Hitting the Top 100

Good morning on this sunny Saturday. It's a particularly exciting morning as I've discovered that the Scotsman's Top 100 shows at the Fringe includes BOTH Hugh Hughes in... 360 and The Doubtful Guest.

This is fantastic news and makes a great start to the weekend. The Scotsman is such an important paper during the Fringe and I'm excited that out of 2098 shows to choose from, they've picked both of ours to make their list of safe bets to book for!

You can read the full list for yourself by clicking here (Hugh Hughes is near the top, the Doubtful Guest is near the bottom!).

Or, if you just want to go ahead and book your tickets, click here for Hugh Hughes and click here for The Doubtful Guest.

Finally, for some vaguely interesting blog/tweet trivia!

I've just realised that my 200th Hoipolloi tweet was all about making the top 100. Funny how numbers stack up like this! And having just looked back at things, my 100th tweet was a link to a video diary for Shift Happens which takes place on Monday and Tuesday this coming week. Bizarre!

Hugh Hughes in odd places

Ladies and Gentlemen! If last week's exciting Edinburgh news wasn't enough, I can announce even more fantastic Hugh Hughes news!

Hugh has been invited to perform an exclusive 25 minute set at laughterinoddplaces's gig on Thursday 2 July.

Over the last two years, Hugh has enjoyed performing his hit shows at London's Barbican Centre in the summer. This year he's taking a year off (he's too busy preparing for the Fringe) but as luck would have it, the forthcoming (and final) laughterinoddplaces gig will take place at the Museum of London, just a short hop from the familiar surroundings of the Barbican!

Joining Hugh on the bill are a fantastic array of comedians including Josie Long, Richard Herring and Simon Munnery.

The best news of all is that you'll be able to see all of these performances for FREE, taking place in different parts of the Museum.

The event kicks off at 7pm (doors open at 6.30pm). You don't actually need a ticket but if you know you're definitely going, you can register that you're coming here.

We look forward to seeing you there!

And don't forget that tickets are now on sale for the Edinburgh Fringe. Book your tickets for Hugh Hughes in... 360 here and The Doubtful Guest here.

Another shift is happening!

Good morning! Hugh, Mike (our Business Development Director) and I are off to Cardiff this morning to meet with the lovely people at the new National Theatre of Wales.

It's also just over two weeks until the Shift Happens conference takes place in York.

I'm really excited about going, especially as they've asked me to speak. I'm cheating slightly by pre-preparing lots of stuff in advance and have previously posted the first and second installments of my video diary here and here.

Now it's time for the third installment. I actually made this a few weeks back and, as ever, forgot to post it here at the time! I've also just made a new one which I'll put up next week.

Enjoy!



And thank you to Shaggy359 for the pic!

Time to let the cat out of the bag...

So, it's time to let the cat out of the bag (and provide myself with a terrible excuse for a semi-cute animal picture!)...

We're off to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe!

As it's our fifteenth birthday this year, we thought we'd really push the boat out and have decided to take two shows up to the Festival.

We're really excited that The Doubtful Guest will be playing a strictly limited season at the prestigious Traverse Theatre. This darkly comic tale, inspired by Edward Gorey's fantastic book, will run from 18 to 30 August at varying times.

And Hugh Hughes is heading back to his regular haunt at the Pleasance Courtyard to premiere his brand new show, Hugh Hughes in...360. This time he'll be found in the Comedy section, with shows at 7.05pm from 5 to 31 August.

Full schedules for both shows can be found here.

We'll be pushing the boat out with our blog, our tweets and various podcasts, videos and photos from our time in Edinburgh and you'll be able to find all the latest news and gossip via our homepage.

Can't wait to see you up at the Fringe!

Thanks to Mava for the photo!

Big news... coming soon!

We'll be making a big announcement on Wednesday.

I'm sworn to keep things secret until then but I'll just say that it concerns our exciting plans for the summer.

Watch this space!

In the meantime, to tantalise your taste buds, I'm happy to share one bit of news, especially for those of you who live in, or near, Leicester.

We're taking Story of a Rabbit out to the new Curve Theatre from 18 to 21 November. Full details of the performances can be found here along with how to book your tickets.

And there's more of these to come too!

Thank you to Wheat_in_your_hair for the photo!

Rabbit Round Up

Hugh Hughes' USA tour of Story of a Rabbit came to a close last week and this morning I gathered and filed away all the press coverage from the tour. There are some wonderful comments, both from newspapers and the Blogosphere.

One review, on the Charleston City Paper's Spoleto Buzz Blog, began with these words:

"Hugh Hughes made me cry. It's a good thing."


The same blog also named Story of a Rabbit the best show at the festival, calling it,

"Pitch-perfect theater"


The Lantern tells us that in Ohio,

"some in the audience were left with tears in their eyes, while others had smiles on their faces"

Which leads me to my absolute favourite. A review in the Charleston SC newspaper urged people to go and see Story of a Rabbit with a wonderfully Hugh-ish call to arms!

"embrace it, and remember that Life IS spectacular!"

Hugh flies home, leaving controversy in his wake...

Hugh Hughes will be touching down at Heathrow any minute now, after a hugely successful American adventure with Story of a Rabbit. The tour started at the Wexner Center in Ohio, then transferred to Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, before finishing with performances at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Hugh and Aled caused a little bit of controversy at Spoleto! Local paper, The Post & Courier welcomed high-profile national critic Tim Page as a special reporter for the festival. Unfortunately Mr. Page wasn't a fan of Story of a Rabbit. But as soon as his review was posted online, the comments box started fizzing with protestors, angrily insisting that the show was fantastic!

We even received a deluge of emails from America, from audience members at Spoleto who'd loved the show and wanted to make sure we didn't take any notice of the review. Some of them included some rather ripe remarks about Tim Page's tastes that I can't possibly repeat here! In fairness, the reviewer responded to the comments very fairly and was quick to disown the review's headline...

Of course, the odd underwhelmed reviewer is something you get used to in theatre. And the bottom line is that Hugh, Aled and the show's Production Manager Tom had a fantastic time at Spoleto where they and their fellow Britons Kneehigh quickly became the toast of the festival.

The Charleston City Paper even named Story of a Rabbit the best show at the Festival, in their Spoleto Buzz Blog!

I haven't heard much from the boys since they moved to Minneapolis. But Hugh did send us a brief email which ended, "THE WALKER IS AMAZING!!". So I'm assuming it all went quite well.
Now... keep your eyes peeled for some Hoipolloi and Hugh Hughes announcements coming very soon. All eyes on the UK, for our exciting summer plans...!