Exhausted by Edinburgh.


Today’s show was a good one, which I was pleased about, as (1) I didn’t sleep well last night and (2) I had some friends in.

Last night, I couldn’t switch my brain off. I usually listen to a guided meditation to assist falling asleep, which is always very helpful, but I should have known from the off it wasn’t going to do the trick yesterday when I spent a good ten minutes trying to set a level that didn’t make my phone buzz with the vibration of the recording, thus irritating me instead of helping me relax. It took me at least an hour to finally go under and I then woke up very early too, which isn’t exactly a winning combination.

Part of the problem was I was very aware of having friends watching today and wanted to be well-rested for the show. Then, when I didn’t fall asleep quickly, I started to panic; what if I don’t get off at all? This is what happens when you get this far into a run and start over-thinking things. For me, each show is as important as the next, but I’m inevitably more aware of wanting to be on form when I have people in, as I want them to see it in the best possible light.

Thankfully my sleep deprivation didn’t get in the way in the end, which was great, as I didn't just have my actor friend Adam and his wife Charlotte in; I also had the excellent character comic and actor Fraser Millward (who teched my show last year) in too (he's also a friend; I only left this out of my last sentence so I didn't negatively affect the scansion. The same applies to Charlotte too; sorry: my tiredness is coming to the fore now). After the show, I went for a coffee with Fraser for a quick catch-up, which was lovely; it was great to hear what he’s been up to and to have a bit of debrief about how difficult the whole Edinburgh Fringe experience can be and the best ways to survive it; we were a big part of each other’s coping strategy at last year's festival, so I've missed him this year. Hopefully we'll work together again soon.

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