Wherein your correspondent gets pissed off

Fringing is not for the lackadaisical, laid back, devil may care types. It takes dedication, patience and a natural toleration of crap that few are gifted with. Certainly not me. Neither am I in the former set of categories. I'm a grumpy Edinburgh wummin coping with the annual influx of stop and start, pavement blocking nae idea how to use a bus tourists thronging most of city, or at least the centre of it. There are of course areas where there is no evidence of the cultural infestation of the inner metropolis*, areas which see no apparent economic benefit from the doubling of the population and spending spree for flat owners and bars.

When I worked in outer city areas of deprivation, it was easy to relate to the cultural disenfranchisement and occasional irritation of local folks at how the city was taken over for August each year. And their keen perception that there was nothing in it for them. Not least because even the fringe has become too expensive for many people.

There's been changes in recent years, with the Free Fringe taking up space in slightly further flung areas and now, even Leith has its own Fringe on offer. But the sense of, particularly the BBC types decamping north and mingling only with their own species persists.

The BBC are setting up camp in the heart of the main fringe area this year. If you look carefully, you'll notice as my sharp-eyed daughter did, that they've installed the bar, while still erecting other parts of the site.

I'm used to all this, though, so what is pissing me off is going to really badly described shows. There's only a few lines allowed to promote the show, but in the days of 140 character twitter, more effort could be put into concise accuracy. It's wasteful of my time to mislead potential audience about your show. The show below was so misleading! "Three sharp females" Huh.

Daughter arrived yesterday and insisted on going out in the rain to see something. I checked what was on offer in the limited time she had. It was always going to be challenging to find something we could agree on and it seemed that Vinegar Knickers present Sketchy beast could be it.

Nah.

I really want to support women breaking out the mold, women being funny, women learning their craft, women getting out there and onto a stage. I really want to say that these three young women are going to mature into great comedians, dancers, singers, actors. I can't.

Some of the material could have been good, delivered by comics possessed of a modicum of talent. Mostly, the material was as poor as the comics. Daughter agreed.

What really tipped me over the edge, was the use of music from a long discredited 70's glam rock popstar jailed for his abuse of girls abroad. And the disgraceful paedophile jokes. What is missing in the commonsense make up of so many comics that they consider jokes about domestic abuse, rape, child abuse, funny and even necessary to their act?

I'm not linking to this bunch. They do not deserve it.

*not sure Edinburgh can be designated a metropolis as it's so small.