Festival spirit

So Edinburgh suddenly feels very close. Not geographically, obviously, but temporally. And by "Edinburgh" I of course mean "The Edinburgh Festival", or more precisely "The Edinburgh Fringe", or more precisely still "My first solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe". It's a quirk of comedians that we all refer to August as "Edinburgh". I know the city exists outside of the Festival - I've been there many times - but every time I visit not during August I'm faintly surprised and disappointed, as though waking up from an amazing dream to discover a greyer, less colourful reality.

But before Edinburgh comes preview season. Previews are generally a bit of a nightmare. As the comedian you're trying to mould your material into a show, discovering flaws and ideas in front of an audience. It can be exciting but is more often than not just a bit dull and frustrating, at least until the show is basically ready. Getting an audience for a preview is very difficult. Hot weather, football, exams and various other factors conspire to make it the worst time of the year for comedy anyway, and persuading people who don't know you to come and see you for a whole hour is teeth-grindingly hard. I've been flyering at gigs I've been compering, sending out lots of emails and Facebook messages, and still I've already had to cancel two previews because barely anybody turned up. The one preview I've done went well and I'm excited about doing the show: all I need now is for audiences at all of my other previews!

Before Edinburgh I'm also doing two other Festivals, and they couldn't be more different. I'm doing a full hour at the Filey Festival in North Yorkshire, and I'm also doing a ten minute spot in a show with Arthur Smith for Radio 4 at the Glastonbury Festival. I've never been there before. In fact I've never been to a proper music festival before, so I feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation. I keep thinking about muddy fields as far as the eye can see and trench foot. Watching Radiohead in the pouring rain from the comfort of my front room, thinking "Wow, that looks unbelievably awful!" Equally, I don't like the sun very much as I burn very easily.

I'm hoping it's cloudy.

That might be why I've never been to a music festival before.