Day 8 was not one of the best.

For the first time, our gig was a bit flat and I wasn’t sure why. I moved a couple of jokes earlier in my set to try something out but it was hard to judge from the quiet crowd whether that was an improvement or not. And just to add further confusion, one line we’d talked about rewriting suddenly got a good laugh. We consoled ourselves that one slightly weaker gig out of five so far is an all right hit-rate.

I went to the gym to blow the cobwebs away a bit and ended up with blisters on my toes and lost a button from my cardigan.

It rained and rained and rained.

On the positive side, I went along to see my mate James W Smith in his first solo show, Living in Syntax. The audience there clearly enjoyed it and it deserves more of them, as befits any show that features Latin poetry and a game of Boggle. 6.10pm daily at the Royal Mile Tavern, and it’s free.

Last stop of the day was to see Michael Legge‘s Curse Sir Walter Raleigh, which was the best stand-up show I’ve seen here so far. Michael spends an hour with no microphone shouting funny things from his mournful teddy bear face on the subject of good and bad manners. It’s hilarious and also features a Doctor Who joke, which is always a bonus, but there’s is only one more show remaining.

And outside, it continued to rain.

Got back to my room with a stinking headache which I realised was my own fault for not rehydrating properly after the gym. Made an emergency trip through the lakes on South Bridge to Tesco and then popped a couple of Nurofen and went to bed.

Sleep. Blessed, endangered sleep.

What I learnt today: It is important to drink water when exercising, you idiot.

Recommended shows: Michael Legge: Curse Sir Walter Raleigh

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast, 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at the Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase at the Pleasance Dome, 4pm on August 17th (book online).

As Dan and I left the Pleasance Dome in the early hours of Day 5, he pointed out the poster for the Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase.

“Are you on that?” he asked.

“Yes, I should be,” I replied. I remembered quite clearly doing the photoshoot, alongside a host of other comedians, so I should be on the poster – unless my awkward smile had been cropped out or a more famous comic’s head had been photoshopped onto my body.

Neither of these things had happened and there I was, on a poster. Wearing exactly the same clothes in the photo as I was wearing stood looking at the photo. And I honestly have more than one set of clothes. And have been alternating.

We don’t do shows on Sundays so I took the opportunity to see one of the acts that clashes with ours, The Gentlemen of Leisure (the old GOL). Partway into their show, I realised with increasing horror that I had left my vital umbrella in the bar, hanging off the end of a table to dry out.

I figured there were three possible futures: I would leave the show, find my umbrella where I had left it and head out into rainy Edinburgh with my trusty anti-precipitation shield (umbrella); I would leave the show, see my umbrella had gone, retrieve it from the kindly bar staff and head out into rainy Edinburgh with my trusty anti-precipitation shield (umbrella); or I would leave the show, see my umbrella had gone, find no trace of it and head out into rainy Edinburgh with no protection from the precipitation (I would get wet).

It turned out to be the first one.

I went along to Tricity Vogue’s Ukulele Cabaret in the evening to see my old schoolmate Ben playing uke (obv). He’s had a ukulele for two months and is incredibly deft with it – he can play separate strings and everything. I’ve had mine for two years and still just bash chords. Though, as Ben pointed out to me, he’d been playing guitar for 15 years first – whereas I “play” the ukulele specifically because I can’t play the guitar.

Spent the rest of the evening geeking out with Dan and Tom from the Gentlemen of Leisure (the old GOL). Surrounded by the beautiful people of Brooke’s Bar, I suspect we were the only ones setting each other quiz questions and discussing our favourite episodes of modern Doctor Who. We are pretty cool.

What I learnt today: The first mobile phone call in the UK was made by Ernie Wise. (Thanks, Tom.)

Recommended shows: The Gentlemen of Leisure Present: The Death of the Novel and Superbard and the Sexy Quantum Stories.

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast, 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at the Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase at the Pleasance Dome, 4pm on August 17th (book online).

I trudged through the pretty incessant rain yesterday to register for the gym but their computer was down so I went away again and had a nap.

But then I went back later and registered. Take that, expectations.

The Pleasance gym is, it turns out, pretty nice. On the youthspeak spectrum that runs from “gay” to “sick”, it is definitely sick. Which means good. While gay, entirely erroneously and with more than a whiff of homophobia, means bad. I don’t make the rulez.

A gym man took me on a tour. He showed to the CV area (where I would late resume my exercise – geddit?) and then led me to a room full of giant barbells and giant men.

“I don’t know if you’re interested in these sorts of weights…?”

“Yeah, well, er, y’know… No, no. Just the little ones.”

I did 3.5 miles on the treadmill, accompanied by one of the special running playlists I’ve set up on my iPod. Nerdcore hip hop for the win.

Dashed off to see a show, had a big dinner (the gym had left me on negative calories for the day – I’m counting) and then came back to my room to do some writing.

I’d been pondering a stand-up idea that, if I could pull it off, would be the most awesome piece of stand-up comedy ever written. I may be underselling it. I imagined it would take at least the rest of my time up here, absorb my every waking thought and slowly drive me insane. I pictured Mozart at the end of Amadeus, frantically scribbling to complete my magnum opus, Salieri looking on jealously, wishing he was as funny, but he isn’t because he’s a composer so he should stick to what he knows and butt out.

Finished the first draft in a couple of hours. I should’ve been pleased but I was slightly disappointed. It was too easy to be awesome. It wasn’t even that funny, although that can be an overrated way of measuring comedy. It was just some words, albeit in a spreadsheet. You know you’ve written a complicated script when you had to do it in Excel.

Still, it did mean that I’d got that displacement activity out of the way (hello, blog) and I could get back to the writing I’m supposed to be doing up here.

So I popped out for a drink at midnight and got to bed at 4. Welcome to Edinburgh.

What I learnt today: The most important item I packed was my umbrella. Ella. Ella. Eh. Eh. Eh.

Recommended show: Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine & Nat Luurtsema: Jigsaw

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast, 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at the Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase at the Pleasance Dome, 4pm on August 17th (book online).