In The Beginning (Saturday Preview)

Hi Kids! It's time for the Official 100% Totally Sanctioned Blog of Sh*tty Deal Puppet Theatre's Tour of Duty in the Fringe Festival 2008. Those posting will be myself and Kitty. Tom and Andy may guest post, but they'll most likely be too drunk. We have decided on a policy of honesty in reporting which means this whole thing could turn into a big blogfight at any time, because Kitty is surly. We also plan on posting photos as soon as we can find cameras, cause a pictures worth a thousand words, and that will totally up our word count. Kitty thinks the phrase 'up our word count' sounds dirty, but that's because Kitty IS dirty.

We're actually coming in at Day 2 (Previews), because we couldn't decide what the hell to call the blog. We didn't want anything that was a pun on 'Fringe', because we thought that was kind of gay, and we wanted it to have style, substance, and meaning--everything our show doesn't have. The following titles were considered and discarded. You figure out why--

* The Month That Kind of Happened
* I remember that...don't I?
* Uncle C*nty's Happy Fun Barn
* About Face(book)
* Clean Shirt, Slut Face
* Is this the Face of Calm?
* When it all goes wrong, it all goes SO right
* Stucky's Tramp Stamp

In the end, the current title, When Alf Fucks a tree: Edinburgh Attacks! seemed to set the right tone, a balance between meaning and chaos which will define the next three weeks of Edinburgh life. Also, it makes you think of my favorite childhood television star f*cking a tree. Which is pretty funny. Probably the funniest thing in here.

We drove up from Norwich two days ago, and already it seems like we've been here a lifetime. The city is still warming up for full Fringe weirdness, but yesterday on the Royal Mile (where fliers go to die) we saw gigantic camels, a ballerina on stilts, a bunch of fucking clowns, a Man in an Iron Mask jumping around screaming 'I've committed no crime!', and I think I saw Billy Connnelly sitting on a park bench. Last night was our first show, and the show went well, though we only had a crowd of around 9 people. They were, however, a great crowd, and we're pretty pleased with the way 'Guide to the Arts' is coming along. We don't kick into full gear until Monday, when we have two shows back to back (Oppressed People AND Guide to the Arts), but I think we'll be ready.

On a sad note, Tom's car has died. We had to leave it last night on a random intersection somewhere between Edinburgh and Mussleburgh. The car had previously had a truck battery mistakenly put in instead of a car battery, which had only been replaced about three weeks ago. Speculation is that the truck battery messed up the alternator, because while rolling into the 'burgh on Thursday, Tom said the battery light came on. He drove it in to drop off the set yesterday, and we all drove back last night, and the same thing happened. Finally, when we came to an intersection, it just died. We had to leave it on the sidewalk with a note, and only today will decide it's fate. So please, pray for Tom's Car.

More to come, chuchies.