Happy Edinburgh Fringe everyone! I’ve seen lots of great people giving great advice and I thought I’d share my tips.
1. Do a good show. You’ve paid a lot of money to be there and put yourself through so much already. Don’t be bad.
Getting desperate. PLEASE can you RT and appeal to
@TwitterSupport
. I’ve been through all the proper channels and I don’t know how to prove my
@mcabournsmith
account is me. The loss of platform is pretty disastrous. Help me friends (especially ones who know my irl email)
2. Remember to sleep with people. I’ve done fringes where I haven’t done this and it’s an absolute waste of time. Aim for a couple a week. Do your techie first.
Just got my phone out to show my ticket at the station and the photo of me and Ryan Reynolds came up. It flashed through my mind that I could probably just show that and they’d let me through.
5. Live on kebabs and ket. Do whatever you can to become fun. Stay up. If the party’s over, find another party. When that’s over, go to Hunter Square and wake the rough sleepers. Describe your show to them. What do *they* think of you?
Sometimes I look around despairingly at how little I’ve achieved, but then remember I’m pretty much EXACTLY the same age as Liz Truss. It’s very weird to look at someone who’s achieved the highest office in the country and think “well at least I haven’t done as badly as THAT”.
4. Read everything you can get your hands on about your show. If someone’s seen your show, it’s only polite to hear their thoughts. Google your name a few times a day. Set alerts for new mentions. Ask the audience as they’re leaving. Or even during your show.
Guys it’s FINE - who needs schools or theatres or rivers or homes or nurses or public transport or farms or roads or vegetables or sorry I’ve lost my thread
7. Always do a vocal warm-up. Do a few a day. Even in the street. Do it while flyering. Maybe people will enjoy that so much they want to see your show.
Kathie Lee Gifford once asked Martin Short about his wife "are you still in love?", not knowing she died a year ago. He said "madly in love". When asked why he didn't correct her, he said he didn't want to embarrass her on live television and that his answer was the truth anyway.
Watching Bake Off and discussing Paul’s trick of giving himself more power with the Hollywood Handshake. Prue should up her game by flashing her boobs if she really loves something.
#Proobs
#GBBO
#BakeOff
It’s Crushed day!
@RosieisaHolt
tries to explain the allure of a sardonic
@guardian
reader, and we discuss whether intense people can ever hide their inner intensity. Which seems appropriate as I head to Wrexham to try to meet Ryan Reynolds…
Have you heard this week’s episode yet? Lovely, lovely
@caitlinmoran
and lovely, lovely Sali Hughes, recorded at
@LondonPodFest
. Expect heartbreak, Hip Hop dads, and getting the horn for cartoon Robin Hood.
NEW EPISODE THIS THURSDAY...
It's Pride month, so the brilliant
@CrushedbyMCS
talks about the uplifting 2014 comedy Pride, set in a long forgotten Britain where kind people listen to one another... and how that might punch you right in the tearducts.
… the trip home). I read a funny poem during the service and afterwards, a local cousin of the Italian bride approached me to say nice things. I thanked him and he said “I hear you are comedy actress” “Yes” I smiled. His next, excited question was “DO YOU KNOW DIANE MORGAN?!?!”
Well it’s impossible to compare as I met Hugh when I was 15 and obsessed and thought we might have a future. Now I’m in my mid 40s and married, and KNOW Ryan and I have a future. ❤️
Husband reminds me not to be too sad about Barry Humphries because I didn’t know him. But to be fair I know loooooads of people in real life I don’t like as much as Barry Humphries.
Very excited about this episode. Not just the brilliant
@eleanormorton
sharing a frankly unhealthy interest in the Yeo Valley yoghurt boys with
@MCabournSmith
, but our first live episode, recorded at
@machcomedyfest
.
There was a dog at the hairdresser’s and when I saw it out of the corner of my eye I bent down to stroke what turned out to be the hairdresser’s arm plugging in a hairdryer.
It’s Crushed day!
I’m talking about teen crushes and first love with the marvellous
@sarabarron
. Expect anecdotes about writing erotica, aged 12, the improbably named Baskin twins, and the eternal allure of a bad boy.
Crushos! Help! Please vote for us in the British Podcast Awards!
I ❤️❤️❤️making this show. We’re up against all the big boys and it’s time to make a stand. Thanks 💫💫💫
Ooh! BBC4 are repeating A Bit of Fry and Laurie from the very start this evening. Here’s the magnificent
@MCabournSmith
from the RO3 archive talking about her love of the soupiest, twistiest sketch show…
SO excited to announce that my special guests for our live Crushed show are only bloody 🚨
@caitlinmoran
and
#salihughes
. I’m thinking of getting them to wrestle over some of their crush choices. CAN’T WAIT. Tickets here.
Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to an Italian wedding, in an incredible location overlooking Lake Como. It was almost impossible to get to, the roads were so winding and narrow (the pharmacist immediately mimed the problem when I bought some travel sickness tablets for…
It's a birthday special! Husband of the podcast (or more literally, husband of Margaret) Dan Tetsell shares his own crushes and talks about what it's like to live with a raging crushaholic.
Absolutely lush episode today with the marvellous
@sueperkins
. Talking about everything from crushing on Marion Ravenwood to exhibition martial arts at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls (watching not participating) 💕
This week's episode is now live - the lovely
@AngelaBarnes
in conversation with
@MCabournSmith
- expect lurid tales of Kenny Everett, George Michael and a quite awfully lovely story about The Big Breakfast....
I am doing THIS fun thing on September 15th: talking about all the men, women and Muppets we've fancied with Sali Hughes for Margaret Cabourn-Smith's fabulous CRUSHED podcast. Come along for hormonal appreciation and whooping:
It’s Crushed day and god I love this episode.
@TattyMacleod
spills the tea on her own early crushes, and whether French and British women crush differently… ❤️🇫🇷❤️🇬🇧❤️
Margaret has been in bed ever since we arrived with a badly inflamed foot, result of gnat-bites picked up during an evening on Putney Common with a Young Man.
@fran_marshall21
@captainward
@CrushedbyMCS
Me Brittas was part of my gay awakening! I had no idea this was a thing until I listened to your gorgeous podcast. I was 12 and when he used that whistle, I realised ‘Hey I think I like men!’ Thank you for making me know I’m not the only one
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts while driving lately, and if I (sadly) die, it’s because I’ve swerved off the road laughing
@CrushedbyMCS
especially the episode with her and real life husband
@tetsell
I love love love this weeks’s episode with Juliet Cowan. Gaslighting pen pals, sisterly rivalry and a surprising amount of discussion of the thinking woman’s Trade Union leader - Mick Lynch. Phwoar. Get it here ➡️➡️
Birthday episode now live!
@tetsell
talks to podcast host (and his wife)
@MCabournSmith
about crushes and unrequited love. And what it's like living with someone who goes weak at the knees for weedy men off the telly.
👀 We're back!
#LondonPodFest
returns to
@KingsPlace
from 7 - 17 September for 11 days of live shows, workshops, meet and greets, panels and classes to celebrate the art of podcasting 🎙️💙
🎟️ Tickets go on sale 15.06.23
The new episode with
@MCabournSmith
&
@SoozUK
is live now. It’s a little trip through Sooz’s life in crushes - from Top Cat to David Hyde Pierce. Via Bruce Forsyth. Of course.
Absolutely delighted to say - we have merch! So if you want a t-shirt, tote bag or jigsaw with Ryan Reynolds face on it, check it out. (There's free postage this weekend)
Had a blast on
@CrushedbyMCS
discussing formative crushes, teenage lust, workplace dalliances, and the famous Game of Thrones actor who was in my class at primary school, and also one of my first crushes. Also some ahem, thoughts, on Peter Andre.
Nightmare! I’m locked out of my
@mcabournsmith
Twitter account + they’re saying they can’t authenticate it because it’s the wrong email attached (I don’t recognise the email they say is attached). Can anyone help? Will be gutted to lose 16k followers and start again.
@elonmusk
And we’re back for another instalment of Guilty Feminist watches Just like that and we have
@CrushedbyMCS
on board this week! What did you think? Fav episode so far?
🎧