In my head, I’m laughing lots. And out loud too.

I decided not to go and see 101 as my 101st show, but instead The Ladder and the Moon – a delightful show, aimed at kids, but given they’ve gone back to school there weren’t any in the audience. This didn’t really matter, as we all managed to suspend our adult disillusionment and witness scenes capturing children’s sense of wonder and discovery – whether it be bouncing lights introducing bouncing to their non-bouncing new friend, two kids shyly working out how to hold hands, or trying to catch the moon by climbing a ladder.

Over to Bannerman’s for a couple of shows in the PBH Free Fringe. First, Andrew and the Slides of Chaos was a very slick and humourous show, first a satire on corporate presentations (the slides must have taken ages to make) but soon descending into a science fiction plot of world domination by the presenter’s laptop. Then was Charlotte Young’s Audi, Vide, Tace, where our heroine told us about some of the intrepid and humourous secret missions she’d been on, including showing that Rupert Bear was the product of some secret polar bear/human cross-breeding genetic experimentation. I’m annoyed that I can’t make any of the showings of Charlotte’s other show, proving Richard Dawkins does not exist.

Next was Nat Luurtsema’s In My Head I’m A Hero. This entire show was one big pull back and reveal, wherein the first half’s look at how Nat is always dreaming about being a hero and would always be ready in a crisis (her and her mum helping out in the slowest bus crash ever) did not prepare you in any way for the turn the show would take (involving Masonic school drills, the wonderful By Myself book and her stay in hospital), but still very much themed to thinking she’s a hero. Both halves were excellent, she is a very engaging and natural storyteller, and the whole was extremely funny.

I don’t normally do this, but I have to mention one audience review of this I have read, which states they found this show disappointing because they feel in a show they should “revel in the shared understanding I have with the comic of the humorous, sad, wry things in our lives or that we’d like to have in our lives”. What balderdash – go back to your Michael MacIntyre!

Lastly for the day, after a lovely dinner at Ann Purna, was the Waverley Care Comedy Gala. Compered by Kevin Bridges and Shappi Khorsandi, this was a fun evening but did feel like it went on a bit too long – by the end, the venue was sweltering, and the acts were all merging together in my mind. There were some good jokes, some less good jokes, and apparently you’ll be able to watch it on BBC3 at some point and decide for yourself.