Natalie Palamides on the best and worst of Edinburgh Fringe

Natalie Palamides is at the Edinburgh Fringe with her new show WEER at Traverse Theatre at 9.30pm. Here she shares what she can't get enough of at the festival, her most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously…

Edinburgh binge

My favourite part of the festival is hiking Arthur’s Seat on the last day to watch the sun rise with all of the clown freaks. 

We blast music from our shitty Bluetooth speakers as we hike away whatever pressures we felt the past 30 days. The beads of stress drip off our furrowed brows, down onto our overheated thighs and arses, cooling the tired and torn muscles with sweet misty relief as it’s grazed by the Scottish breeze as we reach the peak and we sing with whatever power is left in our voices to cherished 90s alt rock, like Third Eye Blind or something like that.

 I wanna do more of that this year, but it traditionally only happens on the last day, so prob gonna be tough to rally the troops for it to happen before then. 

 I love going to see shows, comedy, theatre, circus, you name it. I try to see as much as I can. This year I’m excited to see Furiozo by Piotr Sikora, BriTANick, Three Sisters Not By Chekhov, Erin Farrington, Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip, Underground Monk Show, Mr. Chonkers, and Riki Lindhome. 

This year I wanna see more legit theatre shows—Arthur Miller type dishes. Gimme the drama, well constructed blocking and economic stagecraft, Summerhall. You can catch my ass at Summerhall and Traverse. That’s where all the real theatre be, no?

I love Scottish breakfast. The blood pudding is so good, and I just can’t find it in LA. Gonna try to have it for every meal this year. 

 Edinburgh cringe

Most embarrassing moment from Fringe might be that one time some fans of Nate offered to bake me a penis cake and asked me which flavour cake I wanted, without thinking of how it would look and the political implications I said ‘chocolate’ and was brought a very delicious, very large, unintentionally racially charged cake. 

 Another embarrassing moment was when I had gotten a fish from the fishmonger (as late in the day as I could, it closed at 4pm) for a prop to use in a midnight​ show of Stamptown. 

In traditional Stamptown fashion the show ran long, which probably didn’t make much difference in this scenario, the fish was already pretty rank. I didn’t get onstage until around 2am. When I brought the fish out in the bit, my friend hits me with it and it exploded all over the place and the venue smelt like fish for days. Sorry about that. 

I hope it was funny enough to justify the smell. I’m not sure anything is funny enough to justify the smell of a raw fish that has been sitting in someone’s backpack all day in the height of summer, Scottish summer, but still, hot enough for a fish to rot in a backpack. 

 Edinburgh whinge

The worst thing about the Fringe is having to pretend to enjoy the 3am crepes (no disrespect intended to the crepe truck, the staff are always so lovely) but the crepes are flavourless and never cooked for long enough and please can there please be just one other late night food option that doesn’t taste like cardboard? I promise you will make a killing. 

Now that I’m thinking of it, there is a late night kebab spot that’s actually pretty good. But I’d still like another option. Burger would be great. Or pizza. Or cake. Or ice cream. Or hot dog. Or noodles. Or tacos. Or cookies. Or haggis. I love haggis. I love Scottish breakfast.

Published: 2 Aug 2024