Our hour-long Roughhausers show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Scotland was a smash. We arrived from Heathrow lugging our 5 suitcases just in time to throw together our set (which involved 4 hours of cutting and taping together cardboard boxes for the act’s final illusion…my fingers still hurt at the thought of it…UGH), prep our costumes, run the tech, explore Leith a bit, then it was showtime….
Our first night’s show crushed comedically, although it was packed with technical flubs—I dropped coins during the sleight-of-hand act, accidentally revealed part of the final illusion’s secret, and Ridley got trapped in her corset backstage (which was kind of hot)—but the generous Scots were beautifully drunk and game for everything, so the “accidents” actually made the show all the more funny. The second night’s audience was less drunk and more subdued till halfway through, then it was full steam, with no technical problems (maybe we should’ve introduced some…heh). Show video clips coming soon. THANK YOU to the staff and tech team at the Drill Hall—you were supportive, jolly, and tirelessly professional. If anyone’s looking for a venue to mount your show, this would be my pick—it was the Drill Hall’s first year at the Fringe, and it’ll explode in 2012 if this year was any indication.
After a little more exploring and catching the incredible Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage musical, we migrated to Paris for some sorely needed recovery time, then drove to Madrid with crazy adventures and stops along the way—you can read about them all on our blog here.