The Baillie Bugle

Why is stand up comedy not as funny when you're on your own?
Or did I just pick a bad night?

I watch stand up on TV alone all the time and laugh heartily, but last night I found myself analysing everything. Could I guess the punchline? Could I see how he constructed that joke? Why didn't that gag get as big a laugh as it should have?

Maybe I'm reaching Festival saturation...

I'm staying at accomodation at my old university, Heriot Watt, which was really weird to begin with.
I haven't been here for over five years. Even just seeing the place again brought back all sorts of memories and emotions that I hadn't expected. I wandered around the areas I used to sit and chat with my friends, used to eat lunch, used to study...

I remembered the time in the canteen when everyone was hungover and no one ate breakfast. The weekend when my band had rehearsed in Lecture Theatre 4 and blew up their PA. The time in the shop buying tapes to trade bootleg Nirvana recordings on the web. The first day of university (Oh my God - ten years!) when I sat on one of the benches by the main entrance waiting to meet a school friend to experience all this newness with.

Last night, coming back here on my own, I had to keep convincing myself that this wasn't a dream. This is just the sort of thing that would happen in one of my dreams.

Today - more festival.
Highlights so far have been Death Of A Samurai (Japanese dance/physical theatre) and Rosebud (the story of Orson Well's rise and fall told by the man himself - or at least someone playing him very well).