14 August

1.30pm Eleanor Tiernan - "Help!", Gilded Balloon, Complimentary ticket.
http://www.chortle.co.uk/shows/edinburgh_fringe_festival_2007/e/15861/eleanor_tiernan:_help/review/

I still had an unused ticket for this performance from last week so decided to try my luck being cheeky and using for today - it worked! They never look at the ticket stub anyway...I really enjoyed this play, starring two sisters and dealing with inner demons and self doubt when performing. Honest and earnest acting. I think the play was written by these two sisters as well as their brother Tommy who is a standup comedian. Gorgeous Irish accents, too!


4.00pm Tom Tom Club, £10, Udderbelly.
http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s1886599.htm
This site has some good photos from the show when it toured in Victoria

I bought Cheryl a ticket for this as a thankyou for doing my hair the day before. I met up with her and some of her flatmate's friends at the Udderbelly Bar beforehand. The lineup for this show had started 45 minutes before so about 30 minutes to go we left our primo bar seats to join the line. Despite not being at the front of the line we managed to score 3 seats front row and centre. Cheryl is very much into hip hop and high energy stuff so I knew Tom Tom Club would be a great show for us to see. The act is made up of a whole heap of Australian guys, all graduated from the Fruit Fly Circus. Each had his own special niche or trick. There was a drummer, DJ/MC, beatboxer, breakdancer and four guys who did acrobatics. They had the right mix of theatricals and loads of natural talent. I felt like a kid at a circus - the tricks these acrobats were doing were amazing and it was also bery nice that they were shirtless (way to trivialise the situation, eh?). Tom Tom Club is very much into getting the audience into the performance, not up on stage but through keeping the energy up, clapping, making lots of noise and being vocal during tricks and acts. Everyone walked out of that show with a huge smile on their face, including me. Great fun.