The Edinburgh Fringe is gone from our streets, and there's eleven months of work getting ready for the 2018 extravaganza. We get our city back and get on with life, and all the things there are to do here. Yes, we really do.
You wouldn't think so to hear some of the acts who come here for August - especially comedians. Too many appear to think of this place as some kind of comedy club Brigadoon, only coming into existence once a year for their benefit. We get used to it, and they get laughed at in more ways than they'd hoped for.
Worse, to my mind, are the comics who see themselves as 'political'. Most were sensibly avoiding the beyond-parody farce that is the current White House, but there were plenty having a go at the stinking potage that the UK is in right now. The UK is, you may remember, a union of countries, and some of these comedians have terrible memories. Like being unable to recall that they are performing in a different country, with a different political dynamic. Andrew Doyle was the most obvious offender I saw this year, asking his audience if they'd voted Tory.... or Labour.... or Lib Dem.... or.... No, that was it, apparently we don't have any other options. But what would I know, I only live here. In Brigadoon.
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