Absent laughter on the at the Fringe

There is only one thing worse at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe than no audience and that is an audience of two. With almost 50,000 shows in a month it is no surprise to read that many are struggling to fill the seats. Years ago I played a comedy called Shevelled and Gruntled in Edinburgh. With a minute to go on the first night, nobody had turned up. Then, seconds before we retired to the pub, something terrible happened. Two people walked in, a tiny man and a vast woman, and sat in the middle of the front row.