Festival ferret: Early gems in race for the best publicity stunt

Published on Friday 7 August 2009 22:05

THE ferret's contest for best Fringe publicity stunt got under way in earnest yesterday. Amid the usual dreary list of lost show props or missing cast members being peddled as stories, a few gems stand out.

Arguably the Palestinian playwright Ahmed Massoud has the prize sewn up this year, getting stuck in Gaza for the foreseeable future, missing all previews of his play, Go to Gaza, Drink to the Sea. The state of Israel is handling his publicity.

However US comedian Lewis Schaffer – in the Laughing Horse Free Festival at the Counting House – made a strong pitch for pole position, with his mobile phone punch-up stunt.

"For immediate release" his e-mail said – prompting the question "why?" "Can't talk my phone broken yesterday some posh t*** threw it on the ground. smashing it. In beer garden of gilded balloon at 10 (sic].

"i then punched him in the face, he fell to the ground and then i went after his two friends… it was the first time in my entire life that i punched anyone. they deserved it. and it felt good. getting a phone today."

Metro map madness

Two performers from the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris claim they were held up for over an hour by French customs at the Channel Tunnel, querying why several thousand plans of the Parisian Metro were found in their luggage.

Not bad as travel yarns go. The Israeli director Nir Paldi had asked for 2,000 Metro plans for the Pleasance show First Class, for audience members to follow the route of a "fantastical exploration of Paris". On the underground?

And all right, it's a kids' show, but worth of mention: jilted lovers are being asked to donate their diamonds to comic science show Time-Tastical Time Tale at the Underbelly.

Performers Doctor Austin, aka Douglas MacDonald, and Doug Safety, aka Austin Low, are doing a diamond-burning experiment. A small piece of diamond is super-heated with a gas burner and dropped into a glass beaker of liquid oxygen , producing carbon dioxide gas. They need a stock for 23 shows.

Finally, that new festival fallback: swine flu. Two cast members of Stuck in a Rut, a physical theatre piece at the Underbelly, went down with it but they have recovered.

"Hope you might be able to include this. It makes you wonder if this year's festival will be a breeding ground for swine flu?!" adds the show's producer, Ben Clare.

Cook's comic gift

In other news … Comedian Jason Cook, who has given away socks and Santa hats at Fringe shows in previous years, was confronted by a preview punter demanding: "Where's my free stuff?" He's considering giving 1 notes away instead but his better half wants the cash for beer money…

Transport tales

Spotted: Daniel Kitson pootling around Bristo Square on David O'Doherty's new racing bike. From Stephen K Amos, on Twitter: "Tried to hail a cab with my face on it, it did not stop!"

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