WARNING: USE OF EXTREME LANGUAGE IN THIS BLOG
Helen, sitting in a room with a Periscope and 1,200 visitors
In the afternoon, I took the plunge and went to Helen Wallace’s Up Periscope at Southside Social.
She claims it is the only Fringe show which can (and has) had one member in the audience and 1,200 people watching.
She livestreams it on Periscope, interacting with the live audience in the room (today, well into double figures) and with the online audience. More complicated than it sounds. Very well handled by her. And ripe for development in future years.
Being a woman of taste, she then packs up every day, leaps out and races to get to the increasingly prestigious Grouchy Club round the corner to The Counting House.
Today, the audience there included five of the people involved in Malcolm Hardee – Back From The Drink… a comic play to be put on by ex-squatters who were evicted from the late Malcolm’s Wibbley Wobbley floating pub. Nothing to do with me.
Kate Copstick (left) and Jane Hill in the lively Grouchy Club
Also there, was performer Jane Hill whose show is titled Cow. I learned a lot in the ensuing discussion between Kate Copstick and Jane in that – something I had not known – calling someone a “cow” is, it seems, much more offensive in Glasgow than elsewhere in the UK – more severe, even, than in Edinburgh.
It seems – and I can only pass this on as discussed – that the word “cow” is a far more offensive word in Glasgow than the word “cunt”.
In Glasgow, as has oft been noted, the word “cunt” can be used almost affectionately just as, in Australia, the word “bastard” can be affectionate.
The Australian sentence “Ah, yah bastard, I love yah! Yer ma best friend!” can be almost directly translated into Glaswegian as “Ah, ye wee cunt, yer a lovely wee cunt, so y’are…”
But the use of the phrase “Yer a cow” in Glasgow is liable to lead to the use of cut-throat razors and the infliction of Glasgow Smiles.
These are the sort of useful life tips you can only hear amid the comedy industry chat at the Grouchy Club.
Jane Hill had actually arrived to clarify exactly how she had once made tampons, as I had mentioned it in a blog two days ago.
She was keen to point out that, rather than knitting condoms as part of a cottage industry, as I had fantasised, she had been employed in the “tampon hand assemblage” business in Portsmouth.
After that, I should point out, she pursued a highly prestigious career in independent radio and the BBC.
Sarah Morgan-Paul with a local body guard
Coincidentally, in the evening, though, I saw Tales From a Tampon, in which Sarah Morgan-Paul does straight old-school stand-up (that’s not in any way a criticism) about the history of the tampon while dressed as a tampon. As it is straight stand-up in a costume, it neither counts as Malcolm Hardee Award Comic Originality nor a Cunning Stunt… I vaguely remember someone wandering round the streets of Edinburgh a few years ago dressed as a tampon. Or it might have been a dildo. The memory plays visual tricks after too many years at the Fringe.
Suggestions for Cunning Stunts are, strangely, now coming out of the woodwork despite the fact the Malcolm Hardee Awards shortlist was announced on Monday.
Later tonight, I got a call from the director of the aforementioned squatters’ play Malcolm Hardee – Back From The Drink – with unlikely cunning stunt possibilities to publicise it… Alas, simultaneously too late for the Malcolm Hardee Award nominations AND too late to get any media publicity before tomorrow night’s performance.
Despite allegedly having done a lot of research on types of cunning stunt, said director had not realised I was involved in the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards. But he said they had been discussing a (non-destructive) stunt at the Awards Show (two days after his show, so hardly going to help publicise it.)
I am not sure which of us was more confused at this point.
I then opened my email and there was a message from the US highlighting, once again, the importance of advance research. It said:
Hi John,
I’d like to invite MALCOLM HARDEE to be featured on our TALK BUSINESS 360 “Industry Innovators” TV program which airs on American Airlines during the entire month of December 2017.
Our in-flight TV show is available to millions of business and leisure travelers, presenting one-on-one interviews with profiles of business leaders. Recent guests include P&G, Dell, PwC, LG Electronics, Verizon, Bayer, Hilton Hotels, Stanford University, Suzuki and more.
The good news is we’re extending a remnant rate this week of only $3,995 (normally 11K) for production, distribution, and re-usage rights for a 2-minute video, making this an affordable vehicle to communicate your message and grow your brand. Please contact me as soon as possible for more details as space is limited.
Sincerely,
Michael Smith
Producer
TALK BUSINESS 360 TV
TV That Means Business
I replied:
Wow, Michael,
Great rate and a real honour to have Malcolm recognised as one of the “Industry Innovators”!
Where would the recording take place and what date? I will then arrange to have Malcolm’s ashes shipped to wherever is best for you.
He drowned in 2005, so there will be a lot to catch up on in the recording. Will there be an interviewer?
Best wishes,
John
So far, no reply.
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