Notes from the Fringe: Day Eight

I was catching the 6 train home tonight, by myself on the platform at 14th Street - Union Square. A middle-aged Asian man in shorts was on the platform playing electronic sax, a very melancholy tune - he's the first busker I tipped this week ... the right tune in the right place at the right time.

I have not been thrilled with the way things have fallen out. That sounds ridiculous, I know. I have plenty to be grateful for.

I am thankful for all of the people whose support made it possible for us to do this work. The folks at Fringe Central have given our show a great deal of positive word-of-mouth. Ron Lasko at Spin Cycle deserves my eternal gratitude for convincing the New York Times that my show was worth paying attention to.

In spite of all of this, attendance has been weak. We know the show isn't weak. And we know the promotions were not merely the best we could afford. When I was at the Minnesota Fringe last year, there were plenty of pissing matches on the message boards about getting critics to your show.

And it appears as though all other shows which have received favorable notices in the Times have fared extremely, extremely well.

We attracted fifteen audience members this evening. And we had a great night, all of us. You can't blame the people who do show up.

And you can't blame people who read about it and said, no, thanks, sounds great, I don't want to see that. (Well, no, okay, maybe those are exactly the people to blame.)

If there is anything I am truly disappointed in, it is the lack of support from the other fringe artists. Perhaps one or two have attended, if so I haven't seen them afterwards. It's a shame. I know we are all very busy and whipped and there are so many shows to see, but I have met with a large number of the folks here, especially after taking in their shows, but from what I can see, none have returned the effort. It doesn't speak well for the community, especially to a guy from out of town.

But I can deal with that. I still have a great love and respect for the City, and will miss it a great deal once we depart tomorrow. I will miss our friends here, and all of the places where we have been hanging out.

Tomorrow I will go running one last time in the Park, this morning we did the lower circuit, I did it twice, it was over 3 miles. Not as lovely as running the reservoir, but it's still a great track. Harris went with me today, and Liz did some in-line skating.

Toni and I did some shoe shopping with, or rather for, Zelda. After her nap (during which Toni went out to Shakespeare & Co. and got totally drenched in a big, freak rainstorm) we spent a few moments at the Met before I left to prepare for this evening. God, those girls are fun anywhere.

By the way, it was my goal to attract 100 audience members to this show, which I thought, with 5 performances, was modest. I am still short 52 people. If you are a fan of this blog, and there are a couple, please join us tomorrow afternoon at 2:15. You can find all of the necessary info at the Bad Epitaph website.