JOUREND —
In June, Mark Olver set off by foot from Bristol to Edinburgh, relying on the kindness of strangers to get shelter and material for Ramble On. He tells of the shuddering climax to his fantastic voyage
'I can see Arthur's Seat' I said excitedly as I stood just above the A1. ‘And the Forth Bridge. I can see the bloody Forth Bridge.’ I was talking to my friend Jon on the phone, preparing to head down into Musselburgh. to camp for the night before my triumphant walk into the city the next day. We done it, I have walked all the way from Bristol to bloody Edinburgh.’
‘No you haven’t,‘ he said with a finality that defied objection. ‘How far away are you? Fourteen miles? You have walked to Musselburgh. It is not the same.’
‘Five weeks this has taken, and I can see it.’
‘I think you should keep going,’ which sounded suspiciously like a challenge rather than advice. ‘You could be there by the end of today. I would keep going.’
I had already walked 12 miles from East Linton, and the centre of Edinburgh was another 14. I was never a rambler, never a fitness freak, but the last month had made me fitter. better at walking and more determined. ‘You are right. This ends tonight!’ I said, in my best Russell Crowe in Gladiator voice. turning my phone off, hearing a strange evil laugh coming from Jon as the line went dead. Just 14 more miles. How bad can this be after the last 500?
Quite bad as it turned out. Arthur's Seat is massive. You will know this if you have ever walked up it. What is surprising is how deceiving that scale can be when used as a marker for distance. Being able to see something does not mean you are near it. And as I walked through Musselburgh, and strolled through Portobello, and then crawled through Meadowbank, and finally dragged myself on my belly up to the top of Leith Walk, I understood Jon’s evil laugh.
I was goaded. The challenge I set myself to walk from Bristol in time for the festival was not enough. There had to be a garnish. And crossing the border on a Friday morning and arriving into Edinburgh on the Saturday was that cherry. I had done it and the city had never looked so beautiful. My feet had never ached so much. I had stayed with strangers for the entire journey and I had survived. I crawled the final steps up to my hotel, and then into my bed. All I have to do now is write the bloody show.
Mark O/ver, Underbelly, 0844 545 8252, 2-24 Aug (not 20), 9. 10pm, ESQ—£70 (EB—£9). Previews 37 Jul & 7 Aug, £5.
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24 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 31 Jul—7 Aug 2008
Sit tight
‘AS A NAIVE TEENAGER, ST AND-UP SEEMED
DANGEROUS'
He may no longer be the stage psychopath with a killer tune and attitude to match, but Andrew Lawrence is still not exactly a cosy act. Marissa Burgess tentatively meets the man behind the growl
ndrew Lawrence is a comedian in a state A of constant flux. Over the short time he’s
been performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, he’s taken not just three different subject matters but adopted three entirely different tones. His first show in 2006 unveiled a murderous singing sociopath to an unsuspecting and quite scared public. The following year was, dare we suggest, a more accessible affair that enabled him to begin to do the Jongleurs circuit. able to cope with the rowdy crowds without having to threaten to cut them and drain off their blood for sausages.
‘As a naive teenager. stand-up seemed really exciting and dangerous, something with no rules or boundaries.” recalls Lawrence. ‘1 like to think it can still be like this, but the more you learn of the rules and conventions of stand-up. the more difficult it becomes not to follow them.’
Sitting in a bar high above central London chatting amiably but not making eye contact (it would have been wholly disappointing had he turned out to be happy. bounding and puppy-like in real life: he’s more tortured cat struggling in a bag by the riverside), Lawrence discusses his latest show. the call to apathy entitled Don 'I Just Do Something, Sit There!
‘lt’s about how you can try very hard in life. but it won’t necessarily get you anywhere or do
you any good,” he explains in his natural Tom Waits-like gravelly voice. ‘When I was a little boy my parents wanted me to do something decent with my life, saying. “You can achieve
' anything you set your mind to. sky’s your limit.
world’s your oyster". Then as l gradually got older and they noticed the distinct lack of talent.
they increasingly stopped saying you can
achieve anything you set your mind to and
i started saying, “Try your best son, that‘s all that
you can do.m
So why this latest change from the young man who once expressed his desire to kill his loved ones in their sweaty beds before transforming, briefly. into a family-friendly psychopath? ‘I guess i wanted to do a kind of social commentary show.’ he says. ‘I always like to use Edinburgh to do something very different; to explore my range a little bit. So many people go up year after year to do the same slightly reworked show talking about the same stuff.’ One thing you can certainly say about Andrew Lawrence: he‘s far from your average act.
Andrew Lawrence, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 1-24 Aug (not 13), 9.45pm, £10421 1.50 (518.5041 0). Previews until 31 Jul, £5.