Having a Go

I LOVE the English use of the word HAVE.  In the UK, you have a think, you have a tea and you have a go.  The Edinburgh Fringe has made these words come to life for me.  I live them all when I am doing my several shows every August.  Nowhere else on this earth could a 71 year old woman grab hold of her dream and make it happen. 

There I was in my eighth decade of life and I had a think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Even though I had never performed on a stage to more than ten drunk relatives, I decided to have a go at doing comedy.  I produced and performed in one show on the Fringe six summers ago that went well enough to inspire another think about doing a one woman theatrical show.  I decided to have a go at telling stories, the next year.  Antother think and you guessed it, another go this time doing cabaret

The miracle is that once I had a go at these three types of entertainment , they each took me in different directions.  The comedy sent me all over the US entering and winning contests and a musing people young enough to be my children. The stories  have taken me to community centres, senior homes and local festivals reminding people that times have changed but people haven’t and the cabaret has s hocked people into singing the joys of being old. 

This year I am bringing back my prize winning cabaret and doing an hour of that comedy I began six years ago to people I have never seen before and hoping they love it as much as I love performing it.

And that is where having a tea comes in.  My fans and I discuss my shows over the best, most potent picker-upper adopted by the British as a national drink: a good, hot cup of tea.