First night at The Fringe

My last memory of the previous evening, our first of three in Edinburgh, was coming home on a rickshaw (why?).

It seemed a good idea at the time as we whizzed along Princes Street past the beautifully lit Castle, until we slowed to a crawl on a hill and pedestrians were overtaking us, smirking. I believe there's video evidence on Sam's iphone but it won't be posted here.

Still, I'm buoyed by the thought that our £8 will go some way towards helping our student cyclist become a doctor. (note to Ed. Don't worry we won't try and claim it on expenses).
We were returning from The List party, the first big party of the Fringe, which is held in the gardens between the Castle and Princes Street each year
Earlier we'd been welcomed in by the lovely Cameron from Caledonian brewery, who would intermittently text "R U OK for drinx?" throughout the night. I do love the Scottish hospitality.
Abi Titmuss was the first (almost) celebrity spot of the night, while inside we noticed Sean Hughes propping up the bar and Ben Miles from Coupling.
Sam toyed with the idea of tackling Sean about his rant during the 100 best stand ups programme, where he bemoaned comedians like Bob Hope who don't write their own material. So what? Plenty of comic actors deliver someone else's lines, and plenty more singers don't write the songs they're singing.
Take that Hughes!
However she thought better of it, and we settled on a game of celebrity look-alike spotting instead.
Mike McShane, Will Young, Boris Johnson and Kelly Osborne were all there. Sort of.
Deciding on the type of entertainment for such a party, when most of the audience are getting hammered at the bar and not even facing the stage, was tricky. Loud things and visual things was the order of the day. Anything wordy would've died a death.
So we were subjected to some rather rubbish drummers playing along to a backing track, a band of Brazilian acrobats back-flipping in front of their band and a burlesque 'from geek to freak' routine, which was a tad tiresome.
To be honest I'm a bit bored of the whole burlesque thing now.
Oh and there were four musicians doing ukulele versions of modern pop songs, which was overpowered by the noise of the crowd.
Midway through the night a camp bloke whited-up like Gene Simmonds from Kiss, shouted out: "This year Edinburgh's all about cabaret!". I've heard that a few times already, but I still think most people are here for the comedy.
Before the party we'd seen Broad Comedy at The Assembly on George Street, which set the bar high for the rest of our stay.
We'd passed an unbelievably long snake-like queue for Scottish stand-up Kevin Bridges on the way.
Although Kevin may be able to draw hundreds and sell out each night, our smaller show playing to around 40 in the drawing room was what Edinburgh's all about. The all female American cast rattled through some brilliant sketches and comedy songs ranging from "Saving my Hymen for Jesus" to "Clingy Girlfriend" and the perfectly pitched finale of "Soccer Mom Ho".