Blogs

More for less: Blog blags

20 Jan 2010

Alice White runs the Edinburgh-based style and travel blog Bon-Voy-Go-There! She runs down her best freebie handbags and holidays, and suggests how to get started blagging on your own blog Blogging is the most arrogant, self-indulgent thing I’ve…

Greenberg revealed at The List Surprise Movie at GFF

Glasgow Film Festival blog

28 Feb 2010

Hello. Don’t worry this is the last time you will have to read my witless meanderings, normal transmission with Sir Paul Gallagher will be resumed soon. So… The List Surprise Movie was…. (drum roll, drum roll) Greenberg. No it wasn’t Kick Ass or…

Young stars of 1234 dispel myths of film industry

Glasgow Film Festival blog

25 Feb 2010

It seems to be a pre-requisite of my typical film festival experience that I will inevitably end up in a conversation about the value (or not) of film criticism with a filmmaker who clearly isn’t a fan of critics. Such was the case yesterday, as myself…

Gregory's Girl, Mogwai's Burning and Legacy bring Glasgow Film Festival 2010 to a close

Glasgow Film Festival blog

2 Mar 2010

I returned to GFF for the closing day yesterday and discovered it had been an eventful weekend: Neil Marshall turned up at FrightFest to show off 20 minutes of Centurion, his forthcoming historical actioner featuring a naked Michael Fassbender in the…

Once and for all, it's just a matter of opinion

Steve Cramer's festival blog

18 Aug 2008

I don’t know, perhaps it’s me. There’s always one show of every festival where a critic appears to be out of kilter with his peers. For me, this festival the show would appear to be Once and For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are, So Shut Up and Listen…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs: Desmond O’Connor

The worst possible time to lose your voice

26 Aug 2011

It couldn’t have happened at a worse time; I was looking forward to the most exciting night of the Fringe in three of the seven shows on which I am working and I woke to find myself facing the worst nightmare that a performer can be forced to endure.

Pixar make Brave move with Reese Witherspoon and Billy Connolly after Toy Story 3

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

22 Jun 2010

Sunday 20 June Edinburgh calls itself a festival of discovery, and it’s true, the majority of films playing here are by first- or second-time filmmakers, and you go into each screening hoping to discover the next great moviemaking talent. But, as…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Sarah Campbell

One half of Christmas For Two highlights the pitfalls of audience participation

10 Aug 2011

Say it with me: audience participation. The comedian's friend. The punter's dread nemesis. I used to love a bit of, 'You with the top, what's your name?' But these days I'm not so sure. As a solo stand-up you can pick on people without fear, but with…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Lou Sanders

The comedian gives the inside scoop on securing accomodation

10 Aug 2011

This year I thought I’d treat myself to a more luxurious apartment in Edinburgh – I really shelled out for a bobby dazzler of the flat world. This came with all the mod cons... if mod cons include 3 different types of mouse traps. Actually the one type…

EIFF day one highlight is The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

Edinburgh International Film Festival Blog

17 Jun 2010

Thursday 17th June A dirty, filthy hangover from the Opening Gala after-party was not enough to stop me fulfilling my interview commitments today, although it was enough to stop me getting into town early and securing tickets for various movies.

A strange brew prior to Glasgow Film Festival opening night gala

Glasgow Film Festival blog

18 Feb 2010

I’m sitting in the GFT’s Café Cosmo, and there’s more than tea brewing. There’s a definite atmosphere, a sense that much is yet to come, a bit like that feeling you get at the end of every Harry Potter film. It’s not a ‘buzz’ yet; that will kick in once…

A weekend fuelled by comedy and cake

Amber Baxter's festival blog

12 Aug 2009

For a bit of a laugh, I put on my boots this weekend and promptly stomped the streets of Edinburgh - filling them with comedy. On Friday night I took in an early evening performance at the Underbelly by Australian, award-winning comic Sammy J. He’s a…

Fringe 2011 theatre blogs: Biding Time

Can we find alternative models for making theatre at the Fringe?

23 Aug 2011

Market’s crashing, Somalia’s starving and London’s burning; Are we fiddling in Edinburgh while Rome burns this August? It takes a mental leap to see any real connection between the Edinburgh fringe festival and the state of the wider world, except…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs: The Suitcase Royale

Edinburgh is easy. Getting to Edinburgh is difficult.

16 Aug 2011

We booked a private cab to pick us up from Battersea Arts Centre, where we’ve been staying, and take us to Luton Airport for our 6:15pm flight to Edinburgh. Being old hands, now, at touring, we thought it wise to leave three hours to get to the airport.

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs: Yianni

Periodic Table of Edinburgh

16 Aug 2011

Ah Edinburgh. Back again so soon? Anyone who has spent an August at the Fringe knows it contains freakish space and time bending properties. Any event which takes place outside its borders exists outside of space and time and is – in essence…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Michael J Dolan

The Mancunian comic discusses hecklers and the world's shortest joke

14 Aug 2011

One of the most overused of the tiny stockpile of go-to moronic taunts used by the average drunken heckler is, 'Tell us a joke.' As heckles go this, more than any other, indicates that the heckler's function within the gig is completely over. It…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - John Robertson

There’s still time to stop all this and get that doctorate …

11 Aug 2011

I’ve only been heading out to festivals for a few years – and at almost every one of them, I’ve gone completely ballistic. Usually, it’s in the lead-up to the first performance, when I’m overrun by a combination of info from publicists, news on…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Nick Doody

The comic discusses how to circumvent the expense of the Fringe

10 Aug 2011

It is expensive to put on a stand-up show at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2006, my first solo show, Before He Kills Again, was arguably a hit, selling out the entire run and putting on two extra shows in a larger venue, both of which also sold out. That…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Jason John Whitehead

The five stages of coping with trauma... and the Fringe

10 Aug 2011

This year my show is, on the surface, about the excuses that we’re always given when a relationship ends. Another relationship/heartbreak/anger in anguish kind of show but this time with a JJW twist. A strong theme of my show has been the five stages…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Lloyd Langford

The comic writes on the danger of fancy baths

10 Aug 2011

It’s that time of year when I, and thousands of other performers, take over and squat in the Scottish capital for a month. August every year, comedians flock to the city in the hope of getting something big out of the Fringe. Stand ups in Edinburgh are…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Laurence Clark

Exploring American fears about the 'socialised medicine' of the NHS

10 Aug 2011

The National Health Service may seem like an odd subject for an hour’s comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe. So why make a show about the NHS? Well for one, my own life has been profoundly shaped by it. Also it’s a subject that’s always in the news. Indeed…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Tony Law

An Interview with Tony Law, by Tony Law and for Tony Law. From Tony Law

10 Aug 2011

You are not quite sure what a blog is, are you? Don't you mean am I? What? No. Blog is what we are doing right now as in, Intervblog. We are doing an Intervblog. Your show Go! Mr Tony Go! is on at the Stand at noon. It has been said that it…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Marcel Lucont

10 Aug 2011

Every year at the Edinburgh Festival I am asked, 'Marcel, how do you maintain this air of carefree nonchalance during such an intense month? Surely, given the high standard of your shows, the pressure increases annually?' I reply, 'That is Monsieur…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Steve Pretty

He of the Perfect Mixtape discusses music vs comedy and proper Fringe preparation

10 Aug 2011

By 30th July, any sensible Fringe performer would either already be in Edinburgh getting some early promo done, or locked away in a rehearsal room, honing their show, perfecting that topical gag or getting that new set piece extra zingy. So why, last…

Fringe 2011 comedy blogs - Catie Wilkins

The little things that add to the theatrical experience

10 Aug 2011

The great thing about the Edinburgh Festival is you never know what will be around the corner. I mean, you can usually take a punt that it will be a herd of flyerers, or some annoying street theatre, but sometimes the real life theatre going on around…