fringe-ship!

i'm at the edinburgh fringe fest and here are some things i wrote about it!

dear friends, family, fans, fellow folks,

as always, i am very grateful that you are here!
thank you for being a part of my life in this way!
and now, i’d like to share something i wrote in advance of arriving at the edinburgh fringe fest which was published in Chortle (an online publication in the UK that covers comedy which i recommend checking out if you don’t already and you want to!) so if you didn’t see it there, here it is!

i was asked to share something about each of the following:

Edinburgh binge: Basically the best part of the festival
Edinburgh cringe: Most embarrassing story from the festival, and
Edinburgh whinge: What’s the worst thing about the Fringe? 

and so (after looking up what the word “whinge” means), share i did, and do!

A) Edinburgh Binge:

I’ve only been to Fringe once before, and the best part for me was doing my show. Is that fair? To say that my favourite part of this massive festival full of thousands of performers and near-infinite things to do is… ME? 

Truly, getting to present a show that I’ve been working on for years, sharing it with folks from around the world, and seeing it grow and evolve in beautiful ways, it’s a magical experience that I’m thrilled to have. I’m excited to be the smallest me-shaped piece of the gigantic puzzle that the Fringe is.

I also love all the other pieces. I've seen clowns, dancers, and so many other beautiful weirdos! It’s delightful to see all the art so different from what I do, adding so many flavours to this whole universe soup.

So I guess I’m saying that my favourite Fringe parts are me AND not me!

B) Edinburgh Cringe

This may sound embarrassing, but I don’t have a lot of embarrassing stories. Partially because I’m a stand-up comedian, and when anything embarrassing happens, I can catalyse it into something funny and cathartic to share on stage, so it becomes less embarrassing and more triumphant. How’s THAT for embarrassing? This comedian couldn’t even come up with an embarrassing story.

Or here’s something, maybe. Last Fringe, I met a comedian who said he enjoyed my first album. Now, I like it, too, but it WAS my first album from a decade earlier, and since then I’d released three newer hours that I loved even more because I felt I’d been improving as a comedian, becoming more myself, making better and better work moving forward. 

And so, when this comedian told me that he enjoyed that first album, I thought it would be funny to say ‘My peak!’ as if to suggest it had been all downhill after that. And he believed me, so I felt embarrassed. 

He was like, ‘I could see that.’ And I was like NOOOO my beautiful stupid joke!

Is that embarrassing enough? If not, how even more embarrassing for me!

C) Edinburgh Whinge:

One challenging aspect of the Fringe is managing emotions in the face of external judgments. Which is to say, the worst thing can be worrying about reviewers showing up. And the OTHER worst thing can be worrying about reviewers NOT showing up. 

I love doing what I do, and comedy can’t be done in a vacuum (the comedian would suffocate), so I’m grateful for everyone who takes the time to engage with the work I’m doing AND it can be an emotional whirlwind imagining the potential consequences of this one reviewer butterfly flapping its wings and having a potentially massive impact on all that follows. Will it be a good hurricane, a bad hurricane, or no hurricane at all? 

Ultimately, I think my challenge is maintaining an emotional even keel regardless of whose wings, gums, or pens are flapping about me and my show. (Thanks for covering my comedy, Chortle! You are the only exception to this! I do not fear you! I love you!)

and that’s all she (i) wrote! now, for some things that YOU might write:

1) how are you doing? how have you been? what is new and good with you?
2) had you heard of the word “whinge” before today?
3) ever been to the edinburgh fringe fest? or any fest? or anything festive?
4) had you heard of Chortle before? how do you feel about the word “chortle”?
5) how are you doing NOW?

and that’s all for now! for later, here are some comedy shows i’ve got coming up!

NOW: the Edinburgh Fringe Fest!
9/9: Brainerd, MN
9/10: Duluth, MN
9/13: Chippewa Falls, WI
9/14: Eau Claire, WI
9/15: International Falls, MN
9/17: Janesville, WI

thanks so much for being here!
i very much appreciate you receiving these dispatches!
much love to you and yours and all!