..the blog
George Wendt, a.k.a. Norm from Cheers, was in Underbelly Cowgate today to see Through The Looking Screen. Ironically, none of our box office staff—some of whom weren’t even born until this post-Cheers era we live in—had any idea who he was.
If you’re a twelve-man stag party, all dressed as sailors, and you’re coming to Edinburgh for the weekend, what’s your first port of call when you arrive in town at 1:30 p.m.?
Apparently it’s our newly decked beer garden at Underbelly Cowgate, where the not-so-able seamen had a few drinks while they waited for hotel check-in time to roll around, before sailing off into the sunset.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the venue, we had interactive shadow puppetry, improvised plays, truth doodling, and letters from past selves. Ordinary day on the Fringe, really.
Underbelly Cowgate had three sold-out shows on opening night—and Iain Stirling and Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales both sold out at Bristo Square for the second day running!
Comedians seen in and around the Udderbelly on our opening night:
•Jim Jeffries
•Carl Donnelly
•Hattie Hayridge
•Mervyn Stutter
…and probably far more that we didn’t see because we were too busy selling tickets!
Come see us soon! We’re open from this Wednesday, August 1st, in Bristo Square, and from Thursday in the Cowgate.
Thanks to all the staff, acts, producers, journalists, food delivery men, paying customers, random drunks on the Cowgate, and, of course, the people of Edinburgh for another fantastic Fringe. We’ll see you next year!
Alan Anderson, the host of our consistently popular Best of Scottish Comedian of the Year—”four good Scottish comedians for the price of one rubbish English comedian,” as Alan puts it—is also doing another show at Just The Tonic this year: Whisky Fir Dummies.
The show is a mix of comedy about Scotland and comedy about whisky, but probably the biggest selling point is that it’s also a whisky tasting. Alan’s been given dozens of delicious malts and blends to share with his audiences each night, and if you’d poked your head at the start of the show yesterday you’d have seen two of Underbelly’s senior box office staff sitting in the front row waiting for their samples.
Better yet, if you’d stayed for the whole show, you would have seen one of them come onstage and perform an interpretive dance in exchange for his drink. It was probably the most graceful Underbelly production of the year.
Last Sunday we recorded a special Underbelly edition of The Follow-Up, a bi-monthly podcast produced by Montreal Improv. Here’s the recording. It contains strong language and adult themes and is most certainly NOT suitable for children, people at work, the easily offended, or pretty much anyone.
We also had some technical difficulties so two of our guests are a little difficult to hear. But it’s worth straining your ears—they both have hilarious things to say!
