Edinburgh Comedy Tour Brochure

Edinburgh Comedy Tour

www.walkingheads.net

Harry Gooch Jamie MacDonald

Bruce Morton Susan Morrison

How To Use This TourThe Walking Heads Edinburgh Comedy Tour is associated with The Stand Comedy club, Venue Number 5, on the corner of York Place, with the box office entrance at 16 North St. Andrew Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1HJ

(0131 558 7272, www.thestand.co.uk) which is where we end up.

The tour starts from the Fringe Shop and Box Office, 180 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1QS. (0131 226 0026, www.edfringe.com.) Please make your way to the Fringe Shop before starting the tour.

While you are using the walking tour, please pay attention to your surroundings. Take care crossing the road, remembering that traffic drives on the left in Scotland, watch out for any obstacles you might encounter in front of you and be aware of any other potentially dangerous situations. If you come across any difficulties or dangers, pause the recording until you’re

able to resume the walking tour. Thank you for paying attention to this safety information.

As we walk around Edinburgh, you will find places where you might want to stop off and rest, explore or take in a show. If you decide to make any stops or detours you can pause the recording and then play again when you are ready to rejoin the tour. The audio chapters in the tour fall into three types: information (the intro and outro), destinations (where you’ll stop

and learn about each place) and navigation links (where we’ll direct you around the city). If you want to make your own way from one destination to the next, that’s fine, although the navigation chapters do also have some great stories in them.

If you have access to Twitter, we encourage you to tweet your stories and suggestions. We’ve specified a #hashtag for each part of the tour, which you can find at the end of this booklet and in the app. Use these tags when tweeting about each specific place. To tweet about the tour in general use #edcomedytour and to chat to us, mention @walkingheads.

Twitter: @walkingheads

Guilty of a misjudged act of heroism, Harry must pay his debt to society by helping blind tour guide Jamie explore legendary comic sites of Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe.

Starting at the Fringe Shop, at 180 High Street and ending at The Stand Comedy Club, this downloadable interactive audio show, for MP3 players and smartphones, digs deeper than Burke and Hare and reveals a side of Edinburgh

not in any history book or living memory.

See Edinburgh through the eyes of an accident prone historian and his hapless assistant. It’s a laugh a minute with anecdotes from comedians Bruce Morton and Susan Morrison.

You can buy the MP3 version of the tour from www.walkingheads.net, iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and other download stores or get the app for iPhones and Android devices.

This brochure accompanies the Walking Heads Edinburgh Comedy Tour audio only MP3 version and contains photographs of the places you’ll see along the way, the people behind the voices, information, maps and credits.

All conent of the tour, apps and this brochure are copright © 2011 Walking Heads Ltd.

Maps used are © OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org) contributors, CC-BY-SA (www.creativecommons.org).For more information on this and other Walking Heads tours, please visit our website.

Edinburgh Comedy Tour

www.walkingheads.net

Start: The Fringe Shop

End: The Stand

High CourtAssembly Halls

Victoria Street

Grassmarket

Underbelly

Bristo Square

George Square Gardens

Pleasance

© OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org) contributors, CC-BY-SA (www.creativecommons.org)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Fringe Shop

Jamie MacDonald our blind local historian and tour guide meets Harry Gooch on the Royal Mile. You may be thinking: A blind guide leading a walking tour, how’s that going to work?

Answer: Asbo Harry is here to help. Harry: What’s the etiquette, can I take your arm or is that patronising? Goochery: How many different Fringe productions came to Edinburgh last year? My God, that’s just excessive.

Start: The Fringe Shop


High Court


Chapter 4: From Fringe Shop to High Court

A short walk up the Royal Mile (in the direction of Edinburgh Castle), during the Festival this street is full of colour – its a little quieter for the rest of the year.

Why was Edinburgh called Auld Reekie? Over to Susan Morrison: ‘Because it stank...’

Chapter 4: High Court

Jamie gives Harry a quick and gory history of famous cases at Scotland’s highest criminal court. Goochery: Is Deacon Bridie a form of pasty?

Chapter 5: From High Court to Assembly HallsA scenic stroll towards the Mound opens up a spectacular view of the city – and Bank of Scotland glories from better days.

Chapter 6: Assembly Halls

One of the biggest venues of the Fringe when it is not the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Goochery: What’s that ghastly Gothic fume-stained monument we can see pointing heavenward?

Assembly Halls



Victoria Street

Grassmarket

Underbelly

Chapter 7: From Assembly Halls to Victoria Street

Back up the hill, the way we came, with a quick look down towards the Fringe Half Price Hut. In roughly five

minutes we will reach the top of Victoria Street.

Chapter 8: Victoria Street Jamie rejoins Harry (with a little difficulty) on the road linking George iv Bridge with Cowgate: Goochery: What happened to the Wizard of West Bow?

Chapter 10: Grassmarket

Time to rest, relax and reflect on famous pubs. Harry: They’ve left the well open,

we’re just going to have a seat on the edge here...

Goochery: She came back to life, and

then opened this pub!

Chapter 9: From Victoria Street to Grassmarket On the way down the hill, passing bars, bistros, shops and galleries, Bruce and Susan remember the heat of the Underbelly.

Susan: Interestingly that’s where the condemned cell for the High Court is.

Bruce: And that was where they made a comedy venue.

Susan: They certainly did...it’s a good place to die.

Chapter 11: From Grassmarket to Underbelly

Heading along the road from West Bow we’re taking a short walk along Cowgate where cattle were driven to market in the middle ages, you see a different kind of

cattle these days.

Chapter 12: Underbelly Jamie catches up with Harry at a famous Fringe venue in the bowels of the Old Town. Are there really demons down under? Morton and Morrison: Think Hitler’s bunker with a box office.

Greyfriars Bobby

Greyfriars Kirkyard


Chapter 15: From Greyfriar’s Bobby to Greyfriar’s Kirkyard

We can’t leave without visiting the kirkyard just up the side street beside Bobby’s Bar. Legend has it that Bobby sat on his master’s grave here for years but more about

that from Susan...

Chapter 14: Greyfriar’s BobbyCold and tired, Jamie takes a seat on Edinburgh’s smallest listed building ...probably a bad move. Morton and Morrison: Bobby? I think the poor wee thing was stapled there every night.

Chapter 16: Greyfriar’s Kirkyard

He’s fallen down a well, walked into a car and head-butted a lamppost... Jamie rests by an open grave Goochery: When and why was Greyfriar’s kirkyard built? What are you doing down there Professor?

Chapter 17: From Greyfriar’s Kirkyard to Bristo SquareFrom graves to gravy (thanks Harry), Bristo Square is just a short walk away – there’s an unforgettable vibe here during the Fringe, watch out for those skateboarders all year round (and round).

Chapter 18: Bristo SquareThe beating heart of Edinburgh’s Comedy Festival. ‘Professor, are you wise to light your pipe by the big purple cow?’ Morton and Morrison: It’s quite fun to go there outside the Festival and think, ‘Where did everybody go?’


Bristo Square


Geroge Square Gardens

Chapter 19: From Bristo Square to George Square GardensWe’re off to George Square Gardens, leaving behind the Gilded Balloon and Udderbelly to find this year’s centre of the Assembly Empire – filling the gardens with Spiegeltents.

Chapter 20: George Square GardensAt the burlesque hub of the Fringe, Jamie gives Harry a quick lesson on

the facts of life... and learns one himself

By the way, what is the common name of the most famous Spiegeltent?

Chapter 21: From George Square Gardens to Pleasance We’re now on our way to the Pleasance. If we keep to our pleasantly leisurely pace it should take around 10 minutes to get there.

As usual Dougal will guide you there with lots to see and hear along the way. Includ-ing some choice stories from Bruce and Su-san about Assembly Rooms when they were based in George Street.

Susan directed Rory Bremner there...’He asked the way to the toilet and I directed him ’...and many other memories.

Pleasance


Chapter 22: Pleasance

A chance to recover at ‘the smile on the face of the Fringe’.

Morton and Morrison: On a warm summer night, this is the best vibe in the Fringe...it’s where Boswell was al-ways getting the clap.

Chapter 23: From Pleasance to St Andrew Square

Now for the longest journey on this tour, it’s going to take us around 20 minutes to get to St Andrew Square but as always there is plenty to see. Its good exercise of course (no need to drop into Edinburgh University centre for sport and exercise!).

Bruce and Susan keep us going with gossip from inside the Fringe and as we move out of the Old Town Susan peels back layers of history with the true story of Lizzie the drunken, fornicating wan-ton who was exiled from Edinburgh to... Glasgow.

Pleasance

St. Andrew Square


Chapter 24: St. Andrew Square

Our guides reach the monument to Henry Dundas, a political powerhouse towering over the city.

Oh no, they’re going up.

Goochery: Was he a good man, the Viscount?

Chapter 25: From St Andrew Square to The StandSo to our final destination, this time it is just a short walk passing the grand bank buildings. On a

clear day you can see Fife across the Firth of Forth. Just before Harvey Nix Susan has a great story involving a stripper and a hanky. But we need to find out what happened to Jamie and Harry...


St. Andrew Square

The Stand

Chapter 26: The Stand Comedy Club“I’ll be your eyes Professor.”

Harry leads us to our final destination. But who’s that behind us?

Morton and Morrison: Did you hear the one about Johnny Vegas?

Tweeting on the TourWe’d love you to tweet about your experiences of the places we visit on the tour, share your stories and make suggestions. If you want to discuss the tour, please include the tag #edcomedytour in your tweet. To ask us a question, or offer a suggestion, please mention @walkingheads. And to join in the conversation about each of the chapters on the tour, please include the following tags:

Chatper 1: Introduction #ECTINFChatper 2: The Fringe Shop #ECTFRIChapter 3: From The Fringe Shop to High Court #ECTFRCChapter 4: High Court #ECTHCTChapter 5: From High Court to Assembly Halls #ECTHAHChapter 6: Assembly Halls #ECTAMBChapter 7: From The Assembly Halls to Victoria Street #ECTAVTChapter 8: Victoria Street #ECTVSTChapter 9: From Victoria Street to Grassmarket #ECTVGTChapter 10: Grassmarket #ECTGMKChapter 11: From Grassmarket to Underbelly, Cowgate Entrance #ECTGUYChapter 12: Underbelly, Cowgate #ECTUBYChapter 13: From The Underbelly to Greyfriars #ECTUGFChapter 14: Greyfriar’s Bobby Statue #ECTGYSChapter 15: From Greyfriar’s Bobby Statue to Greyfriar’s Kirkyard #ECTGYKChapter 16: Greyfriar’s Kirkyard #ECTGFKChapter 17: From Greyfriar’s Kirkyard to Bristo Square #ECTGBSChapter 18: Bristo Square #ECTBSQChapter 19: From Bristo Square to George Square Gardens #ECTBGSChapter 20: George Square Gardens #ECTGSGChapter 21: From George Square Gardens to Pleasance #ECTGSPChapter 22: Pleasance #ECTPLSChapter 23: From Pleasance to St. Andrew Square #ECTPASChapter 24: St. Andrew Square #ECTSASChapter 25: From St. Andrew Square to The Stand #ECTASTChapter 26: The Stand #ECTTSTChapter 27: Thank You and End #ECTEND

Edinburgh Comedy Tour: CreditsWe’d like to thank everyone who helped create the Walking Heads Edinburgh Comedy Tour.

Tour writing and presenting: Jamie MacDonald and Harry Gooch Additional material: Bruce Morton and Susan Morrison Research and script editing: Jamie MacDonald and Fay Young Digital media production: Inner Ear (www.innerear.co.uk) Executive producer: Dougal Perman Producers: Anny Deery and Andy McColgan Audio editing: Bobby Perman and Kurt Abernethy Recordings: Kurt Abernethy, Harry Gooch and Dougal Perman Music: Findlay MacInnes and Scott Walker

Photography: Andrea McCarthy at My Talking Dog Website and app design: Ryan Addams at Addams Design App development: SpotSpecific (www.spotspecific.com)

PR and marketing: Sharon McLaughlin at McLaughlin Gibson PR executives: Hannah Jackson and Katie Ronald

Recorded on location in Edinburgh and in the studio in Glasgow.

Special thanks: Alan Gibson, Ron MacDonald, Fred Shedden, David Bankier, Philip Rodney, Ray Perman, Andy Brown, Tommy Perman, Scottish Enterprise Tourism Innovation Fund, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and Radio Magnetic.

For more information about Walking Heads please visit our website: www.walkingheads.net.

@walkingheadswww.walkingheads.netfacebook.com/walkingheads

Edinburgh Comedy Tour Brochure

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