This is my first Edinburgh Fringe. But in true Bron fashion, I'm jumping in with both feet, as in two shows! Afternoons, I co-host the LOLympics Live with the Aussie, Marcus Ryan. In case the name isn't self-explanatory, it's funny competitions with international professional Laughletes (that's the dumbest pun I've ever written, but I'll probably be using it a lot next month). Then there's the Witching Hour, that crazy time when demons come out to play... Midnight is my solo show: "Life's Short. I'm Not!" I basically talk about looking for love but finding rock bottom instead. I revel in revealing the darkest parts of my psyche. People laugh. Who knows, maybe it's empathy, seeing themselves in me or maybe they're thinking "Well, at least I'm not that guy." So long as they leave laughing, I'm good with it.
The last two months of prep, have been exhausting. Now I have to travel & think about what I've gotten myself into. The truth is I'm really excited about my first Fringe, but I have no idea what to expect. Well, maybe I do, but I'm repressing it. Recently, I went to the UK to test material. And I'm glad I did, because certain bits had the Brits looking at me as if I had suddenly stopped speaking English. To be specific, when I mentioned that I was on an extended break from booze, people just stared... Then one woman broke the silence with "Why?" Not a concerned, "Why'd you have to quit, what happened?" but "Why would you stop drinking, do you breathe?" Cricket might be their version of baseball, but drinking is a national pastime. Probably the only thing the Brits, Scots, Welsh and Irish will all agree on. Anyway, back to my expectations for Edinburgh. Most comics there have done the Fringe, and all had great stories to tell. But two separate female comics in two separate conversations told me I was going to have a lot of fun, then both said, in these exact words, "but you'll cry quite a lot."
Cry? I'm going to cry? After the first lady said it, I asked the dude in the conversation if he cried at his first Fringe. He took a deep breath, looked into his beer, and then said "Almost. I might have been on the verge of tears once or twice." I think he cried. By the look on his face, I think he cried "quite a lot." So on top of the excitement of a minimum of two shows a day, meeting new friends, exploring an ancient city and having the time of my life, I'm expecting to get overwhelmed by nonstop promotion, intense pressure, constant rejection and feeling that no one even cares that I exist.
So, it sounds like the highs and lows normal life for me, only not at Venice Beach, but a different country with castles and rain.
And so you know, readers of HuffPost, if this 6-foot-7, 215-pound, hairy funnyman cries, I won't be looking into my soda water and say I almost did. I'll write about it here! Why wouldn't I? If you've seen my stand-up, you know that I talk about my life, especially the embarrassing bits.
So I'm jumping into this thing with both feet. Hopefully I'm not in over my head and the chlorine doesn't make my eyes tear up.