Elastic Time

Royal Type, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

It seems like it was just a few days ago, that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival seemed to be a distant object, just entering the horizon.

And now all of a sudden it feels like it is starting any tiiiimmmmee.... now. I mean... now.

A full theatre is a fun theatre. If a theatre isn't full, all performers want the audience at the front. It isn't just that you want people closer to you, it's that you want the audience not to be contemplating the empty seats.

An audience isn't just a collection of individuals, they become one entity. Especially with comedy when they all laugh at the same time because the same idea landed in all their heads at the same time.

That means that when the place is full, the back row feel close to the action because they are connected to all the people sitting in the row in front who are connected to the people in the row in front of them and so on.

Well I think the same is true of time and a full diary. When I was doing my first previews Edinburgh felt like it was ages away in part because I knew I had a trip to LA to take care of between then and the festival. It was only 5 days... but in terms of connection, it was like having a few empty rows. It made the back row seem miles away.

But now it's imminent. In fact it's practically started. I do four more previews. Tonight and tomorrow in Shoreham, Thursday and Friday in Taunton... and then I have Saturday to pack my bags because I do the radio show on Sunday morning and train up to Edinburgh on the Monday. (I do technical things in the venue on Tueday and start the show on Wednesday with my first in-Edinburgh-preview aka a cheap ticket.)

So now the diary is full, the back row seems close. It's in the same room as me. It's now. It's started.

It hasn't. But it has.

I'm excited.