Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Flyering God

It's no longer good enough to just hand out a flyer in Edinburgh – suddenly, you've got to really BELIEVE in the show. It's like there's suddenly 15,000 new religions in town.

Wherever you go, a wide-eyed student pounces on you – and delivers a sermon to go with his flyer. To you, it may just be another flyer with a picture of a scowling comedian, but to them he's the comedy messiah.

With a shining zeal you'll be asked about your kind of comedy and assured, “Great – he's just like Josie Long and Robin Ince, but really cutting edge and aggressive. Especially for a Canadian.” And he probably has a big gold calf too.

It can take minutes to get away from each chugging limpet, and the cumulative effect is draining. I watched a couple sat at the Pleasance bar having a row – constantly having to break off and smile politely as the latest show was flogged to them.

Of course, I'm shit at flyering - I just end up yelping at tourists, and the other day I told someone our show was a musical. Faced with another afternoon of torment, I invented "horizontal flyering". I went and hid in a gay sauna. It wasn't a complete waste - I took some flyers with me, so maybe I've convinced a couple of charming strangers to come.

3 comments:

Hugh said...

who's been looking after your flat whilst your away in Edinburgh - i think you may have lost something :)

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1279003,00.html

Andrea said...

On the topic of all things gay and Edinburgh, I bet the "Laughing Duck" on Howe St went out of business a million years ago..it had the most beautiful men with the most fabulous cars (counted a porsche, an e-type and a ferrari all on the same double yellow line one night). Us girlies lived in the flat upstairs consumed with jealousy for the twinks!

Skip said...

Brilliant! Clearly a potential husband.

I'll look for the Laughing Duck, but I think it's now changed hands.