Fringe, day 6
Nearly forgot to write up our awesome last day!
This has to be the most surreal and geeky day I've ever spent at the Fringe. Everything we saw was a different era of our geek lives, and everything was utterly brilliant.
First up was Choose Your Own Documentary. Self-confessed obsessive geek Nathan Penlington buys a job lot of old Choose Your Own Adventure books on eBay, and inside one is a diary page from the owner, a Terrence Prendergast. It's the most heartbreaking piece of paper. It details school bullying, trying to run away to Scotland, not having the courage to ask a girl out, and a list of things he wanted to improve like not wearing braces, practising his laugh and losing weight. Nathan sympathises with a lot of this, and decides to track Terrence down with the help of three documentary makers. This is where the audience come in, armed with keypads, to choose what Nathan does on his journey.
He tells us there's over 1500 possible outcomes for a show, so you'll probably never see the same show twice. Some tell of a love story as Nathan tracks down the girl he never asked out, some might tell of him finding the author of the books, some follow him to deepest Birmingham to find Terrence. I won't give away our ending, but needless to say it was a happy one, albeit tinged with a few quiet tears. Nathan's journey is as much about self-discovery as it is about finding the books' owner, and he's a likeable host who can really hold the audience's attention. Highly recommended.
The Dark Room, meanwhile, took place in the Underbelly, a venue John Robertson described as 'somewhere that looks like where Hitler shot himself'. The show started as a Youtube game based on the fiendish text adventures of old, and it's transitioned surprisingly well to stage. Robertson, dressed in a corset and leather trousers with hair like Tim Minchin meeting an electrical socket, was very adept at warming up the audience with geek-themed stand-up. Using an Xbox controller cunningly attached to his body with coat hangers, the different commands on-screen were selected, usually resulting in death for a hapless audience member.
The fiendishness of the original source was well captured. Every time someone chose 'find light switch', Robertson pointed out that they were in a dark room, so how would they find the light switch? There were also meetings with Stalin, a communist singalong and an awkward moment when an 11-year-old contestant ended up writing 50 Shades of Grey. And the prizes for death were glorious, ranging from a Pot Noodle to a rubber glove full of 'mystery substance'. All this guided by Robertson's face under a torch, channelling a mix of Tim Curry and Richard O'Brien. An hour of complete genius.
We don't usually do really late nights at the Fringe, but for McNeil and Pamphilon Go 8-Bit we made an exception. Word of mouth had told us they were going to be worth staying out for. Think two lads with a great comedic rapport in a tiny room, channelling the spirit of Gamesmaster. Special comedy guests from around the Fringe performed games-themed sketches and played Mario Kart, Bomberman and Street Fighter II, with the audience split in two to cheer/jeer. Box of chocolates handed round to us if our team won, increasingly cruel dares for the losing comedian ranging from dead arms to drinking shots of Tesco Everyday Vodka. And despite a technical hitch (a player hitting the power off button on the Wiimote resulting in a comedy musician gamely stepping in to entertain), everything went smoothly. Joke of the night goes to the volunteer behind me who played SF2:
McNeil: Anyone good at fighting games?
Him: Me! I'm Asian!
Audience: *boggle*
And he turned out to be called Ken. Guess which character he ended up playing? Anyway, they're doing a run in London after the short Edinburgh run sold out in record time, so GO SEE.
As an added bonus, we ended up spotting Ingrid Oliver of comedy duo Watson and Oliver schmoozing in the Pleasance Dome, then went to the Auld Hoose where there was a
zotz and Guy Kelly from Beta Males, who I'd promised a pint. He'd been adequately furnished with beer, but I did get to use this immortal line for the second time in my life ever: 'Hi, I'm from the internet!' I vaguely recall talking about medieval swords, the 'joys' of show tech from the tech lady who was also there, and how Fringe shows do the opposite of making you piles of money. But boy, are they fun, as is tottering home at 3:30am all luvvied-out...
Also available at cryptogirl.dreamwidth.org :D
This has to be the most surreal and geeky day I've ever spent at the Fringe. Everything we saw was a different era of our geek lives, and everything was utterly brilliant.
First up was Choose Your Own Documentary. Self-confessed obsessive geek Nathan Penlington buys a job lot of old Choose Your Own Adventure books on eBay, and inside one is a diary page from the owner, a Terrence Prendergast. It's the most heartbreaking piece of paper. It details school bullying, trying to run away to Scotland, not having the courage to ask a girl out, and a list of things he wanted to improve like not wearing braces, practising his laugh and losing weight. Nathan sympathises with a lot of this, and decides to track Terrence down with the help of three documentary makers. This is where the audience come in, armed with keypads, to choose what Nathan does on his journey.
He tells us there's over 1500 possible outcomes for a show, so you'll probably never see the same show twice. Some tell of a love story as Nathan tracks down the girl he never asked out, some might tell of him finding the author of the books, some follow him to deepest Birmingham to find Terrence. I won't give away our ending, but needless to say it was a happy one, albeit tinged with a few quiet tears. Nathan's journey is as much about self-discovery as it is about finding the books' owner, and he's a likeable host who can really hold the audience's attention. Highly recommended.
The Dark Room, meanwhile, took place in the Underbelly, a venue John Robertson described as 'somewhere that looks like where Hitler shot himself'. The show started as a Youtube game based on the fiendish text adventures of old, and it's transitioned surprisingly well to stage. Robertson, dressed in a corset and leather trousers with hair like Tim Minchin meeting an electrical socket, was very adept at warming up the audience with geek-themed stand-up. Using an Xbox controller cunningly attached to his body with coat hangers, the different commands on-screen were selected, usually resulting in death for a hapless audience member.
The fiendishness of the original source was well captured. Every time someone chose 'find light switch', Robertson pointed out that they were in a dark room, so how would they find the light switch? There were also meetings with Stalin, a communist singalong and an awkward moment when an 11-year-old contestant ended up writing 50 Shades of Grey. And the prizes for death were glorious, ranging from a Pot Noodle to a rubber glove full of 'mystery substance'. All this guided by Robertson's face under a torch, channelling a mix of Tim Curry and Richard O'Brien. An hour of complete genius.
We don't usually do really late nights at the Fringe, but for McNeil and Pamphilon Go 8-Bit we made an exception. Word of mouth had told us they were going to be worth staying out for. Think two lads with a great comedic rapport in a tiny room, channelling the spirit of Gamesmaster. Special comedy guests from around the Fringe performed games-themed sketches and played Mario Kart, Bomberman and Street Fighter II, with the audience split in two to cheer/jeer. Box of chocolates handed round to us if our team won, increasingly cruel dares for the losing comedian ranging from dead arms to drinking shots of Tesco Everyday Vodka. And despite a technical hitch (a player hitting the power off button on the Wiimote resulting in a comedy musician gamely stepping in to entertain), everything went smoothly. Joke of the night goes to the volunteer behind me who played SF2:
McNeil: Anyone good at fighting games?
Him: Me! I'm Asian!
Audience: *boggle*
And he turned out to be called Ken. Guess which character he ended up playing? Anyway, they're doing a run in London after the short Edinburgh run sold out in record time, so GO SEE.
As an added bonus, we ended up spotting Ingrid Oliver of comedy duo Watson and Oliver schmoozing in the Pleasance Dome, then went to the Auld Hoose where there was a
zotz and Guy Kelly from Beta Males, who I'd promised a pint. He'd been adequately furnished with beer, but I did get to use this immortal line for the second time in my life ever: 'Hi, I'm from the internet!' I vaguely recall talking about medieval swords, the 'joys' of show tech from the tech lady who was also there, and how Fringe shows do the opposite of making you piles of money. But boy, are they fun, as is tottering home at 3:30am all luvvied-out...
Also available at cryptogirl.dreamwidth.org :D