Reviews

The Fringe is nearing its end, and I'm fucking tired. I've had an awesome, awesome time, but I'm really looking forward to a few days relaxation at home now. And feeling slightly depressed and worn out, being slaughtered in a review by Chortle doesn't help. That's the second bad review I've gotten, and the second to refer to my act as "nonchalant." It's too bad I come across that way, as it really doens't match up with my self-image, but then again that's probably the case with everybody. The reviews from Hairline, the List and the Scotsman were all excellent though, and the fact that people either love or hate what I do is not news to me. Still, being slagged off towards the end of the festival feels fairly crappy.

I have four more gigs to go, as well as shorter spots at different clubs. Really looking forward to the gigs with Stanhope in London now. I need it.

My first Edinburgh review!

Kate Copstick from the Scotsman was at my show earlier this week, and she wrote a really nice review. For some reason, and despite several email requests, the Scotsman haven't put the review online. I almost missed it. Kate was however cool enough to mail it to me, and here it is (personally I think it reads more like a four star review, but I might be biased):

COMEDY
Dag Sørås
3 stars 
The Stand(12)

From the land that gave us trolls, Ibsen and A-ha comes Dag Sørås, recommended by no less than Doug Stanhope himself. And that is good enough for me.
  This is not so much a show as an hour-long club set, but it is peppered with enough good stuff to hold an audience, even at midnight. Sørås is the master of the comedic similie, and deliciously appalling imagery. Religious zealots, people talking bullshit, and Tony Blair as peace envoy all give Sørås fuel for his bonfire of idiocies. His explanation of the true effect of the end of slavery is quite brilliant, and his argument about Obama ending the occupation but leaving 50,000 troops there should be on every anti-war activist's lips. It is also laugh-out loud funny and utterly, appallingly accurate.
  His closing riff on how feeling uncomfortable is the essence of feeling alive uses another of his fabulously wrong similies. And then there was a bit about fingering a dead deer... Sørås's dark, but Doug's dead right. 
Kate Copstick
Until 29 August
P51

Edinburgh!

So I've been over here at the Fringe for almost a week now, and I'm having a great fucking time! All the people who work at the Stand are really friendly, and seem like genuine comedy fans. The room I'm doing (Stand 4) is very small, which is just as well, as I'm having a bit of a hard time drawing a crowd. Yesterday got cancelled because only two people bought tickets, and I knew one of them. Sunday was almost sold out though, so being here is very much like being a manic depressive. But cancelling yesterday meant I had the chance to see Nick Sun do his show over at Stand 2, and I laughed my ass off! Nick only had two people in the crowd when we got there, which made me feel even worse for cancelling. I won't do that again, unless no one shows up.

I'm also doing a bunch of shorter sets around town, and most of them have been really good. You need that boost of adrenaline that comes from performing in front of a bigger crowd, and it brings back some of the confidence that an audience in the single digits just staring at you might suck out of you.

There have been a couple of reviewers at the shows, but I haven't seen anything in print yet. My friend Magnus Betnèr got a good review in The List, and I want to thank him for plugging my show. Tonight I'm doing "Political Animals" at Stand 1 right after I'm done with my show, and its being hosted by Andy Zaltzman, who is a great comic. I'm looking forward to catching his show as well at some point. Now, time for a breakfast pint.