we're surprised, delighted and humbled by the nomination and it means the world. thank you to all the people who have come to the shows and of course the judges.

thanks also to everyone who's come up and passed on their congratulations and for all the lovely messages on facebook and twitter. we're really touched. we made a show this year that we're really proud of and it means a lot that the people who enjoy it are so enthusiastic and supportive.

and thank you to Gina, for everything. She knows who she is, and she's bloody brilliant.

right- we're off to do the show and then get biblically, heroically drunk.

cheers!

LNGF.

how to enjoy flyering...

2010-08-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

not sure if this has come out in the pleasance times yet, but what the hell... here's the article.

FLYERING THE LATE NIGHT GIMP FIGHT WAY...

Let’s face it. Flyering can be an interminable, soul-destroying experience designed to slowly break your spirit until you wish you’d never brought a show up to the Fringe. The punters are bored of it and the flyerers don’t want to be doing it. It’s awful. Unless...

If you can think up an inventive way of flyering that fits with the tone of your show and, crucially, you don’t mind doing... it can not only reap rewards in terms of audience figures, but can start a word-of-mouth buzz around your show and you may even start to enjoy doing it.

We discovered this after someone came up with the idea of flyering in gimp masks, on dog leads. One member of LNGF is the gimp, and one is the master. The gimp wears the mask, holds the flyers and is not allowed to talk. The master drags the gimp around the Pleasance Courtyard on a lead and pitches the show to people. He can also leave the gimp with punters to look after/ spank (whichever they prefer) and pose with the gimp for photos. All in all it’s a fun and effective way of reinventing an otherwise laborious process, and seems to be working better than ever this year. So if you see any gimps wandering around the courtyard... feel free to give them a spank!

LNGF.

Lee Shambles of an Evening...

2010-08-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Oh dear.

Last night can be summed up in just 2 words.

Oh dear.

Not the main show. The main show was fine. Good even. No it was after the main show.

Allow me to go into detail. We had finished the show and were due to go and do a short 10 minute set for Max and Ivan at the ROFFLE club. A good fun gig we'd been looking forward to, so we finished our show and were ready to head over.

Problem was Paul wasn't in a good way at all. Now Paul is a drip at the best of times and has a tragic allergy to anything that may be construed as fun but in fairness to him he genuinely did look a mess. A hideous mess. So we decided that, with another late night slot to do after tonights show too, the best thing to do would be to send him home with a hot water bottle (we dont have one) and a warm mug of horlicks (we didn't have any of this either).

I confidently said to the boys "Oh don't worry, I can cover Paul in Danny Boy (Funeral scene where Paul does some amazing singing) and Craig (Office scene where Paul hops around in a thong)." We all nodded and off we went.

I knew pretty quickly after we'd started that this wasn't going to plan. As soon as we stepped on stage to do Wrestler Dad my voice was on the way out. No problem. I'll grab a microphone before Danny Boy and do it on mic to make it fly without pushing myself.

No.

That is not what happened at all.

What happened is out came the microphone and I attempted to sing every note apart from the appropriate ones. In fact not even sing. Scream. Shout. Wail. What should have been 20 seconds of me singing seemed to stretch on for about 15 minutes as I stared out over an audience of horrified 19 year olds. All looked entirely unimpressed. Some actually looked scared. I think one of them may have been crying.

So onwards through to the end of the song and the lights go out and we move to the next sketch. It's ok I keep thinking to myself, not a lost cause yet. We can win them back still. And we tried our damndest to do just that. And I think we were on course to at least escape from the gig with some dignity intact when we got to the last sketch.

Craig.

The sketch where Paul, with his wonderfully bizarre body, prances around the stage in just a thong pulling all manner of unusual shapes before we hit one of our best punchlines.

It's a banker.

We were all over it. The scene starts well enough. People at the bar were talking a little loudly but not to worry, Paul's gonna come out in a second and everyone will laugh at the carefully prepared moves he does.

Except Paul wasn't there. Which meant that Paul's weird body wasn't there. No. What we had instead was me. In a thong. With messed up hair to make me look 'wacky'.

It. Was. Excruciating.

Rather than "Ooh look at the weird guy with the thong and the weird body" we had "Why is that normal looking guy wearing a thong and what is he doing?"

I know. I'll go into the audience and interact with them as this weird creature thing I'm playing...

No.

God no.

There was to be no audience participation. I even got thrown off a guys lap who was having none of it. The guy was a bloody peoples champion for that!

I tried to stagger through to the end of the sketch and get back on stage as the wall of apathy otherwise known as the audience shifted uncomfortably and waited for us to just get on with it.

Out came Matt for the big punchline. He delivered the line like the pro he is and...

Silence.

A cough.

Blackout.

We turned and ran and never looked back.

Moral of this story is there are certain scenes that certain people have to do. They all seem to have been written by Paul and for Paul.

Clever boy...

Lee

sunday fun.

2010-08-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

i had an early night last night, partly cos i was feeling ropey and partly cos i knew i was getting up early today for Tim Key's album launch. i say early... the launch was at 3pm.

i was however awoken rather earlier than expected by what sounded like the exorcism of emily rose coming from inside the bathroom. matt, our tech, was being thunderously, epicly sick in the toilet. it honestly sounded like the end of the world. horrific. the jury's still out on why he was so ill (drunk/infection/diabetes...). matt isn't having the best time of it in our bathroom recently to be fair... yesterday he cracked the bath by "standing in the shower". as i say, he's a one-off.

anyway, back to the album launch. this was, as you'd expect of anything affiliated with the invisible dot, great shambolic fun. it took place in avalanche records, just off the royal mile and featured alex horne on megaphone, nick mohammed on violin and tim key on a stepladder.

the album is a collection of key's poems performed with the backing of a string quartet (who, we are informed were "a bit moody on the day") and, because this is an invisible dot venture... it's released on vinyl. (it will be on CD and download come october... i think i'll wait till then for mine). at the launch key performed a few poems while nick mohammed attempted some violin accompaniment. there was a sketch by horne and key about eggs, before the whole proceedings was almost derailed when key discovered he'd misplaced his can of irn bru. "how can you lose a can of irn bru, honestly...?"

it was a bizarre but very enjoyable 25 minutes or so and a perfect distraction on a sunday afternoon.

one more bit of news to report, we got a lovely ★★★★ review from chortle, surprising as we thought they hated us, but we're very grateful all the same, and glad they enjoyed it.

enjoy the rest of your weekends.

david.

busy gimps

2010-08-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

yesterday was fun. busy, but fun.

we had a photoshoot in the pleasance courtyard for a piece in the pleasance times about our flyering, we'll post the photo and article when it comes out. then i pottered (really? pottered? well, you've written it now.) off to see jess ransom's show ransom's million which was very good indeed. if you like character comedy you'll enjoy this show as it's perfectly performed but also includes a strong narrative arc (pretentious today aren't we?), which not all character shows manage to pull off.

then matt and i went to see nick mohammed and were completely blown away. this year his show is absolutely brilliant. it's funny, inventive, clever and really memorable and you should see it (seriously).

then we went home for a little nap before the show. very odd crowd in last night that included a stag party so drunk that when we went to high-five them at the top of the show, they missed. their flailing hands weren't even close. a few of them passed out about half way through and the rest were just quietly annoyed that there weren't any actual gimps fighting, but there you go. the rest of the audience enjoyed it (i think).

half of us went to silent disco and the others (well, me) went for fish n' chips. the end.

david.

Road to Recovery

2010-08-20T05:24:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago, Team Gimp Fight was in a very sorry state. The excesses of Edinburgh had finally caught up with us all with Dave and Matt (R) suffering from the dreaded fringe flu and everyone else just feeling knackered. Words like 'ropey', 'tired', 'ill' and 'unsettling' were banded about and, for a split second, we thought maybe this year the Fringe would get the better of us....

BUT, as luck would have it, Wednesday was our day off and, after an enormous lie-in we all woke up feeling on top form (except Matt R who still felt poorly but fought on valiantly). The thing about a day off in Edinburgh is that you kind of feel like you need to make the most it and ram it full with as many activities as possible as show days are normally full of flyering and promotion. The great thing about having a show at 11pm is that during the day we really are free to see shows, climb Arthur's Seat and watch mime on the Royal Mile... as promoting a show called Late Night Gimp Fight can really only take place in the evening (last year a child thought one of the Gimps was Spiderman and demanded a picture. Yes. It was as awkward as it sounds.) So, the day off really was just a matter of recuperating (I sat in Starbucks and finished my book which was excellent by the way) and catching the shows that clash with Gimp Fight. We therefore had an awesome evening watching our sketch group buddies Clever Peter and The Beta Males' Picnic. Both shows were hilarious, sharp and slick so definitely catch them!

So that was our day off. Pretty eventful I think you'll agree. Oh, and we got 4 stars in Three Weeks which was nice. All in all, a good day!

In an attempt to get back on the Edinburgh wagon, I tried to catch as many shows as possible on Thursday but failed miserably. Managed to catch Adam Riches' show which was completely out of control but utterly brilliant (my advice would be not to sit on the front row if you are shy!) but missed Tim Vine. Paul however did see Tim and regaled us with as many puns as he could remember.

Dave went to see a show called Operation Greenfield and absolutely loved it, he hasn't stopped going on about it since and has made the rest of us book tickets for it immediately, so we're looking forward to that. It sounds great so follow the link if you are interested. So with puns in our ears, we got ready for our first show in 48 hours. It was a weird feeling as although it was only one day off, it felt like we hadn't performed the show in weeks so the nerves were back in force. As it turned out, the audience were on top form so it was a great show to get back into the swing of things. Also, my comedy hero Frank Skinner was in the audience! So exciting! We finished the night by breaking free of Brookes Bar and celebrating Will from Clever Peter's birthday in the Library Bar. Happy Birthday Will!

Well, the weekend is nearly upon us and almost every gimp has friends visiting so it should be an epic couple of days filled with the Silent Disco, the Boy with Tape on his Face, jagerbombs.... Have a good weekend everyone!

Richard

P.S. To all you people going to the Invisible Dot Club event 'By the Sea', I am incredibly jealous of you. It will be an epic evening. Can you do it in London Mr Invisible Dot?

Response to Guardian article.

2010-08-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

On 18th August 2010 this article appeared on The Guardian website. The following is our response.

We don’t normally comment on people’s opinions of our work. We are generally just happy people have seen the show and responded. Positive or negative, for us, live performance is about response and audience reaction.

However, in this case we need to make an exception. Not because we are in anyway annoyed that you didn’t find the show funny (we are a little upset that our complexions weren’t up to scratch, but that’s beside the point). However there is the implication that we are, at worst, glorifying sexual assault or child abuse, and at best, not bothered. This could not be further from the truth.

We think very carefully about what we put on stage. What social conventions are we challenging? How are we asking the audience to look at and challenge themselves? If art is about providing insight into the human condition, then comedy is about doing this through (often involuntarily) laughter.

Our work steers clear of “the middle ground”. We try to make work that is either very silly or very dark. Light observation and “Do you remember when...” are not to our taste or strength. The audience reaction is often intellectual or sentimental – these are not particularly active responses. We like an audience to respond from the heart and then process this. We like causing strong reactions. It is what live performance does best; this is why we do it and watch it.

When we are dealing with the darker sketches in rehearsal we really challenge each other as to who is the victim of the joke. Many of these pieces we have been working on for a year, trying them with audiences and talking to them. These are not gleeful, poorly thought out horror gags.

The second part of the mentioned Sleeping Beauty sketch is very simply a picture of the horrors of sexual assault and is designed to challenge the laugh at the end of the first one. The laugh / groan this gets indicates the audiences’ self-awareness in this moment and the sketch that references child abuse is an extreme moment, but we then acknowledge the fact there is a “line” by announcing it on the screen and punishing the performers immediately.

The one sketch with semen in it is very simply a pun and falls into the silly category. This laugh may well relate to porn’s increased viewing figures, but we doubt that laughs relating to sexual assault and child abuse have anything to do with internet porn. These were both issues in society and the public consciousness long before we were born and not most people’s standard porn fare.

Sorry you didn’t like the show, but I hope you credit us with the intelligence and responsibility we take upon ourselves as artists and comedians.

Thank you for coming.

And thank you for writing about us.

David, Lee, Matt, Matt, Paul, Richard and Steve

Late Night Gimp Fight.

fringe flu

2010-08-17T13:07:00.001-07:00

helo everyone.

a lot to report so i'll get through it as quick as i can. first: i'm getting ill. the dreaded fringe flu is threatening to rear its ugly head. it's always the same; towards the end of week three the consistent late nights, hard drinking and terrible diet begin to take their toll. it's alright though, i'm determined to beat it off with a good night's sleep and an arsenal of smoothies. also, we have a much needed day off tomorrow in which i intend to do as little as physically possible. this year i'm not kidding myself that i'll do anything worthwhile with the free time like climb arthur's seat or try to see over ten shows... no no, tomorrow is about rest. and i'm well up for it.

next up the interview we did with three weeks radio is up. here's a photo of one of us being interviewed in the fresh air studios.

a quick word about the show. the sell-outs continue and last night we had our best show yet. the audience were bang up for it from the start so we fed off their energy and the show flew by. we even got a standing ovation! i don't think we'll ever have a reaction as good as that again. it was brilliant.

finally, i must tell you about the most extraordinary show i've seen at the fringe this year. daniel kitson's it's always right now, until it's later. this morning i woke up at 9am (a new fringe record) hungover after the pleasance mid-fringe party and just under four hours sleep. i stumbled across town bleary eyed to the traverse theatre for the show, which started at the frankly offensive time of 10am. but over the next 90 minutes i witnessed one of the funniest, most moving and profound pieces of theatre i've ever seen. as a long term kitson fan i knew it was bound to be good, but this was something else, it was incredible. the show deals with life, love and all the tiny seemingly insignificant but life-altering moments in between. if you see one show this fringe, make it this one. there are very few tickets left but if you can, get hold of one... you won't regret it.

right, i'm off to bed. a proper night's sleep awaits.

david.

short and sweet

2010-08-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

What's up gimp fans?

For performers the fringe has really been going for about 2 weeks now. Some of the gimps arrived a couple of Sundays ago to put up posters, sort props and some other stuff and with two weeks remaining, we're at about the half way point. Everyone is feeling the strain of doing massive 2 hour days plus time at the bar and patience with each others particulars is wearing thin. People are starting to get ill, tempers are flaring and Richard's still here.

Still, the show's going well and that's what's important I suppose. The sell-outs continue and we've a day off coming up soon, the holy grail. There's another nice review here.

Also, Thank you to Matthew from Pappy's for

being the only audience member yet to take a picture of our Matt in the intro to the show. Every night he screams "TAKE A PHOTO!!!" and unsurprisingly, until last night no-one had obliged. Until now.

Matt Tizzle.

Time for something completely different...

2010-08-15T09:39:00.001-07:00

Simply put, I can’t walk anymore.

It actually hurts to just be sat down.

This is all the fault of the dirty little bastards.

Steve here, the Gimpmaster (director). Two weeks with the boys has done for me. My body hates me. I’m going home.

It’s been a great two weeks of very odd notes and bizarre discussions, but I think we are all very proud of the show. We’ve had full houses and great responses (“Show it again, show it again”).

That doesn’t make it right though.

So here, through the power of blog I lay down my challenge to you boys.

Write next years’ show.

I dare you.

You are all in the same flat. You do nothing until 10 at night. You have a big bag of lube. Write it, write it, write it.

A final thought for each of you before I go...

Chubby Gimp – It’s your fault I can’t walk, never make me catch you again.

Posh Gimp – Write a sketch down, on some paper, it might be funny.

Techie Gimp – Grab Edinburgh and life by the balls, own it and call it Dave.

Sulky Gimp – Stop doing that thing you like to do with ham and the French.

Single Gimp – Shave off the beard, you aint Moses.

...that’s everyone.

Thanks boys.

I miss you in no way at all already.

Stevie

xxxxx

Whimsical Musings

2010-08-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

I thought about doing my blog in the third person again but thought its an artistic device I've already used and true performers should always push themselves to a new level... And I couldn't be arsed!

Instead Im gonna talk about some of my favourite moments from this years fringe and there have been a fair few of them so far!

Where to start?

Lets start at the beginning. Apparently that's a very good place to start. When we first arrived, Edinburgh was all fresh and new and shiny and not infested by students and comedians. It's a really beautiful city to just wander around and I'd highly recommend it. Come for the New Years.

Then the festival began and the show has gone really well thus far. The video stuff that took such a long time to do has gone down an absolute treat and made all the effort worthwhile. Result!

Seen some really good shows, highly recommend Adam Riches and Colin Hoult along with Bane and Mcneil and Pamphillon.

Thats all the serious whimsical stuff done.

Now for the dirt.

My real favourite memories.

Every morning Paul and I draw a picture on the steamed up bathroom mirror as a present for eachother. My favourite so far has been recreating The Human Centipede with a certain gimp and his mum and dad but im not allowed to mention his name...

On a similar subject of Richard, we had the Campbell-gate saga of one of this weeks blogs. No one is taking responsibility for writing the list of things Richard might be doing instead of writing. I can hold my hands up and say it wasn't me though I would have been proud of that one! Watch this space for further details...

Lying in bed this morning I heard the saga of the non flushing toilet as 2 fully grown men both tried to urinate at the same time with dire consequences. Quote from Tizzle "It's going on my leg!"

Too many chilli con carnes. We had one last night. It was hot. Very hot. We then did a show where we spend 5 minutes locked in laundry bags. You do the math.

Took a walk up the Royal Mile to see people flyering. It was everything I remember from when I was a student. Man lying on floor covered in flyers? Check. Man stood still as statue with flyers in hand? Check. Amazingly hot girls in stockings and basques, pole dancing with flyers in hidden places? Actually no. There weren't. But if there were I'd be watching that show for sure! In fact I'm gonna go write that show now. After I take this cold shower...

x

Taking its toll

2010-08-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I have now been up in Edinburgh a week and the Fringe is beginning to takes its toll. The bank account is starting to look rather empty and the bags under my eyes rather full but it is, of course, completely worth it! While it may take the rest of the year to recover, a month in Edinburgh that doesn't involve over-indulgence, going to bed as the sun gets up or talking secretly/loudly about a celebrity standing behind you is a month wasted. Bring on the next two weeks! (This attitude may change....)

It was great to wake up this morning to see in yesterday's blog that the gimps were concerned for my welfare and curious as to my whereabouts. In all honesty, I was a couple of minutes away from Brookes Bar (The Official LNGF Bar of 2010) in the Underbelly CowBarn. A really nice outside bar that has lanterns and enormous chairs covered in astro-turf. I felt a bit like a sporty Borrower. All in all, it was a nice change of scenery. So, for those of you playing at home, the answer to yesterday's quiz was: 9 (wearing a blue jumper). The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that the other options were all tricks to catch you out. I don't indulge in any of them! Well, except number 6 but I might buy some nasal strips. Do they actually work or are they like those wrist bands children wear to make sure they don't feel sick on planes?

Anyway, after a big sleep, all the gimps woke up around midday and split up to see various shows. Matt, Dave and I watch Steve Pretty's excellent show The Origin of the Pieces at the GRV. A really fun hour with a fantastic finale! Catch it if you can!

We also received our first delivery at the Gimp Flat. We're all rather excited about the contents (see photo...)

Right, time for the show. Bye for now,

Richard.

Where is Richard?

2010-08-12T08:32:00.001-07:00

Well.

Richard's still out and has neglected his duties once again. He was last seen walking out of a bar having turned his back on the gimps, muttering "As long as it gets done..."

So. What to do...

We could tell you about what we did today (saw shows), what we ate (spaghetti) and how the show went (pretty well) but instead I think we should use today's blog to speculate on what Richard could currently be doing...

1. Eating battered sausages.

2. Grunting like a pig.

3. Being posh.

4. Disappointing everyone.

5. Not doing the washing up.

6. Snoring.

7. Not flyering.

8. Looking old.

9. Wearing his Dad's blue jumper.

10. Eating more battered sausages.

I suppose your guess is as good as ours, but it's bound to be one of them.

Let's see if he manages to do one tomorrow. Anyone care to make a bet....?

LNGF.

sorry

2010-08-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

this, i warn you, is going to be a shit blog.

and like most other failings in late night gimp fight, this is down to richard. it was his turn to write one but when he left the bar claiming he was "tired" (at the fringe? tired??) i knew he wouldn't.

so i apologise on his behalf. all there is to say is we've had two more reviews come out... a FIVE STAR from one4review.com. "Deeply and darkly delightful"

and a FOUR STAR one from Fringe Review. "An immensely entertaining hour of sketch comedy"

cheers.

tomorrow's will be better.

david.

pickled eggs

2010-08-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hey there.

Paul again. Apparently my last blog was very comma heavy, so that's something I'll be watching out for this time around. One there already.

So last nights show went really well. And as a reward we all decided to go home and watch 'The Human Centipede', something we said we'd do after our first sell out, but failed to do after our first night! However, the early night didn't go off as planned, as we didn't start watching the film til two in the morning, largely due to the late arrival of Steve, our director, who would not let us begin the film until we had all downed a pickled egg. What a cruel man he is.

The film itself was something of a disappointment. We felt it just didn't go far enough after it's initial exploration of the idea. We can only hope visionary director Tom Six goes further with the impending sequel.

Despite the film's slight inadequacy in satisfying our baser urges, a good night was had by all of Late Night Gimp Fight. That was until 5 AM, when, at Steve's behest, Matt and I crept into Rich and Dave's room and tried to force feed them the remaining pickled eggs. Immediately we knew this was a mistake. We crossed a line.

After a ridiculous lie-in and cup of tea by way of apology to Rich and Dave, we decided to take in a few shows. Today's highlights included Bane 2, Joe Bone's brilliant sequel to last year's Bane, which he is also reprising this year at the GRV. Definitely worth catching.

After our show, which went pretty well tonight, we dashed off to the Dome to watch The Horne Section. It was a truly fantastic night, with Tim Key, Jeremy Lion and David O'Doherty all performing cracking sets. Try and get tickets for this amazing show, as it is the perfect way to end a long, hard day at the Fringe.

I am scrabbling for a way to end this pretty substandard blogging effort. That's because it's nearly six o'clock in the bloody morning. In fact, I'm so tired, I'm not even going to try and write a vaguely amusing ending.

Stop reading.

Stop!

Let me go to sleep!

Paul xxx

PS We got a nice four star review from Veronica Lee (of The Sunday Telegraph fame) for the Arts Desk. Have a read and get yourself down to the Beside in...17 and a half hours time.

Just don't wake me up before then.

Right on Cue.

2010-08-09T10:20:00.001-07:00

Hello, I'm Matt. I'm Late Night Gimp Fight's Techie gimp.

With a heavy heart and a lump in my throat it becomes my responsibility to write the now, quite underwhelming, Late Night Gimp Fight daily blog.

It's 6 days in and I've managed to see a lot of shows and as is always the case with the fringe, I've seen some fantastic stuff, and some proper crap. Thankfully so far, the good has out weighed the bad and my faith in the fringe is still strong.

For my blog I will give you, the general public, a Late Night Gimp Fight exclusive:

LX 1 GO

SFX 1 GO

After Clearance

LX 2 GO

Fade SFX out

Video 1 GO

See, worth waiting for.

For anyone who has seen the show, you may have noticed that by the end of the hour, I'm a sweaty mess standing behind the lighting desk, wishing desperately for a swift end to my miserable existence. This how I normally am and has nothing to do with the show.

Dave has said I have to include some productive information about the show. Sigh. Here's a clipping from the G2 section of today's Guardian talking about gimps. Oh, and our review from The Guardian is online here.

Matt Tizzle.

write-off

2010-08-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

today for me was, in many ways, a write-off. it started with a well-deserved hangover after a fairly respectable drinking session in the pleasance performer's bar the night before. then i went to ASDA to do the weekly shop (spaghetti bolognese for seven days), got home and it started to go wrong. i'd planned to spend the afternoon seeing shows but in an effort to reset my system i went for what i thought would be a ten minute power nap. i woke up two and a half hours later feeling even more ropey, and alone in the flat. i'd missed all the shows i wanted to see. epic david fail.

however, the more productive gimps did go and see some great shows... we can fully recommend adam riches, colin hoult at pleasance and the grandees at the underbelly. all fantastic shows that should not be missed.

our own show is in a good place now. it's sold out so far and we hope this continues as it's 2for1 tickets on monday and tuesday this week. we've had a lot of reviewers in over the last couple of nights so keep an eye on our twitter feed and we'll put them up as and when they come in.

tomorrow i am going to see some shows. i promise. power naps are banned from now on.

david.

Lee does a blog.

2010-08-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

That's right. Lee does a blog. But in this blog Lee will only refer to himself in the third person.

So what should Lee talk about? A good question. Lee could talk about the trials and tribulations of getting a show up to the fringe, getting it on at the fringe and tweaking it as we go along.

Lee could talk about the great shows he has seen since coming to the festival and the fun time he has had and all the lovely people he has met.

But no. Lee is not going to talk about these things. Lee is going to talk about something else. Something more important.

Lee is going to talk about...

His earring.

That's right.

Lee has an earring.

And judging by the response from the boys in the group Lee may as well be walking around with a tattoo of a swastika on his forehead. He has been vilified. He is now a loner. No one will come near him from the group.

But maybe this isn't such a bad thing. Maybe this will be the making of him. Maybe he will become a loose cannon. A wild card. Dare we say...a maverick...

So watch this space as Lee attempts to see how much further he can be ostracised from the group. It's an earring now. He has a shoe lace thick non practical scarf ready to roll and the hair bands are packed and looking for action. Lee is ready.

Now where is the black nail polish...

hitting our stride

2010-08-06T04:44:00.000-07:00

All Aboard!

As i write this i am eating a lovely, well earned Angel cake, having done two shows today. We did our normal show and it all went swimmingly but then we were then enticed into doing a last minute comedy show with some lovely chaps, hosted by Ed from Clever Peter, and starring some fantastic new comedians and sketch groups including McNeil and Pamphilon who we saw today and were excellent. The highlight of the evening was the end where Ed in his typically charismatic way coaxed the people out of the theatre with some lovely anecdotes, my personal favourite being "get out now! just get out!"

This really finished off a lovely day that included, for the first time, getting out of the flat and actually seeing some shows. Everything we saw was of a fantastic quality and gave me a lot of confidence in this years comedy. Sorry- just going to quickly interrupt this blog to let you know what i have just seen/heard from the unknown entity that is Dave, having just sneaked up on Richard wearing only boxers i heard the words "oh god, i have put my balls in your pocket, i wanted it to be funny but it's gone to far!" Brilliant! Anyway after seeing lots of great shows we got ready for our show by having some lovely Chilli Con Carne cooked by the beautifully diabetic mess that is Matt Tizzle. We arrived at the venue and found out we had sold out which was great and we had a fantastic crowd in.

Things are really starting to come together and the fun is only just beginning!

Peace out, one love.

Matt Ralph

P.S Our interview with Hairline Magazine is now online and makes an entertaining read. Answering questions in ten words is harder than you'd think..

Video killed the radio star

2010-08-05T08:13:00.001-07:00

I really hoped we wouldn't have to do it this year. I really, really did. But no, today we again found ourselves performing that early Fringe ritual of trawling the charity shops and pound shops of Edinburgh for miscellaneous props and costumes we hadn't accounted for, like so many sketch groups before us. Nice to see the Royal Mile coming to life, though. By the weekend it'll be rammed with festivalgoers, flyering performers and, quite possibly, gimps.

Perhaps the highlight of today was huddling round the laptop to hear Dave and Matt being interviewed on Freshair radio. We even tried counting the number of times Matt snuck in his newly acquired catchphrase "All aboard!", but lost count after about five minutes. Watch this space to hear the interview in its entirety, a nice relaxed hour of music, banter and quite possibly, gimps.

Lee has discovered a new game to play every morning. He thinks it's pretty hilarious to draw portraits of me in a variety of, shall we say, unflattering positions on the steamed up bathroom mirror. I have no idea what he'll have me doing by the end of the month. No doubt it'll involve even more images of inhumane depravity. And quite possibly, gimps.

Just about to have dinner. Pizzas tonight. Matt, our tech, had the Sloppy Giuseppe (I always feel uncomfortable ordering that in a restaurant), and a couple of the other gimps are having Pepperonis. I myself have been allocated a Margherita. Cheers, guys.

Right, I'd better wrap things up. We've got a couple of tweaks to make after last night's show. Nothing too drastic. Then off to flyer the Courtyard dressed as gimps. What happened to my life?

Apparently I've got to sign off with a quote from Matt the aforementioned techie. He's literally said nothing of any interest today until thirty seconds ago, when he yelled "I can't believe you're doing that before the show, you are blogging about us sitting around the flat for 6 hours doing nothing!"

Not true. I just threw a packet of Space Raiders at Lee's head.

Paul.

The Final Countdown....

2010-08-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Having fought my way up to Edinburgh via the Gatwick Express and a horrific Easyjet flight, it was fantastic to wake up at the Fringe knowing that the next few weeks will consist of comedy shows, beer and the odd battered sausage! While the novelty of the Gimp flat may have worn off on the other gimps, I spent the majority of the morning pointing out it's awesome features like some crazed estate agent. We have a filter coffee machine! A flat screen tv! A mug tree!

Once the others had managed to drag me away from the balcony (I know!), we headed to our director Steve's flat for a few final run throughs before our opening preview show tonight. I think we all felt much more confident with our changes and scenes once we'd been through them a couple of times and so, after a quick visit to the Pound Shop to hunt for a gimp lead we returned to the flat for a team meal in order to psyche ourselves up for the first flyering session of the festival. David absolutely nailed the supper and we headed to the Courtyard clad in our new t'shirts (available to buy if you fancy) in order to coax people to come to a show that we were all feeling very nervous about. Our nerves weren't helped by the fact that during the walk to the Pleasance, a local didn't take kindly to a prop sword Dave was holding and declared he was going to "slice and dice us and turn us in to porridge". He may have also said the word shank.

However, the fantastic news we discovered when we arrived was that we had sold out. The audience were great for a preview and have definitely helped us in deciding which bits and bobs need tweaking. As is almost tradition on this blog, I'll leave you with the preeminent words of our technician Matt to sum up how the show went. He tweeted: "Oh dear god. Too many cues, too little time. And I have to stand up for the whole show. And I needed a wee and a drink.' At time of writing he is still in the bar.

If you happen to be free tomorrow at 11am, tune in and listen to a couple of us being interviewed on Freshair radio.

Richard.

tech tock, tech tock...

2010-08-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

woke up today fuzzy-headed but excited as today shit starts to get real. i went for a few drinks after our spaghetti feast last night so my final chance to get to bed before 1am for the next month came and went as last orders were called in a pub in the grassmarket. however, it was great to see the clever peter boys, steve mcneil & sam pamphilon and meet rachel stubbings; all very funny people.

this evening we had the dreaded tech run in our venue (the beside) in the pleasance courtyard. as you can see, it may look like a portacabin with multicoloured windmills on it but it's in fact so much more... i think it might also be the hottest venue at the fringe.

technical rehearsals are a notoriously stressful and frought few hours where you have so much to do in so little time. what makes them even more stressful is when one of your cast (naming no names) is still in a plane somewhere between gatwick and edinburgh as the tech run begins. still, eventually richard (oops) made it, an hour and a half late. still, all the gimps are now here and raring to go.

tonight was our first chance to see how much space we have to work with, try out the more ambitious technical elements of the show and to meet the staff at our venue, who were all very nice. these guys (or girls in our case) work bloody hard and don't tend to sleep, ever, so for them to laugh in all the right places as we stumbled through the run tonight was lovely of them.

i think it went pretty well, all things considered. a few tweaks to make before tomorrow but i'm sure it'll come together. i asked matt, our technician how he felt about it and he said "all in all, today couldn't have gone any worse". i hope he was joking. please let him be joking...

we open tomorrow!

david.

the calm before the storm

2010-08-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

yesterday (the better looking) half of LNGF arrived in edinburgh. the flat we're staying in is a lot nicer than in previous years. this new level of luxury manifests itself in the form of a shower that actually works, a table to eat at in the kitchen and mattresses that don't feel like prison beds.

today was spent anxiously awaiting the arrival of this year's flyers and posters. for me personally (as i ordered them) this is always an angst-ridden, nervous wait in which i gnaw my nails to the bone worrying if the flyers will look any good, whether the posters were printed in the right size or indeed if they'll arrive at all. thankfully this year went without a hitch and 10,000 flyers and 200 posters are sat in our living room ready to be inflicted upon the people of edinburgh, after which they'll be inflicted upon the bin.

this afternoon matt and i headed out to put some posters up around town. the weirdest thing we saw when walking around was a car that had seemingly been lifted off the road, carried over the pavement and dropped into an alcove adjacent to the pavement. weirder still, if fitted perfectly into where it had been slotted as if a superhuman traffic warden had got creative when noticing an BMW M3 illegally parked one too many times. still, anything and everything is a potential publicity stunt at the fringe so i dutifully jumped over the railings and put a poster on the offending vehicle. job done.

tonight we're cooking the first of what is certain to be far too many spaghetti bologneses throughout the course of the fringe and chilling out at the flat. we've got our tech rehearsal at the pleasance tomorrow night which is sure to be an interesting, if stressful three hours and then we open the following day so these few hours of calm before the storm well and truly breaks are not to be sniffed at.

we should probably mention where and when we're on, come to think of it. we're at the pleasance courtyard at 11pm every day from 4th - 29th (except 18th). you can even book tickets!

well, that's all for now. we're off to eat our (considerable) body weights in pasta. bye!

david.

so here's the deal...

2010-07-31T02:16:00.000-07:00

Helo.

Just thought we'd let you know what's going to be happening here over the next month or so.

Every day from 2nd August we'll be blogging from the edinburgh fringe. A different gimp each day will provide you with (hopefully) hilarious, insightful and probably increasingly weary posts direct from Gimp HQ (a rented flat).

There'll be images, anecdotes, information, reviews and drunken ramblings that should all provided a harrowingly real impression of life at this year's fringe.

We'll also be video blogging at twitvid in a less frequent but potentially more sordid way. So look out for that.

That's all there is to it really. We hope you enjoy it. All that's left to say is thanks to Fringereview for making us second in their list of Top Sketch Comedy recommendations, it's an impressive list.

LNGF.

coming soon...

2010-07-22T16:35:00.001-07:00

there will be a blog.

there will be words.

there will be images.

there will be gimps.