The Final Show - The Details - The Encore

And now - the end is near - and so I face - the final curtain .... well actually the end is nigh 'ed and gone, as the show finished last night. The Bareguitarist show at Cafe Renroc, 2011 is over.....

Take a pause.. a brief silence ... and reflect on the way this show has influenced your world, your life, your very existence...... NOT that brief.. try a little longer !! That's better thank you...

I wanted to give you a bigger insight into the show, the 12 days, the whole feel of being part of the show, in this Blog, and tomorrow I want to put a few more pictures into the Blog around the show, once I have reclaimed then off the camera, along with some video footage. But for now, a quick re-cap...

•  12 days - 18 performances
• A backdrop of around 50 slides and 3 lots of video edited timed and set for the show - about 150 hours of work to get the slides and about another 150 hours to get the video right all done at evenings and weekends
• 25 posters - 1000 leaflets 
• A rushed rehearsal CD with 4 songs - took about 30 hours to get this sorted 
• Advertising, marketing, costumes, props, gadgets, and a video screen and projector
• Published to 10 on line sites, banner and normal ads
• Press released to 45 publications 3 times
• Venue set up each day with show set up 1 hour, working at each additional venue 1 hour each

and so on - I am sure you are getting the picture.....

I had shows with a nearly full house, I had empty shows (1 show actually really empty for the first 20 mins) I at least never had a completely empty show unlike some of the acts.... Numbers at the show seemed to have very little to do with the effort put into leafleting as the venue is so far off the track - unless you are staying in the area for the fringe and passed the venue, you would not come some 15 mins walk out of your way to see a show in the venue.

I had a load of different cultures and nationalities at the show, Auzzies, New Zealanders, loads of Scots, Americans (loads of Americans), Portuguese, Spanish, Germans, Irish, English, some people who didn't speak English at all so I had zero idea where they were from, Japanese, Dutch, and from as far away as Leeds.... 

I had audiences of 90 % younger than 25 Year olds (messes with the whole show concept of through the 70's 80's and 90's thing I had going on).  I had audiences of no-one under 40. I had audiences of 100% females (which really screws with my show also.. as the interaction with men's opinions part of the show is as much use as a chocolate fire-guard). I have had audiences where 50% of the attendees couldn't speak English ... (my show depends on punch lines delivered on a screen behind me ...IN ENGLISH !!!!!) .. I have had hysterical laughter, I have had  audiences where you could hear a pin drop (comedy at its best then !!!) - especially when most of them didn't speak English ....

Some how - some way - whatever happened, rain, sun, hurricanes, plague, famine, street riots, etc my show always had more people in about half way through ... I have a theory!!! a punning clan ... and I will explain later on when I tell you what the show was about. But remember - about half way through I always had more people coming in for the end of the show - always... including the staff at the venue.

The show venue as a building is excellent, and I loved the place itself. I guess its like being a single person living in the Outer Hebrides ... beautiful surroundings, but a real pi*ser for having a house party and meeting people !!!!

The show. 

I tried to get a theme of the differences between men and women, how they think and feel, and how they interact with their surroundings and each other. To best put this over I had a set of video and slides, with key punch lines delivered on the back drop around monologue. I put some new, old, and unique music around this, a Ukulele piece, and some laminated slides for a final piece at the end about Coleen Nolan. I go on as a bear, dressed like a bear, with bear ears, a bear suit, and bear shoes etc. about half way through my alter-ego kicks in and I come back to the show naked behind my guitar.. well not really naked I am wearing the "Barnsley Prop!!!!" hidden behind the guitar. The fact is, the audience thinks I am naked, until right at the end of the show, I undo the guitar, and hang on tight to the Barnsley Prop as the only item between me and complete bare ass nothing !!!!! Well bare ass something - but not something I am prepared to share with everyone !!

I have had some very very interesting responses to this end of the show... from rapturous applause, shock, horror, hysterical laughter, and zero response ...( I suspect zero response was from audiences expecting me to be totally in the buff... ) .... 

Anyway, each show was so different, each reaction was very different, each ending was different, each applause was different. IT WAS ALL DIFFERENT OK !!!! :) :) :)

One thing did stay the same... the staff at the venue were nearly always sat down in the audience at around the half way mark !!! and around this time, the time when I appear to get naked, I always had more people in than I started with. Its the fringe - go figure !! Naked humour - who would have thought that this was all that was needed. I could have done 10% of the work above - and just walked on naked !!! Maybe for a better response. 

I have taken some time to see some shows, had walk on's in shows such as the fast fringe where the show is a 4 minute slot to perform your act, and follow, on stage, some rising top named comedians. I have listened to the shows that are before and after mine at the same venue.... oh right ....I suppose I had better remind you why I did this show in the first place..

.. I was at fringe 2010 - purely to see the acts and the shows, not performing ... and after a couple of days of shows, I was sat with some friends having lunch and a beer as we discussed the 5 or so shows we had seen so far. having paid an average of about £10 per head per show at this point, it was abundantly clear that not ALL paid shows are worth seeing... in fact at this point, we had seen some pretty dire stuff. I made the comment that 15 years ago or more, I was doing a better show than some of the things we had just paid £10 for.... 4 beers later ... and a few challenges of "well if you think you can do better" .. here I am at Fringe 2011........

To continue then - watching the shows in 2011, the same is true. there are some very good shows, some good free shows. But some of the comedians I have followed on stage, professional comedians, have bombed more than a Michael Jackson Kiddies Christmas Special....... Thank goodness in one way, as I would have hated to follow a real class comedian on stage to these venues as they have large paying audiences..... :)

Something else is very apparent at this years walk on shows.. is that its mostly the same comedians doing the circuits. Professional comedians ... I am very humbled to have been part of this walk on circuit, but am still gloating to have received better responses than a lot of them from the audiences. I am not actually that funny !!!! well I don't think so anyway.... (you cant see me just checking in the mirror to see if it was a visual thing..) :)

I promised you a long Blog, and explanation, and .. here it is... My Blog tomorrow will be a Blog of mostly photos from the shows, the funny things I saw in my time in Edinburgh, and I will try to upload some live Video.

At the end of all epics - there must be Golden Globe speech .... so here is mine...

Gill Warms - thanks for doing the Barnsley Prop and Bear ears for me x Paul Warms - thanks for the loan of your wife (not sure that's the best way to say it ?? )

Stephen Dewis - A real pleasure to play with you again at the show, and thanks for all you work and effort on the CD's etc.. also to Dr Dewis - for her hospitality and patience as we pulled the CD's together

Sandra McDonald- Thanks for all your understanding and support as I often stayed up until 2 in the morning working on this stuff, and for being my groupie for the show..

My Mum - for writing Shakespearean sonnets ...  ? :) (must always thank your Mother for something !!)

And all the support from the The Slith (of the dark side) McDonald, The Deeds, The Fentimans, Sid and Anne, Jen and Gorden, my darling Cuz Jen and Keith, Sooty and Sweep, in fact - everyone who came to see the show and supported this ... which was... and in the annuals of history will always be.... the First - :Live - On stage - Performance - of ......................... (drum Roll) ...................................the Bareguitarist.

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