u/gamblors_neon_claws

This was my first fringe and I had the time of my life, we’re currently discussing if we can swing coming back next year or if we need to wait until 2028! The review posts have been so incredibly helpful for planning out my schedule so hopefully this will help a few other people make some decisions.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dracula: Lucy’s Dream
By far the most cerebral show I saw, its spooky, sumptuous, and one of the most visually inventive pieces of theater I’ve ever seen. No Dracula knowledge is required and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Hole!
So god damned funny, I went in knowing very little and recommend you do the same.

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It
This was a lot less goofy than I expected it to be. It’s intentionally confusing, but once you start to understand the grammar they’re using to tell the story, it got pretty easy to follow the surprisingly complex Coen-esque story of a small town going mad in the wake of a disaster. The ending was a little underwhelming but I was so blown away by the craft here that I didn’t care.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Macbeth: Blood and Bluegrass
Somehow manages to make blending straight Shakespeare adaptation, diagetic contemporary bluegrass musical numbers and straight up slapstick comedy look completely natural. This is a wildly talented and entertaining group of people.

Evita Too!
Like Dracula, no Evita knowledge is necessary here. This is wild, wacky, politically charged and I genuinely learned a lot.

Police Cops
all I knew was that this has been a festival favorite and it’s pretty obvious why. This is really really good really really stupid comedy.

Demi Adejuyigbe sells out
Basically just a collection of bits, but they’re really fucking funny bits.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kristen Schall: The Legend of Crystal Shell
I’m not sure if Schall’s comedy is going to be for everyone, but if it’s for you, you’re going to love this.

Moon Team IIIV
If Matt Berry ever needs a younger version of himself for a film, Will BF should be at the top of the list. He could be Matt’s son and brings a very similar self serious buffoon energy that’s often the butt of his own jokes. Not every joke lands, but they’re coming at a rapid fire pace and the construction of this show is so impressive that I didn’t care and you won’t either. Really incredible multimedia based DIY theater.

Milo Edwards: Catamaran
Some of the cultural references went over my head, but it’s really slick standup, not much else to say about it.

Kate dehnert: Echo
I went in thinking I bought a ticket for a stand up show but ended up seeing a 500MPH trauma rave. A breakup show is well worn material, but it’s expertly deployed and spun in a fresh format. There’s a sexting segment that is probably the hardest I laughed at any bit in the festival.

Legendary
Cheeyang Ng is an immensely talented performer and this is an incredibly beautiful show. There were a LOT of people sniffling by the end, but I generally prefer my sentimentality to be trojan horse’d inside of another concept, and this show is 100% sincere the entire way through, so I ended up walking away more impressed by it than personally moved. It’s still a strong recommendation, though. As a note, the room is VERY stuffy, I recommend bringing a hand fan or get a flyer in heavy cardstock.

Fly You Fools!
I’d probably rate this higher if I hadn’t already seen quite a few “blockbusters done as live theater with a $20 budget” productions. The joke always works, but the novelty is starting to wear off for me. Having a live foley artist does elevate the experience, but I wish there had been more jokes built around the sound effects.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Heracles
The first original musical from the same troupe as Blood & Bluegrass, telling the story of Hera and Heracles. While the show is good and the music is great, it doesn’t have the same propulsive energy as Macbeth and unfortunately the singing was a bit uneven at times. We’re still in the “if this sounds like something for you I very strongly recommend it” territory, it’s just not “you MUST see this”. I also think it’s worth knowing that this is just the first half of the show, they don’t give that context at the beginning but I did not really appreciate the abrupt ending.

Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical
I was genuinely surprised by how well produced this show was. The jokes are hit or miss (but mostly hit), the resemblances are not there at all, and the boys stay obnoxiously too clothed through the show, but it’s still a really good time if you’re even generally familiar with the show.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mythos: Ragnarok
I had a really really good time for about half of the show. The performers are insanely talented, their passion for the material really comes through and the spectacle is there but WOW did this overstay its welcome for all of us. I probably would’ve given it a full extra star if it was just an hour long.

Avenue Q
The cast is really really good, but the production is pretty strictly community theater level and it’s a 20 year old play. I’d only recommend it if you haven’t seen the show before.

Holy Shit Improv
They were good, but not anything better than I could’ve seen back home, and I don’t live at a major improv hub.

⭐️⭐️✨

Broadway Belters
Cute and inoffensive, this was a fine way to spend an hour and I’m probably going to forget about it in a week.

⭐️✨
Muse: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical
I could go on and on with all of the problems I have with this show, but it basically boils down to a very talented cast being asked to do their best with an absolute turd of a script. There are a couple of genuinely good songs, but I couldn’t recommend this to anyone unless you have very low standards or bad taste.

Lord of The Zings
Even for free standup, this wasn’t great. It seemed like they were mostly just trying out new material, and while there were a number of jokes that landed, it was still pretty painful to sit through in a stuffy room with uncomfortable chairs.

This was my first fringe and I had the time of my life, we’re currently discussing if we can swing coming back next year or if we need to wait until 2028! The review posts have been so incredibly helpful for planning out my schedule so hopefully this will help a few other people make some decisions.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dracula: Lucy’s Dream
By far the most cerebral show I saw, its spooky, sumptuous, and one of the most visually inventive pieces of theater I’ve ever seen. No Dracula knowledge is required and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Hole!
So god damned funny, I went in knowing very little and recommend you do the same.

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It
This was a lot less goofy than I expected it to be. It’s intentionally confusing, but once you start to understand the grammar they’re using to tell the story, it got pretty easy to follow the surprisingly complex Coen-esque story of a small town going mad in the wake of a disaster. The ending was a little underwhelming but I was so blown away by the craft here that I didn’t care.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Macbeth: Blood and Bluegrass
Somehow manages to make blending straight Shakespeare adaptation, diagetic contemporary bluegrass musical numbers and straight up slapstick comedy look completely natural. This is a wildly talented and entertaining group of people.

Evita Too!
Like Dracula, no Evita knowledge is necessary here. This is wild, wacky, politically charged and I genuinely learned a lot.

Police Cops
all I knew was that this has been a festival favorite and it’s pretty obvious why. This is really really good really really stupid comedy.

Demi Adejuyigbe sells out
Basically just a collection of bits, but they’re really fucking funny bits.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kristen Schall: The Legend of Crystal Shell
The description was fairly vague about the premise so I’m going to leave it at that. I’m not sure if Schall’s comedy is going to be for everyone, but if it’s for you, you’re going to love this. It’s already done at the fringe but it’s played at other festivals so hopefully people will have more chances to catch this.

Moon Team IIIV
If Matt Berry ever needs a younger version of himself for a film, Will BF should be at the top of the list. He could be Matt’s son and brings a very similar self serious buffoon energy that’s often the butt of his own jokes. Not every joke lands, but they’re coming at a rapid fire pace and the construction of this show is so impressive that I didn’t care and you won’t either. Really incredible multimedia based DIY theater.

Milo Edwards: Catamaran
Some of the cultural references went over my head, but it’s really slick standup, not much else to say about it.

Kate dehnert: Echo
I went in thinking I bought a ticket for a stand up show but ended up seeing a 500MPH trauma rave. A breakup show is well worn material, but it’s expertly deployed and spun in a fresh format. There’s a sexting segment that is probably the hardest I laughed at any bit in the festival.

Legendary
Cheeyang Ng is an immensely talented performer and this is an incredibly beautiful show. There were a LOT of people sniffling by the end, but I generally prefer my sentimentality to be trojan horse’d inside of another concept, and this show is 100% sincere the entire way through, so I ended up walking away more impressed by it than personally moved. It’s still a strong recommendation, though. As a note, the room is VERY stuffy, I recommend bringing a hand fan or get a flyer in heavy cardstock.

Fly You Fools!
I’d probably rate this higher if I hadn’t already seen quite a few “blockbusters done as live theater with a $20 budget” productions. The joke always works, but the novelty is starting to wear off for me. Having a live foley artist does elevate the experience, but I wish there had been more jokes built around the sound effects.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Heracles
The first original musical from the same troupe as Blood & Bluegrass, telling the story of Hera and Heracles. While the show is good and the music is great, it doesn’t have the same propulsive energy as Macbeth and unfortunately the singing was a bit uneven at times. We’re still in the “if this sounds like something for you I very strongly recommend it” territory, it’s just not “you MUST see this”. I also think it’s worth knowing that this is just the first half of the show, they don’t give that context at the beginning but I did not really appreciate the abrupt ending.

Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical
I was genuinely surprised by how well produced this show was. The jokes are hit or miss (but mostly hit), the resemblances are not there at all, and the boys stay obnoxiously too clothed through the show, but it’s still a really good time if you’re even generally familiar with the show.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mythos: Ragnarok
I had a really really good time for about half of the show. The performers are insanely talented, their passion for the material really comes through and the spectacle is there but WOW did this overstay its welcome for all of us. I probably would’ve given it a full extra star if it was just an hour long.

Avenue Q
The cast is really really good, but the production is pretty strictly community theater level and it’s a 20 year old play. I’d only recommend it if you haven’t seen the show before.

Holy Shit Improv
They were good, but not anything better than I could’ve seen back home, and I don’t live at a major improv hub.

⭐️⭐️✨

Broadway Belters
Cute and inoffensive, this was a fine way to spend an hour and I’m probably going to forget about it in a week.

⭐️✨
Muse: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical
I could go on and on with all of the problems I have with this show, but it basically boils down to a very talented cast being asked to do their best with an absolute turd of a script. There are a couple of genuinely good songs, but I couldn’t recommend this to anyone unless you have very low standards or bad taste.

Lord of The Zings
Even for free standup, this wasn’t great. It seemed like they were mostly just trying out new material, and while there were a number of jokes that landed, it was still pretty painful to sit through in a stuffy room with uncomfortable chairs.

We've got our Airbnb and high priority shows booked already, but what else is a must-do around Edinburgh that is likely to be sold out if we don't book ahead of time? Will we regret not having dinner reservations? Eating isn't the main priority but we are foodies and would definitely be disappointed if there are any must-try spots we need to book early.

Obviously the judging is HIGHLY subjective, but the recent talk from Bosco on how the chocolate bar was legit did make me wonder how much the show is actually allowed to rig. Are they legally compelled to fairly award anything they’re showing as a game of chance? Are the “spin to reveal your opponent” and bingo ball draws actually real?

We're planning a trip in February with a small group of four couples where one has a baby that will be 1.5 at the time. I understand that it's almost certainly going to be completely impossible for us to find something that can give everyone the "adults only" experience while still hauling a baby everywhere, but I am wondering what our options are for resorts where it would be relatively easy for the adults to walk over and hang with the baby for a few hours in the afternoon or for all of us to be able to get dinner together, or for one of the parents to pop over to the adults only area for a while while the other watches the baby.

We don't have a budget set yet, but we've done Xcaret and Unico in the past, Unico is very much our speed for overall vibe and we were quite happy with the quality for the price. I know paradisus La Perla is exactly what I'm describing, but I'm a little concerned that it'd be a step down in quality.

I started looking in to the Preferred hotels when Bilt became a transfer partner the other day, and I have to say I'm thoroughly confused by the entire program. They have a few resorts that I've been eying for a while that seem to not accept awards bookings at all, many that claim to but then when you open their calendar there's no option to book with points, and some that advertise awards rates so ludicrous they seem like they must be a mistake (I saw one that converted to 0.2CPP!).

Is there some formula I'm not parsing for how they're operating their rewards program? Is there anything here worth really taking a look at?

I don't mean this to be a big complaint post, but I've felt very stuck career wise for quite a while. I've been working full time as a one-man video department for about 15 years, and I consistently get feedback along the lines of "wow you really excel at everything we give you but we have no idea how to promote you, oh well!". I've worked in 6 departments over 4 organizations in the time and have had exactly one title change, I went from videographer to video producer. I have experience doing nearly everything in marketing, and even spent 9 months as the interim creative director in the middle of a rebrand (and got laid off as a thank you as soon as it was finished).

I like doing my work, and I think I get paid a fair salary for the work I do and work/life balance I get, but I've been at my current job for 2 years now and when I bring up career advancement with my boss I get a "well you tell me what you want this job to become" line, which I think is well meaning (we're generally fairly candid with each other, I don't think this is just deflecting) but I've heard it before and it never leads to anything. But, perhaps naively, I do still want to give him an honest answer of what I think realistic advancement should look like, which gets me to my actual question. Are there any other one-man-bands out there who have successfully made a case for or just received something that looks like actual career growth? Either expanded budgets or responsibilities, or even moving out of being pigeonholed into video production specifically? What did that look like?

There are a LOT of people reading very, very deeply into the writing choices of Obsession here, and I think, to a certain extent, that's a mistake. I really loved Obsession, I also really enjoyed his previous horror shorts, but there's something I've noticed is a pretty strong through line in all of them, they present themselves as mysterious puzzle boxes, but I don't think they really have any interest in being solved, and I don't think it's really even possible. I would be willing to bet that Curry does not have a document somewhere detailing the exact mechanics of what the OWW did to Nikki.

This is not a knock on his writing (although there are definitely some dialogue choices I take issue with), I think he's doing it to great effect. These movies all have a light dream logic to them, you have to bend over backwards to contort all of the events in any of his movies into a coherent grand unifying theory, which is great if you enjoy doing that, but to me, seems to miss the point a bit. I don't think he's trying to develop a solvable mystery here, I think he just likes keeping the specifics of what's really going on ambiguous because he likes making surprising choices, and those surprises still feel true to the story he's telling because you're not quite sure if they're actually contradicting any established rules.

I’m relatively new to the awards travel space, but after a couple of very successful Europe trips, I’m a little stumped with booking this one. Seats.aero barely comes up with anything. I’m finding a couple of options going through ANA and stopping in Tokyo, but that site is a nightmare and it’s making me wonder what else seats.aero isn’t pulling up.

I'm generally very okay with the elements on the story that are clearly intentionally meant to be ambiguous (although if you've got a compelling theory about what's going on with the blue precipice, I'm all ears) but there are a few elements of the story that I'm stuck on that at least feel to me like they should have some explicit answers.

-Why does Arjun only spend a few years gone while transformed into King? Between that and Arjun's recordings being in The Yellow Shore, are we just meant to assume that time is even weirder at the shore than it is on Carcosa?
-What is Nitya's plan beyond regaining her humanity and stopping Arjun from walking the path.
-Is the path explicitly becoming King? Did every boss do it, or did just Delroy (and maybe Nitya?) and they were transformed through some other process.
-Why do the bosses respawn?
-Given that Nitya's equipment is human sized, does that mean that the Echelon I crew were not the monstrosities we see while they were ruling?
-Is Kiira's voice unable to reach Nitya? Why?