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<<<<   11124   >>>>

Topic: I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe!

Message 1 / 5
martin_e_hoodJul 23, 2017
 
 

I almost feel I should introduce myself again having been such an infrequent contributor to the group, however, I have been lurking in the background following the conversations with keen interest.


I've been planning to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for quite a few years and 2017 is the year it is happening. In a week's time I fly from Australia to Edinburgh, spend twelve days attending 39 shows and soaking up the ambiance and also no doubt some of the omnipresent Scottish rain.


If any other group members are planning to be in Edinburgh between Thursday 4 and Wednesday 16 August, I'd love to catch up and meet with like minded Just A Minute enthusiasts. I'm staying in the 'Old town' area near to Grassmarket.


Unfortunately, my bid for random draw tickets to the Just a Minute recordings was unsuccessful. I applied for a single ticket to six separate BBC recordings and missed out on every single show. I'm sure if I'd paid more attention when learning probability during maths at high school and university I would be able to work out the odds of that happening as being quite long.


I don't believe in gambling or in deities, however, I have a feeling that the gods of chance are currently having a good laugh at my expense right now.


In the unlikely event that anyone else has successfully snagged tickets to either of the Edinburgh JAM recordings and the even more unlikely event you require a companion to use a second ticket, make it me, me, me! Please?


Do email me directly if you would like to meet up in Edinburgh or if you can help make my dream come true of attending a Just a Minute recording.


All the best,


Martin


 
<<<<   11125   >>>>

Topic: Re: I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe!

Message 2 / 5
Dave BJul 25, 2017
 
 
I've only two two tickets twice, and never won the draw for a single ticket. I can't help thinking it would be worth while to email bbc and ask.


From: "mhood@... [just-a-minute]" <just-a-minute@...>
To: just-a-minute@...
Sent: Monday, 24 July 2017, 0:09
Subject: [just-a-minute] I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe!

 
I almost feel I should introduce myself again having been such an infrequent contributor to the group, however, I have been lurking in the background following the conversations with keen interest.

I've been planning to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for quite a few years and 2017 is the year it is happening. In a week's time I fly from Australia to Edinburgh, spend twelve days attending 39 shows and soaking up the ambiance and also no doubt some of the omnipresent Scottish rain.

If any other group members are planning to be in Edinburgh between Thursday 4 and Wednesday 16 August, I'd love to catch up and meet with like minded Just A Minute enthusiasts. I'm staying in the 'Old town' area near to Grassmarket.

Unfortunately, my bid for random draw tickets to the Just a Minute recordings was unsuccessful. I applied for a single ticket to six separate BBC recordings and missed out on every single show. I'm sure if I'd paid more attention when learning probability during maths at high school and university I would be able to work out the odds of that happening as being quite long.

I don't believe in gambling or in deities, however, I have a feeling that the gods of chance are currently having a good laugh at my expense right now.

In the unlikely event that anyone else has successfully snagged tickets to either of the Edinburgh JAM recordings and the even more unlikely event you require a companion to use a second ticket, make it me, me, me! Please?

Do email me directly if you would like to meet up in Edinburgh or if you can help make my dream come true of attending a Just a Minute recording.

All the best,

Martin



 
<<<<   11128   >>>>

Topic: Re: I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe!

Message 3 / 5
martin_e_hoodAug 9, 2017
 
 
Thanks Dave.

By formidable persistence I managed to get a ticket to the first JAM recording at the Edinburgh Festival and by amazing serendipity I also got to see the second show as well!

Dean told me that there are always some tickets available at he venue and this was indeed true, however, getting them required effort. The tickets were given away on a first come first served basis at 11am on the morning of the recording. For fairness, there was a maximum of two tickets per person and they could be for only one of the two shows. 

I arrived promptly at 9am when the gates to the George Herriot School opened, was scanned for sharps and any other contraband by the friendly security staff and found I was already 7th in the line that would grow to about 100 people by 11am. The two hours passed quickly chatting with the other hopefuls and at least it wasn't raining. The kind BBC staff also brought out chairs and rugs for a couple of the more infirm members of the queue.

By 11:02 I had my prized ticket for the early show but this was not the end of the queuing for the day. An hour before each show starts, all tickets must be 'validated' where a sequence number is attached to your ticket and this determines the order you get to enter the venue. To be sure of getting a good seat it is necessary to queue again from about an hour before validation starts. At 3:30pm I was number 9 in the queue that would eventually grow to more than 300. At 4:30pm on the dot, the validation numbers were issued and at last I could relax for an hour secure in the knowledge that I had a confirmed seat for the first show at 5:30pm.

The show itself was a great experience. Panel members were:

Paul Merton and Fred Macaulay on the right and James Acaster and Josie Lawrence on the left.

The cast for the second show was Paul Merton and Janey Godley on the right and Mark Watson and Paul Sinha on the left.

James Acaster and Mark Watson were both first time players, 'virgins' as Nicholas referred to them in the warm up, and both had the usual first-timer difficulties with keeping going and not saying 'er'.

The serindipity that saw me get into see the second show as well occurred after all the validated ticket holders had been admitted, followed by the 20 odd hopefuls in the standby queue, 4 at a time. The ushers looked around and then strolled over to the large outdoor TV screen where I had resigned myself to watching the show from outside. 'Anyone keen to see the second show?' they inquired. Had the whole area not been covered with artificial turf, you would not have seen my heels for dust as I ran to the big blue tent to ensure I nabbed that last seat.

The studio in the big blue tent has seating for about 350 and I'd guess that about 300 of those seats were allocated by the random ballot. Nicholas revealed that there had been 12,000 applications for tickets for the roughly 600 seats available. 'Just letting you know how lucky you are!' said Nicholas, or in my case doggedly persistent and incredibly lucky. 

Martin

 
<<<<   11129   >>>>

Topic: Re: I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe!

Message 4 / 5
James R CurryAug 9, 2017
 
 
This is fantastic!  Congratulations on your good fortune and your hard won victory.  :)

On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 10:34 AM, mhood@... [just-a-minute] <just-a-minute@... > wrote:


Thanks Dave.

By formidable persistence I managed to get a ticket to the first JAM recording at the Edinburgh Festival and by amazing serendipity I also got to see the second show as well!

Dean told me that there are always some tickets available at he venue and this was indeed true, however, getting them required effort. The tickets were given away on a first come first served basis at 11am on the morning of the recording. For fairness, there was a maximum of two tickets per person and they could be for only one of the two shows. 

I arrived promptly at 9am when the gates to the George Herriot School opened, was scanned for sharps and any other contraband by the friendly security staff and found I was already 7th in the line that would grow to about 100 people by 11am. The two hours passed quickly chatting with the other hopefuls and at least it wasn't raining. The kind BBC staff also brought out chairs and rugs for a couple of the more infirm members of the queue.

By 11:02 I had my prized ticket for the early show but this was not the end of the queuing for the day. An hour before each show starts, all tickets must be 'validated' where a sequence number is attached to your ticket and this determines the order you get to enter the venue. To be sure of getting a good seat it is necessary to queue again from about an hour before validation starts. At 3:30pm I was number 9 in the queue that would eventually grow to more than 300. At 4:30pm on the dot, the validation numbers were issued and at last I could relax for an hour secure in the knowledge that I had a confirmed seat for the first show at 5:30pm.

The show itself was a great experience. Panel members were:

Paul Merton and Fred Macaulay on the right and James Acaster and Josie Lawrence on the left.

The cast for the second show was Paul Merton and Janey Godley on the right and Mark Watson and Paul Sinha on the left.

James Acaster and Mark Watson were both first time players, 'virgins' as Nicholas referred to them in the warm up, and both had the usual first-timer difficulties with keeping going and not saying 'er'.

The serindipity that saw me get into see the second show as well occurred after all the validated ticket holders had been admitted, followed by the 20 odd hopefuls in the standby queue, 4 at a time. The ushers looked around and then strolled over to the large outdoor TV screen where I had resigned myself to watching the show from outside. 'Anyone keen to see the second show?' they inquired. Had the whole area not been covered with artificial turf, you would not have seen my heels for dust as I ran to the big blue tent to ensure I nabbed that last seat.

The studio in the big blue tent has seating for about 350 and I'd guess that about 300 of those seats were allocated by the random ballot. Nicholas revealed that there had been 12,000 applications for tickets for the roughly 600 seats available. 'Just letting you know how lucky you are!' said Nicholas, or in my case doggedly persistent and incredibly lucky. 

Martin





--
James R Curry

 
<<<<   11130   >>>>

Topic: Re: I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe!

Message 5 / 5
drling0Aug 9, 2017
 
 
Martin
Well done
Glad that you got to see both shows and I hope that enjoyed them.

By the way, I live in South Korea and I think that some years ago I have you to thank for helping me with my 'BBC fix' via Streamload.  Many thanks for that.

All the best
David
 
<<<<   11130   >>>>

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