Festivals diary: Why working Fringe is like training for the Marathon des Sables, and flies in the Spiegeltent

Inside isn’t much better, with the mercury rising in venues and bars across the city, especially in my favourite work hub of Assembly’s Club Bar, where again the tented roof is causing issues - although I have to add that the chandeliers are thankfully now back up after the wind storms - this time creating the effect of a greenhouse.

Perhaps I should, as ultramarathon MdS endurance runners often do, have trained for the Fringe in a sauna, especially as Underbelly has one at its Circus Hub, which is apparently seeing bookings soar amid the heatwave, presumably more for the freezing plunge pool rather than the sauna itself.

On a more serious Underbelly note, Wednesday is its annual big Big Brain Tumour Benefit, with a stellar line up including Garry Starr, David O’Doherty and Michelle Wolf.

The event, as most people probably know, began after Alfie Bartlam, the son of Underbelly’s co-founder Ed Bartlam, was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare form of brain cancer in 2017. At the end of August in 2019, Alfie sadly died, aged seven.

The annual event raises funds for The Brain Tumour Charity with all ticket income after box office commissions and any other costs associated with the show donated. All comedians give their time for free.

There are still tickets left, so dig deep and support this cause - and see a great night of comedy at the same time.

A buzzing annoyance

The Spiegeltent in St Andrew Square, which has already been the subject of some controversy over planning regulations, is now being plagued by flies. Audience members and performers have complained of the buzzing pests at shows including Harry Milas’ Unfair Advantage, where the magician himself admitted he was being distracted by the insects.

“If I get one of these wrong, blame the flies, I’m working under pressure here,” he told one audience as he performed a card counting trick.

The key to comedy is in the timing

One man who lives behind Fringe venue Just The Tonic Nucleus was reportedly disturbed by a huge roar of laughter every night at the same time.

After a week of jumping out of his skin every night, he turned up at the box office and demanded to know what show was playing at that time, saying he "wanted to have whatever it was that they were having". Turns out it was Scottish comedy legend Craig Hill in full swing with his new show Wait 'Til You See My Entrance. We just don’t know which joke was causing the roar of hilarity.

From North Bridge printing presses to Hollywood in two generations

And finally, because journalists love a good story about other journalists, I was interested to hear that Tilly No-body director Miles Anderson has a personal connection to The Scotsman’s sister paper, the Edinburgh Evening News, where I started out as a trainee reporter about a hundred years ago.

Miles's grandfather was a compositor at the News, as we affectionately know it, working on the printing presses in our old North Bridge office. He reportedly inspired the renowned actor, who has lived between Zimbabwe, the UK and the US and has appeared in films including La La Land, to return to his roots to direct his wife, Bella Merlin, in the story of actress Tilly Wedekind and her controlling, famous husband, Frank Wedekind.