EDINBURGH 2011: Lucy Trodd's SHOWSTOPPER! Blog

Showstopper! The Musical has returned to the Fringe again after another successful year of improvising shows on the audience's cues. We asked the company's Lucy Trodd to tell us all about her Edinburgh experiences...

So here we are, Edinburgh Fringe 2011 and the phrase 'Here We Go Again' is echoing around my head (possibly because it was the title of last night's show). This is the fourth year that Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has visited the Fringe since its creation in 2008. From our humble beginnings in a sixty-seater portakabin in George Square we now find ourselves playing to 380 people in The Debating Hall at the Gilded Balloon (last time I was there, incidentally, I had a free ticket to see The Chippendales - cue flashbacks to their 'man tools' routine).

I missed the festival last year, as I was giving birth to my beautiful giant baby boy, who celebrated his first birthday at the festival with his Showstopper family and a pizza outing to Mamma's on the Grassmarket. Having Albert here means that I can go to as many kids shows as I like without having to make excuses. Hoorah for that!

Taking a year off from the festivities made me even more excited to return - especially with Showstopper! We do some of our best shows here, as we spend so much time hanging out together that it creates an amazing group-synchronised mind. And the audiences are so up for it.

I'm always amazed at how extraordinarily warm (metaphorically not actually- thanks for queueing in the rain, people) our audiences are; on opening night they were screaming (supportively) before we'd even set foot on the stage, and some people have seen the show over ten times.

Due to the quick turnaround of an Edinburgh show we have about fifteen minutes to strike our hats, props and set (we have a set now - this is new), and it's so nIce To talk to the audience on their way out; it really brings home how international the festival-goers are. Last night I shook hands with an improvisation teacher from Wyoming, and there are rumours we have been asked by another happy punter to perform in Goa! YES PLEASE.

So what's new and what's the same? There appear to be a lot more impro musicals about - in fact, there are over forty improvised shows at the fringe this year. On a culinary note, I'm very sad that the healthy oasis of goodness known as Susie's Wholefood Restaurant on West Nicolson Street has gone; I'm glad to see that the hidden gem Anteaques (the tearoom and antiques shop on South Clerk Street) remains; and I was very glad to discover the bone-warming chorizo stew in Spoon on Nicolson Street. The Gilded Garden has had a serious makeover and the rain is back. 2009 was a very dry year - we're so glad we made the Showstopper! ponchos and umbrellas!

Every year my good intentions - apart from joining a gym for the month, networking in The Gilded Balloon's Loft Bar nightly, catching up on my reading and seeing lots of shows (I have done none of these so far) - consist solely of a pledge to take any flier handed to me and look interested and supportive (so far so good, although oddly I've only been handed four fliers, all for kids' shows, and one from a very determined and rain-drenched student presenting a one-man late-night character comedy chat show where he plays all the characters. I think the buggy puts people off - or my face. Or both).

At one time or another, I think every performer at the Edinburgh Festival should experience the draining desperation of flyering for hours on The Royal Mile, singing on the buses to people who are clearly not coming to your show, and performing in youth hostels to twenty uninterested tourists.

But I'm glad to say that this year is the first year I've not had to hand out any fliers. I lie, I handed one out to a man I sat next to on a plane on a day trip to London. I very much enjoyed performing on HarDeep Singh Kohli's Chat Masala (this viewpoint is not solely swayed by the delicious curry he makes for his guests and audience) and later on I'll be singing karaoke and talking to Scott Agnew on his Scottish Breakfast Chat Show.

This year the poster for Showstopper! (with mine and Pippa Evans' faces on) is screaming out for a lewd caption (never leave that much space on a poster) but I'm yet to see one. Mind you, it is only week two (AKA "see shows and relax week") and people haven't reached week three (AKA "tiredness and tears" week).

What else have I missed out ? The technical staff are still as superhuman as ever - most of them are working on four or five shows a day and they still smile and joke when we see them. Hats off - but only briefly as it's so chilly.

Ramble ramble, over and out. Thank you and please come and see us:

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)
5-28th August 10.50pm (not 17th August) plus family-friendly Tuesdays 3.20pm
Box Office 0131 622 6552
For more info visit www.showstopperthemusical.com

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