we're certainly in the middle of things, aren't we?

over 100 people in the show today. great balls, that's a good thing.
lots of press in and very few comps, many tickets sold. more than we
ever sold last year, that's fur sure. this is very, very, very cool.

midway through, the laptop i use (a vaio) froze. It had frozen a few
days ago, but then started back up within a couple of minutes. This
wasn't doing anything, so by the time my letter came around, i just
walked over to victor's machine and read my bit. Colin is with us
enough that he kept the light on me and out on my former place.
Walking over to the other guy's machine is the signal "HOLY SHIT MY
MACHINE HAS CRASHED.... DO SOMETHING!!!!" and I read a bit more
slowly, watching out of the corner of my eye to see if Victor was
victorious in fixing the problem.

No.

So we traded off back and forth trying to figure the problem out.
Finally, I turned the power off to re-boot. It was a bit sticky as it
was the time that Aboyami approaches. So, I had that letter memorized
and went *back* over to my machine and "read" it from there. The
machine finally rebooted during the aboyami and ensuing ibrahim
letters and i only had to pause the show a few seconds while i located
our snafu point.

if there are any computer types reading this who would like to sponsor
the show with two new, reliable laptops, we'd be happy to plug you
from stage either verbally and/or with stickers and shit like that.
i'm serious.

and no, neither of us have this shit memorized. it's only been two
years. it's weird, if i have the starting sentence, i can muddle
through the piece, but I really don't know the show. hmm. perhaps i
should get the script printed out for these emergencies. that's
tomorrow's task. good thinking!!!

in addition to colin staying with us, leon came on as if there was
nothing wrong. his girlfriend was in the audience and thought the
whole switching back and forth was some part of the show that she
didn't understand.

dat's acting!!!!

afterwards, i went to have nachos with victor, leon and his
girlfriend, whose name i will know by tomorrow. spank! (you love it!)
is doing well and that's good. he said he hopes to pay off the
pineapple boys debt from last year with the profits. that's really
cool.

the festival is nuts. one of the comics at late 'n live went in to the
audience and beat up a heckler.

what's "fringe" about the story is that he then went back on stage and
finished his set.

it's a great world.

it was so hot in the theater today during the show that between the
heat and the stress of the machine freezing, i thought i might pass
out for a minute. it was weird. i hate those moments when i feel my
age. it's so weird. it's sad.

last night, i went on to danny james' radio show. danny is one of our
flatmates and i'm really growing fond of him. he's a great guy and we
have a similar sense of humor and awareness of who we are. he records
the show and then broadcasts it the following day. i'm not sure where
or if it's archived. i'll find out.

ed byrne (not the lend me your comb guy) and ian coppinger were on
before me and they are really, really, really, really funny and i felt
afeared before i went on.

my first joke about liberal porn died sadly but after that we hit a
groove and i think i was a good guest and it went well. had a couple
of good laughs and i think i made the show better. that's what we do
as guests.

then went to the library bar and hung out with the edcom people
downstairs. it's a great group and everyone seems very happy.
generally, the shows are doing quite well and the weather's good and
everyone is in good spirits. the tuesday/wednesday doldrums have passed
and those are traditionally the slowest days of the festivals and we
all are happy it's past.

then a fire alarm went off. this has been happening pretty regularly
since the beginning of the festival. though everyone is calm, there's
that lizard thing in the back of my mind of "do i die tonight?" which
makes me want to trample and scream. but. i don't.

oh... right... i had taken a valium. i have some extra... um... yeah,
so i had a valium.

as it was kicking in, quite relaxing, we were all outside in bristo
square (not square, by the way) waiting and someone came up to me and
said "do you know your government is responsible for 9/11?"

i paused.

"i was pretty sure it was people who believe in god who flew some
planes in to buildings"

"no. it was your government. it was all planned"

"yes, by religious people"

"it's all documented in a book called the new pearl harbor. you have to read it"

"the idea that the crazy people couldn't organize their hate over
years and years to fly planes in to buildings is racist. just because
they're fucking brown. that's the only reason people think it's a
conspiracy. you have to have white guys organizing everything... "

"there were no hijackers. the book is by a christian scholar..."

"well, right there you've lost me. he's a christian; he doesn't have
an ability to process information. he is a fool, even without the
racism"

... the racism thing sort of stumped him. it's the same thing with the
pyramids; brown people could *never* figure out how to build something
like that. it has to be aliens or some shit. fucking assholes.

extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof, okay?

i mean, no, i have no evidence that the crazy religious assholes from
afghanistan hijacked the planes and killed people other than what i've
read and if you're going to give me conspiracy stuff, then i'm sure i
can illustrate how fairies and gnomes conspired to make the buildings
go down, too. right?

also, i really don't fucking care. it's very sexy to get in to these
things, but the truth is often boring. though, a bunch of people who
believe in god getting together to hijack planes and kill people is
pretty fucking interesting. you don't *really* need *another*
conspiracy on top of that, do you? the initial conspiracy: imaginary
friend, hatred, nothing to live for, imaginary friend, more hatred and
the aformentioned imaginary friend seem like a fine conspiracy, right?
or am i just an asshole who doesn't think "outside the box"?

so. that's that.

back to the show. i noticed over the last couple of days that we'd
both strayed a bit off track and we chatted about it before the show
and gave each other some notes which helped us both to kill today.
it's a good thing to work with someone you like and respect. i can
only imagine doing this show with someone who is a dick. it would suck
ass in the bad way.

we're at the point in the trip where i wake up and say to myself "what
the fuck was i fucking thinking? i promised myself to never come back
here. what the fucking fuck?!?"

but... it's actually beautiful and was hot and sunny outside again.
also, i'm allowing myself to spend money to live well and i don't have
to worry about victor eating this time. he is also having a great
time. i think.

cindy arrives in a couple of days and that will be good for him.

me too, as it breaks the time up.

there are four sections to this trip.

1. arrival
2. jessie
3. before cindy
4. final week after cindy

provenz' has a great joke; well, it's not really a joke. it's
something he says onstage sometimes: "Hey, Scotland, how about a free
refill?!"

the concept of free refills hasn't reached across the atlantic yet.
however, a waiter told me "don't bother" as i was leaving a tip the
other day.

that's why the service sucks. there's no incentive.

it's almost nine. it's saturday night. i'm blogging.

yeah!

¶ 12:49 PM