The Edinburgh Festival 2001
© Marilyn Cameron
With over 1500 different productions, this is the biggest Festival yet, and this year's stars have been provided with a new members only club where they can safely relax, Brook's Bar at the Pleasance venue in Edinburgh's Bistro Square, as well as the Assembly Rooms in George Square. Some of them, including Joan Rivers, have been given automatic membership.
Figures show that this year's Festival is already exceeding previous year's statistics for advance ticket sales. The Edinburgh Royal Tattoo sold 96% of its tickets as soon as sales opened on Friday and organisers predict the event will sell out entirely for the month.
Edinburgh is, naturally, buzzing. More than 1,000 journalists from the fifty something countries represented have already begun to contact the Fringe office and letting agencies are enjoying record returns for their busiest month of the year. Extra flats, hostels, camp beds and bunks are being sought to cope with the temporary population explosion.
What I've always loved about this magic month in Edinburgh is that it is open to all, and its a great place to discover and enjoy new writing, art, dance, music, and of course, great comedy. Speaking of which........
This year, after an absence of 8 years, we see the welcome return of American comic Emo Philips, who has recently make a new film with Greg Glienna called "The Can Man". Apparently, Emo calls it his thankyou to homeless people for saving his life so many times when he was a baby. He says, "If they hadn't been raking through those garbage cans, they might never have found me." The film can be downloaded from Elmo's website, you will find a link to it on our links page.
Elmo reckonss he's not up to speed on technology and finds that the "truncated syntax of e-mails" upsets him. His theory is that our vocabulary decreases in ratio to the amount of technology that we have at our disposal. He, of course, doesn't need technology to write his brilliant one-liners. As he said himself, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet with a feather plucked from a duck's butt.
Emo Philips is appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in Venue 33, Pleasance Over the Road, (0131-556 6550), 8 p.m. until August 27th.
More Comedy Highlights
The Umbilical Brothers
Go To Page: 1 2
