on saturday (the 12th) we went to edinbourgh with some friends to see things during the fringe. my bf has been before, but i've only ever travelled through edinbourgh and have never seen it. wow the city is busy right now!

the best thing about this festival is the existence of pbh's free fringe which has hundreds of shows going on with free entry. so far we've been to 9 shows, and only 2 had paid tickets. if you love art and have little money (the venn diagram for those 2 things isn't pretty) then this is so. good.

on saturday we saw these -

• mark silcox: women only (the voodoo rooms) (X): so this guy was what we saw because we didn't make it in time to see something else, and it was ok. i think if it was shortened to only include the better half (and entirely cut out all the video clip?) then it would be funny, but as it is now definitely drags on.
• chris cook asked a robot to write him a five-star show and this is what it said (the voodoo rooms): this show is funny & sweet and was my first time seeing magic on stage since i was a kid. a spoiler would be that chatgpt is probably not immediately going to replace magicians. my bf knows + did tech for an older show of his, so getting to see him was cool for that reason too!
• improv cage match (legends): 2 teams get prompts off the audience and make improv scenes, then the audience votes the winners with different teams every night, so each time is going to be totally unique. the winner of this night were couch improv, who were legitimately very funny
• little strings: a sweet way to finish off an evening. i wouldn't normally have chosen something like this to listen to, but i love being able to find new things and i'm glad we saw this

we went back on monday and ended up staying with my bf's brother, meaning we went to sleep after 7am and woke up at 1130 to make sure we had enough time to get up and ready for our first show of the day, but that's getting ahead of myself.

on monday (the 14th) we saw:

• ava beaux's 'A Magician With Conflicting Personalities Tries to Keep Control Onstage (Popcorn Included)' (voodoo rooms): my second ever magic show! this was an interesting, personal show about overcoming stage fright/anxiety. the tricks themselves were impressive, though it's hard to be unbiased here because she's another person my bf knows and gets on with ^^;
• david alnwick: necromancer (banshee labyrinth): so we saw a lot of magic, yes. this was very different, because it was horror themed (which appealed to me - i luv horror). i admit at this point i was really tired and remember this one less well than i'd like, if i was rich enough to be staying in edi for long enough i'd like to see it again
• perm (legends): improv comedy, where the audience write down gossip from their lives and they make skits from it. the one we wrote down is gonna stay anonymous forever, but it was their favourite
• chris' secret show!! remember i said my bf did tech for a past show of his? so as a 10 years-of-doing-the-fringe thing, chris also did this secret show which incorporated parts of that one. i'm really glad i got to see it, because i had felt like i missed out before!
• the midnight cab (also voodoo rooms): a variety show that changs every night, and a truly surreal experience. it starts at 2355 so the whole crowd is sleepy/drunk (a coupl fell asleep in the audience). there was a medical-themed burlesque show, which was pretty cool. lots of truly weird bits that i'm so glad i got to see in such a bizarre environment, it felt like a liminal space.

on tuesday (15th) we didn't do as much, but we did see stewart lee!!!! who is probably my favourite comedian (i know, hold your applause) so getting to see him live made me extremely happy. he's one of the small handful of british comedians i know can make jokes involving trans people in a positive way. he said he wouldn't do his closing joke if anybody was making noise in the aisle when he started it, and somebody was, so he didn't. just left. thanks random lady

also: social anxiety is horrible!!! after every time i go out, i get terrified about 90 things i might have worded poorly or times i spoke too much or something else. why does my brain do this to me! have you ever met someone in the toilets and been horrendously awkward because you almost try to do small talk (already horrible) but then realise you're in the toilet so you just leave and it's the worst ever thing?? please????

and all that would be why i've not made an update here in a week. we might be going back tomorrow (depends on money...) but after that i need to put serious effort into finding a job, so i'll probably be coding and stuff whenever i can to take my mind off of it.

i might add photos to this later idk