The forecast was for a day of rain - heavy, drizzle or light and it the met office got it absolutely spot on. With this in mind we didn't surface until quite late and by mid morning we found ourselves having a coffee in a small cafe on the Royal Mile. We went to our first free gig at lunchtime - The Tourists was a sketch show and it was surprisingly good. The script was brilliant, funny, subtle and at times surreal. Worth every penny ;-)

On the way back to the flat for a spot of lunch we saw a band playing with great enthusiasm and it made us realise why we enjoy the festival so much. It is so alive and we feel great about being a small part of it.<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/?attachment_id=133" rel="attachment wp-att-133">Band on Grassmarket</a>

After a bite of lunch we decided to try our luck with another free show of three "up and coming" comedians. We were a little late in finding the room in the venue and so we had to stand at the back. As it happens this did us a great favour. The first act was reasonably good with a theme based around people who unnecessarily press buttons at Pelican crossings when someone has already pressed it. He had a soundtrack which he used to good effect. He got a thumbs up. The next act was trying to play the shy student act but failed miserably on all counts, thumbs down here and the final act was a guy who was billed as a famous cricketer and he came on as an over enthusiastic sportsman, enthused by his sport to the exclusion of everything else. We left before he'd finished because he didn't amuse us at all and we were embarrassed by the banality of it all.

The highlight of the day was Ruby Wax. She was truly fantastic. Her show was based on her experience of her mental breakdown and depression. It was a very professional production and she combined her humour with her friend Judith on the piano who sang songs that created a symbiotic feel to the whole event. It was humourous and moving at the same time which is a difficult balance to maintain.

To finish the day we quickly booked up to see Mark Dolans, a stand up comedian who apparently has appeared on Channel 4. He was clever, confident in his dialogue with the audience but it wasn't a laugh out loud experience. I read somewhere recently that our appreciation of stand up comedy has been spoiled by programmes like "Live at the Appollo" because this gives edited highlights and we start to think that every comedy show is full on belly laughs every second. Mark Dolans was probably very good but he didn't rise to our expectations. We expect a comedian to be clever and laugh out loud!

Of course all of the above events were surounded by street theatre, music, comedy, magic and juggling. Here's another example...<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/?attachment_id=136" rel="attachment wp-att-136">Depression in the rain</a> but their harmonies were magical.