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The Festival Comedy Café came live from the Edinburgh Fringe today, Catriona and Emma tell us more...

Catriona Macleod:

The Festival Comedy Café had some surprises up its sleeve today. Producer Rob warmed up the crowd (give the man a show!) and our guests settled down for what would be 45 minutes of big stars and big laughs. I was on camera duty today, one way of saying I got to watch the show from the prime location of the front row. Being the photographer, I could appreciate some of the finer details audiences at home would have missed out on. For example, presenter Janice (who celebrates her __th birthday today) looked fab in black dress complete with Mr T bling, while and wore red and green socks respectively.

Learning that 's first joke was "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Those were the days...." was my personal highlight. Having mentioned in my previous post that I thought I had reading material for the summer covered, hearing speak abouth is work makes my decision about what to read next a little bit harder.

I had to be reminded by Emma that was in . This makes me a little bit more in awe of him than I was before and I am pleased to say that are my gnu (sic) guilty pleasure. With taxis booked, coffees delivered, guests happy and the show finished, I wonder what I am going to be doing with my weekend. Um...more shows?

Emma Langman:

Today the Comedy Café came to the Festival and there were definitely a lot of laughs! Alan Cumming regaled us with tales of his work and what it's like to become an American citizen (although don't worry, he hasn't renounced Scotland - now he just has 2 passports!) It was great to meet such an acting legend and he was true to his roots, posing for photos and signing autographs for everyone who asked after the show.

Novelist Chris Brookmyre and comedian Alex Horne shared funny stories about themselves and their shows, particularly Alex's revelation that he has put a bet on that his son will play one day. Duo Blomfeld and Bly also told us some amusing anecdotes and both looked very dapper in their suits. For music, we had Tim Fitzhigham and Duncan Walsh Atkins (ie. Flanders and Swann) who even managed to get the whole audience singing "mud, mud, glorious mud!" All in all, it was a great end to the first week of Festival Café shows and we're raring to go for next week!

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Top left: Scottish novelist Christopher Brookmyre at the Comedy Festival Café at the EICC
Top right: Festival Café favourite Henry Blofeld regales us the audience with more anecdotes, we all love Blowers!
Middle right: The fantastic Alan Cumming charms the Edinburgh audience, he's back in Scotland with a smile on his face
Bottom right: John Bly joins Henry Blofeld at the Fringe, and sweet-talks Janice on the couch!
Bottom left: Tim FitzHigham leads the audience in a wonderful rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for our own Janice Forsyth!
Middle left: Comedy Festival Café presenter Janice Forsyth enjoying talking to her very special guests
Photographs by Catriona Macleod