The Home of Todd Van Allen
- You can do at least four shows in the night if you're good. - Comics galore from everywhere. - They do meal combos here. But the combos include beer. - You are able to get gigs anywhere. Like an actual comedy club. Like The...
Read MoreFunny how things happen. Yesterday I thought my day would be occupied with going to see Rangers play and that there’d be no room for comedy. Well, comedy hit twice. Firstly at Ibrox stadium where Rangers performance in a 1-0 win over Red Star Belgrade was deplorable with incomplete passing, no forward game, and a late, late goal that left everyone saying “It was rubbish but I’ll take it.” For the non-fitba fans out there, it was a bad game but they won nonetheless. Likesay, laughable.
Upon walking home, my friend turns to me as we’re walking by the Phoenix (a venue in the Fringe that I’ve told you about) asks me if I’m sure I’m not going to go in. It was a long day so I replied ‘no’. Cut to two minutes later where I cut back, drop into the club and look for a spot. For the love of the craft? To perform further in the Fringe? Nope. I’m a showbiz whore.
Brendan (an Irish gent I’ve run into who runs his own show at the venue) sees me and says “Glad you’re here, can you do a spot?” Umm, sure. The night was like Ein-Stein’s. That is sparse, and drunk. I go up and have one of those nights where everyone is hammered, you get through three jokes in 18 minutes and everyone still thinks you’re funny. Not bad. Thank you, Alcohol, for smoothing down all of life’s edges.
Tonight I hooked up with fellow Torontonians Alex Lazarev, Dave Merheje, Pat Burtscher, and Sarah Donaldson at their show at Three Tuns. Their special guest didn’t show up so I took his place. Thank God for Irish absenteeism. After that we went to The Canon’s Gait to see if we could get spots. It looked dodgy, so everyone left. Except me. I stayed and Lady Luck paid me a visit and I got a spot and did quite decently. The sad part was that I left money on the table. The act who was supposed to follow me never showed up leaving the host to fill more time after me. That is time I could have done. Like I said, showbiz whore.
It was about time that I did a show that I actually had booked here in Edinburgh and last night was the anticipatory evening that I was banking on. One show at Hudsons, and the other with Jim Park as part of the Electric Mouse shows at Black Bo’s. Jim was kind enough to put me up and this show I was up for. Ready to go. Camera in hand. Marvy.
Serendipity is a crazy thing. It’s not just a crap movie starring Kate Beckinsale and a hope-he-made-off-with-a-lot-of-cash-cuz-he’s-much-better-than-that John Cusack. It is that point where you realize that you’ve somehow stumbled into something wonderful and have no idea why. Thus far this trip has been better than that crap movie.