Brian Ferguson’s diary
She has been trying to keep it quiet, but Joyce Mcmillan revealed one of the best-kept secrets of the festival at the Scotsman Fringe First Awards.
The Scotsman’s longserving theatre critic, who presents the weekly ceremonies with a special guest, revealed that she and current co-host Arthur Smith were both in the midst of their 40th festivals.
Smith sprang a sweet surprise with the presentation of his own award – a packet of Love Hearts – on behalf of the entire Fringe. True to form on insisting it is the Fringe acts that deserve the limelight, Mcmillan was more interested in helping Smith plug his show, in which he sings the songs of Leonard Cohen.
Recalling his own Fringe debut, Smith said: “We had the classic start. We spent all day handing out leaflets and in our first performance we had three people – my brother, his wife and another friend.”
Asked by Mcmillan if he was still enjoying the Fringe after four decades, Smith joked: “It’s f***ing awful.
“But there were two years when I didn’t come up for various reasons. It felt like I’d been invited to a great party with all my friends and not showed up.”
He’s long been one of the sharpest comics at the Fringe so there was little doubt Reginald D Hunter would provide plenty food for thought at the Book Festival.
Discussing the history of “whitewashing” in Hollywood, he said: “The movie that they would really love to make is an all-white retelling of the Martin Luther King Story, with Jack Black and Nicole Kidman.”
However, tackling the calls for a black actor to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond, he said: “Sometimes I worry about the supposed liberal side just wanting to get our own back. I feel it sometimes when people keep telling me Idris Elba should be the next James Bond. But if James Bond was black he could maybe only go undercover in Africa.”
News of another Fringe rogue has arrived after a break-in at a festival flat where a number of performers at the Heroes of Fringe pay-what-you-want venues were staying.
The culprits made off with £600, a laptop and “a binbag of dirty socks”. But their fellow performers have been rallying around to try to recoup their losses, including a Big B ****** Burglary Benefit at the Monkey Barrel last night.