August 2006 - ONE TO GO!!!

Hello everyone! (She says, as if thousands of people will be reading this... ah well, we can but dream!)

On 20th August, I went up to the Edinburgh Festival for 3 nights. I had very much fun, thank you.

I also went through a nasty stage of pointing at famous people and announcing "YOU/THEY'RE FAMOUS!!" (depending on whether they were close enough to talk to directly, or if I was just stating it in general). I then picked up a slightly worrying habit of being exceedingly picky. However, it worked out very nicely.

I'd been planning for months to get Tim Minchin ("the next big thing in musical comedy") to sign when I was at Edinburgh. I'd not got him to do so in March, and had been mocked profusely by my mother for this. My argument is "He's just Tim" (he's a friend.. therefore I struggle to gauge his famousness)... but The Daily Telegraph had a column entitled "Celebrity Somethings" (I forget the second word of the title) and it featured a certain Mr Minchin. He is undoubtedly a media whore (he's all over papers and radio and has even been spotted on TV, no less) and if the Telegraph claimed him to be a celebrity, that was good enough for me.

So, I knew I'd get ONE autograph at Edinburgh. I also wanted to get Adam Hills (famous Aussie comedian), because I'd vaguely spoken to him twice, a year and a half ago.

Then I happened to find myself in a conversation with Wil Anderson (famous Aussie comedian). Which was pretty cool, because unlike a lot of people in this country, I appreciated just how much of a famous Aussie he was. And, suddenly, I found myself going "YOU'RE FAMOUS!" (in case he'd forgotten) - "Can I have your autograph?" It was mid-conversation and completely out of the blue, and really rather daft, but oh well. He humoured me, and we ended up having a nice chatty acquaintance by the end of the fest (he'd come over to talk to me and my friends, rather than us having to go over to him, which I thought was nice.)

I then shunned a famous Aussie lady (Corrine Grant, from Rove Live, which was as seen on Neighbours)..... and some random dude from Home and Away who I saw no less than FIVE times. I also didn't get Charlie Pickering (who's a little less famous than Wil and Hillsy, but often seen on TV in Oz anyways), even though I spoke to him a few times.

I then spotted Hillsy, rambled at him, completely confused him, won him back by making him laugh by looking on the bright side of life, and got him to sign in crayon. He then recognised me the next day as we passed on the street, and he grinned and said hi, which was nice.

THEN - thank god I'd been picky with the Aussies earlier - because no less than ALAN DAVIES, aka JONATHON CREEK, walked by. No one else had recognised him... or, if they had, they were ignoring him. I, on the other hand, hurried to catch up with him, and he very happily signed in crayon for me. He was very nice, and I was a bit apologetic for having nabbed him like that, but he didn't seem to mind.

And then a minute or two later, the Minchmobile walked by, so we handed him the white crayon and made him sign away. I was explaining the whole challenge to him, and said that ppl wanted me to get him to sign, and he laughed and was like "that's not a challenge - you see me all the time!" He has a point. I also said my "you're just Tim" reasoning, and he laughed and agreed. but he still signed. He's like the all-new Bill Bailey. He's going to be HUGE.

Also, a bit earlier, we'd walked by Rich Hall (as seen on QI)... but hadn't been able to get an autograph due to him having his hands full. So I just said hi, and he said hi back in a nice friendly way, so that made me happy. He's COOL.

And then Jimmy Carr walked past me. Twice. I ignored him. Twice.

It was fun. :)