Two turtle doves...

There's an obvious focus to today's part of our review of the year... the ridiculously busy month of August plus we manage to squeeze in September too! If you've missed any of the earlier posts, here you can find part one, part two and part three.

AUGUST

Literally masses of fun things happened while we were in Edinburgh.

We had some sell-out performances, some excellent reviews, one really not so good review, The Doubtful Guest was nominated for a Total Theatre Award, 360 won a Three Weeks Editor’s Award, Shon featured in a HUGE interview in The Scotsman and we all saw lots of excellent shows.

Definitely worth a mention is My Name is Sue, which all of the Hoipolloi team saw and enjoyed. Although David definitely deserves the title ‘most obsessed My Name is Sue fan’. I lost count of how many times he went to see it.

It would take yonks to give you a blow by blow account of everything that happened in Edinburgh, so in neat, bullet point form, here is a list of the top anecdotes from the street team:

* One day in the Courtyard I was proposed to by a man. He asked whether I’d marry him if he bought tickets to see ‘360’. I said ‘of course’, willing to do almost anything to make people see 360. The man then produced two tickets, which he had bought earlier. So I guess I’m engaged then.

* Chris flyered someone who seemed quite interested but then said, "Oh, the time doesn't quite work for me. I've got badminton at six."

* A very inebriated punter wandered into the Pleasance Two dressing room, helped himself to NIE's costume rack and came out holding a megaphone and wearing a Russian policeman's hat and a pair of fluffy knickers.

* Chris got picked out of the audience during a show and found himself doing press-ups on stage, with Denise Van Outen standing over him singing 'Let's Get Physical'.

* A friend of David’s drunkenly pointed her finger into a woman's face and shouts, "You're Gillian McKeith!" It is not Gillian McKeith. It is a not-very-famous actress who is extremely offended that my friend didn't know who she was. Actress shouts as David’s friend. Five minutes later, actress goes back to shout at her some more. Five minutes after that we send someone to ask if she knows any good recipes for lentil soup.

* David flyers a couple who seem really interested in the show. "Where is it?", they ask. "Pleasance Two!", David exclaimed and pointed rather over-excitedly behind him, poking a man directly in the face. It was Simon Amstell.

* David flyers a man with two sons. Conversation as follows:

Father: Sounds interesting. Is it suitable for these two?
David: Yes, absolutely.
Father: So there's no tits or fannies in it?
David: Um... no. It's not really that kind of show.
Father: Oh, OK. Because I have two thirteen year old boys with me, so if you'd said there were tits and fannies in it, they'd have probably become a lot more enthusiastic. It sounds good though, maybe we'll come along.
David: Great, see you there.
Son 1: Dad, when are we meeting Mum and the knobs?
Father: They're not 'knobs', they're your younger siblings.

And if all that weren't enough, here's a fantastic little snippet of Hugh Hughes' pre-show warm-up routine...




SEPTEMBER

September saw the first ever ‘What’s in a Name?’ award for the best show titles listed on the CVs of actors who have sent their details to us at Hoipolloi.

The nominees were:

* Daisy and the washing up gloves
* The Christmas Chimney Pot Plot
* This is a Chair
* Incest and plastic surgery
* Captain Cholesterol and the Grannies from Mars
* Princess Plimsole
* Seasonal Sauce
* Cowardly Custard
* Quidditch Adventure
* Wot No Condoms!
* The Uggs
* Orgasm: the musical
* Scandalous! The musical
* The Lazy Ant
* Mission Possible
* The Pumpkin Eater.

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to paparutzi for the photo