Big 2017 Adelaide Fringe night out!!

1.14pm, Saturday 25th February 2017, Adelaide

Howdy folks, it’s a new year and I’ve just tried out a whole new thing! Late last year the publican at The Kentish in leafy green Stanley Street, North Adelaide – Bud Goldsworthy – asked me if I’d be interested in being their ‘talent’ at the 2017 Adelaide Fringe….just to get up and tell a few of my funny stories about selling wine around the world. My first reaction was “no”……then thinking about the large volume of dental work on my immediate horizon, including crowns and an implant!…..I quickly reversed that to “yep, why not!!Im actually going to be on long service leave, so it will all fit in”. So fast forward to today, and we have the “world premiere – no red carpet” of my ‘Ferrari : Unlimited Kilometres’ behind us…..first SOLD OUT show of six in the ‘season’ (that’s showbiz for the number of sessions you do at one time).

Last Thursday night we had a fab full house in The Kentish Wine Shed – some from town (that’s Adelaide) , and then everyone else who travelled for the show – Moculta, Truro, Tanunda, Nuriootpa, Angaston, Light Pass, Greenock, Kapunda, Naracoorte, Mt Gambier and Coonawarra. Thanks an absolute million for swapping your hard earned folding money for a ticket to come along and hear me do stories, poems and a song about my time on the road! “A funny thing happened to me on the way to work……happened to be in London / San Francisco/ Dunedin / Dublin / Edinburgh at the time”.And in fact, because vintage is a bit late this year, we had Sue Hodder (yep that would be good mate chief winemaker for Wynns Coonawarra….. now I’m name dropping) babysittingthe merchandise stand – check out the excellent t shirts that Bud made up for the event!

My special guest on the night was Joe “Dry Creek Truckie (check it out on I tunes) ” Ahern, and he opened the second set with two of his original songs – there’s some real talent for you!

Good to see the stories like meeting Hugh Grant in London, and the poems like The Queen Of Room Fifteen get a good laugh, and now it’s all about this next massive week – three in a row –  Wednesday 1st,  Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd of March, Saturday off…..then the big double header finish on Sunday 5th with a sold out 2 pm matinee and the evening show sitting on 97 tickets sold – 100 is SOLD OUT! Actually, right this minute there’s only 7 seats left across the Wed, Thurs and Sunday night shows!! Can you believe it? 7 seats off a sold out season! Not bad for an almost pension age Adelaide Fringe first timer. So…..one down and five to go! See ya at The Kentish!! 

PS on Wednesday and Thursday nights, Moculta’s own Christine Sherwood will be opening the second set….amongst other things, Chris has written music to one of my poems about travelling through New Mexico…….then Joe’s back to do the same on the Friday and Sunday.