The Edinburgh Festival is the largest arts festival in the world. Actually, it’s a collection of festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Film Festival, and (as of last year) the Edinburgh Erotica Festival. Not surprisingly, the catalog of all the shows is the size of a phone book from a small city. You can’t possibly see everything, so while I’m here, I’m trying to see a little bit of all kinds of things.
A few snapshots from the Fringe:
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There’s a show here called “Psychotherapy Live,” in which a comedian psycho-analyzes volunteers from the audience. According to Fest magazine, the volunteers on a recent night included “a chap who’s apparently famous for appearing in a US TV advert (‘Dude, you’re getting a Dell’), revealing his desire to become a magician.

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Reading through the catalog, a few shows leapt out at me as absolute must-sees. One of them was “That Old Red Magic,” starring Ian Saville, who bills himself as “the one and only socialist magician.” How could I resist?
Mr. Saville is, unfortunately, not the most graceful sleight-of-hand artist. ( In fairness to him, I should note that I saw him on his first day at the Fringe, and, as I have learned from recent personal experience, ones first 24 horus at the Fringe are so brutal that it’s a wonder anybody even makes it on stage for their first scheduled show.) In any case, it’s impossible to resist a magician who rejects having an audience member pick a card as “too individualistic,” and instead has the entire audience choose a card through collective action.
The most common question when I tell people about the existence of a socialist magician is, “Is he serious?” The answer is “yes and no.” Mr. Saville is clearly serious about his socialism. Even if his ability to make the words “money=exploitation and oppression” magically appear on a borrowed five-pound note failed to persuade me that money must be abolished, I now at least understand such socialist concepts as “use value” and “interim demands.”
Luckily, Mr. Saville recognizes that mixing “card tricks and dialectics” is an inherently funny exercise, and he makes his points with a good-natured and self-deprecating humor. Capitalist pig though I may be, I left the theatre with a big smile on my face.
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The other two shows I’ve seen so far are “How To Act Around Cops,” at the Pleasance, and “Life,” at the Cowgate Central. Both are highly recommended. Note that “Life” doesn’t seem to be in the Festival Catalog.
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The Royal Mile is the road leading uphill to the Edinburgh Castle. Cobble-stoned and medieval, it would feel ancient and stately if it weren’t for the throngs of festival goers, street performers, and castmembers from Fringe shows handing out fliers to anybody who walks past. In the past few days, I’ve seen the following along the Mile:
–A bagpiper smoothly transitions from “Waltzing Matilda” to “Yankee Doodle Dandy, in an effort to extract spare change from as many different nationalities of tourists as possible.
–Cast members of the play “Poe In Pieces,” faces painted a ghastly white, dressed all in black, haunting the cobblestones. They look very scary and gothic; the effect is spoiled only by the fact that one of them is clutching a large botle of mineral water. (It’s hard to blame her, given that it’s a hot day.)
–An actor publicizing a one-man version of Henry V by standing amongst the crowd and declaiming monologues from the play. Alas, he is declaiming them with all the energy you’d expect from a man who’s been standing in the sun all day wearing a long-sleeve, black Shakespearian outfit and trying to call out “Once more unto the breach!” over the noise of a half dozen street musicians. I hope he’s not the star of the show; I can’t imagine the stamina he’d need to go onstage later in the day.