'Doing nothing but sleeping and fighting in bins'

Colin Hoult on the best and worst of the Fringe

Colin Hoult is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe with his show called simply Colin at Pleasance Courtyard at 8.20pm. Here he shares what he can't get enough of at the festival, his most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously…

Fringe binge

I love to spend the days painfully hungover watching traumatic theatre shows in tiny rooms, the more challenging, demanding and terrifying the better.

If you're really sozzled from the night before and you're watching something where the audience are whipped into their seats with branches at 2 in the afternoon it can feel like more of a journey of discovery than the finest acid.

That and hanging out with my crew – James, Paddy and Pete Heat – drinking buckets of wine!

Fringe cringe

I get extremely nervous when people are mean about other people’s shows around me as I always know the person being talked about is inevitably going to be standing next to me or sat on the table opposite. I can't handle it, I tell you!

Many years ago I went to see an open-air Hamlet with my girlfriend at the time and was hilarious in the interval doing impressions of the stars’ OTT performance only to find he was running his lines just below me. I couldn't speak for a month!

Fringe whinge

I hate the fact that every year I will bring up a small library of books and projects to read or work on while I get a free moment. Then half a day into the run I'll have forgotten all of them and waste my days doing nothing but sleeping and fighting in bins.

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Published: 4 Aug 2024