Fringe Finale

[flum]

So, it's all over. Well, the important bit is, the actual, real, proper Festival is still on for another week, but the Fringe, which is all most people are really interested finally came to a close yesterday on the always slightly awkward and sparsely attended final Monday. Some people have left having become stars, while others left still wishing they'd been awarded some. The success story of this year is undoubtably Jackson's Way which, if you've read even one story about it, you will know runs "Yadda yadda, fairy story, blah blah, played to six people, rhubarb rhubarb, critical buzz, murmur murmur, run extended, yadda yadda, Perrier, blah-de-blah, spirit of the Fringe", which I think we can all relate to. It was certainly the funniest show I sw this year, although for the coveted Flum's Favourite Show award, I have to go for Mark Watson's 24 Hour Show, just for the sheer experience. The worst was, quite easily, Stickmen: Year One, which is almost the worst show I've ever seen in all my years of Fringe going and laboured under the delusion that homosexuality and, by extension, general sodomy, was inherently hilarious.

This year I saw 33 shows (34 if you include the fact that I went to see nobleandsilver twice). Here, for dull completeness is everything I saw.

• Will Smith: 10 Arguments I Should Have Won
  
• Brendon Burns: Burnsy vs Brendon
  
• Big Howard and Little Howard: At Home With the Howards
  
• Bill Shakespeare's Italian Job
  
• Cooking With Elvis
  
• Dara O'Briain
  
• Ed Byrne
  
• Natalie Haynes: Still Not Sorry
  
• Pure Stand Up: The Golden Years - Line-up of Kevin Day, Mandy Night, Owen O'Neill and Stewart Lee
  
• Half Man Half Biscuit
  
• ballboy
  
• Ricky Gervais: Politics
  
• Mark Thomas
  
• Richard Herring: 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace
  
• Priorite A Gauche: Unplugged
  
• The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players
  
• Mark Watson's Overambitious 24 Hour Show
  
• (nobleandsilver):A Man
  
• Sarah Kendall
  
• Jackson's Way
  
• Andrew Maxwell: This is my Hour
  
• Julie Burchill is Away
  
• Rob Brydon: The Keith Barrat Show
  
• Simon Donald and Alex Collier: Swearing is Big and Clever
  
• Simon Munnery's AGM
  
• Futureheads/Radio 4 - But due to being full of the cold I buggered off home after the Futureheads.
  
• Stickmen: Year One
  
• Des Clarke
  
• The Dumb Waiter
  
• (nobleandsilver):A Man - Again, as it's not the best show to appreciate properly when you've been up for 30 hours.
  
• Epitath
  
• Goldie Lookin' Chain
  
• Jeremy Hardy
  
• Alex Horne: Every Body Talks
  

Phew. I'm now quite looking forward to a week of not actually, but there are some pangs of regret that I didn't, as always, see everything I wanted to see. Still, there's always next year.