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Blog News, reviews and cool stuff from the FestBuzz team.

FestBuzz Twitter of the Year: Chris Cox– a Profile

Posted by elise on August 27, 2009

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That’s right Chris Cox has won our first ever Fes­t­Buzz Twit­ter of the Year award– reward­ing the best Twit­ter based shenani­gans at the Edin­burgh Festivals. 

Chris, Twit­ter alias @bigcox, has been a keen-user of the micro blog­ging sys­tem for the last 8 months, but his usage has really kicked off while in Edin­burgh in August, hav­ing tweeted over 300 times in the last 27 days. This is in between run­ning his own show, Mind Over Pat­ter (8.30pm, Pleas­ance Dome), appear­ing in Mark Watson’s prom­e­nade the­atre piece as the mind-reading concierge, Eric, and mak­ing appear­ances across the Fringe in a vari­ety of vari­ety shows.

While gar­ner­ing some excel­lent reviews from estab­lished crit­ics, what caught FestBuzz’s keen eye were the reviews he was receiv­ing from fans via Twit­ter. 37 of these have been mea­sured by FestBuzz’s sen­ti­ment detec­tion soft­ware, giv­ing him a 5 star rat­ing overall.

Quotes from audi­ence members:

“Mak­ing the impos­si­ble pos­si­ble, with laughs.” @kateweb

“I was delight­fully baf­fled by @bigcox‘s Mind over Pat­ter.” @shell_here

“Very awe­some freaky mind thin­gies.” @tashadhanraj 

Chris also fea­tured in @tiernandouieb’s sec­ond Twit­ter Com­edy event– but due to tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties was forced to tweet his show from back­stage at a tech rehearsal for Mind Over Pat­ter. He still impressed the audi­ence though with a trick which forced their feet to rotate with­out their own volition.

Per­haps the most impor­tant aspect of @bigcox’s Twit­ter usage is inter­ac­tion. Unlike some come­di­ans who set up Twit­ter accounts and don’t inter­act with their fans, Chris has a rat­ing of 79% for Con­ver­sa­tion Quo­tient, mean­ing he has replied to a large amount of the @ mes­sages he receives.

Thank you to Chris for attend­ing Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe show today to accept the award, and for per­form­ing some mind read­ing stunts on the spot. Fes­t­Buzz can’t wait to see what he’ll be tweet­ing this time next year…

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Chris Cox accepts his award

Posted by elise on August 27, 2009

Chris Cox (aka @bigcox)

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Chris Cox wins FestBuzz’s Twitter of the Year award at Edinburgh Fringe 2009

Posted by elise on August 27, 2009

Chris Cox wins FestBuzz’s Twit­ter of the Year award at Edin­burgh Fringe 2009

Fes­t­Buzz have awarded Chris Cox, the com­edy men­tal­ist magi­cian, the first ever com­edy Twit­ter of the Year Award at Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe.

Cox has been given this prize for his cre­ative and pro­lific use of Twit­ter which has helped gar­ner him almost 3,000 fol­low­ers on the site, and ensured his pop­u­lar­ity at this year’s Fringe fes­ti­val with his show Mind Over Pat­ter. He has tweeted around 300 times this August, con­vers­ing with fans and fel­low come­di­ans about com­edy, the inter­net and his show. Chris’ online name is @bigcox, and his mind-reading and magic show com­bines other new social media such as Face­book to cre­ate some excel­lent tricks for his audience.

Fes­t­Buzz is a new way to find cool stuff at the Edin­burgh Fes­ti­vals. It’s a project from Affect Labs, a data pro­cess­ing com­pany based in Edin­burgh, and is sup­ported by Chan­nel 4’s 4iP fund. Fes­t­Buzz aggre­gates “tweets” about shows and then uses sen­ti­ment detec­tion to cre­ate a star rat­ing for the act: reviews are crowd-sourced directly from the peo­ple who are see­ing the shows, rather than critics.

Twit­ter has become an inter­net sen­sa­tion in the last 8 months: func­tion­ing a lit­tle like Face­book sta­tus updates, you sim­ply tell the site what you’re doing (in 140 char­ac­ters or less) and then read what other peo­ple are doing from their “tweets”. The attrac­tion of Twit­ter is fol­low­ing other inter­est­ing or famous people’s tweets about their lives, cre­at­ing a stream of con­scious­ness type feed which illus­trates the chang­ing mood of the moment.

The prize will be pre­sented to Chris Cox at Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe show start­ing at 1pm on Thurs­day 27th August. Stut­ter has been run­ning the revue since 1992 and will be pre­sent­ing his own Spirit of the Fringe awards on Sun­day 30th August.

http://www.festbuzz.com/

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Festbuzz Review: Tommy and the Weeks — Wonderbang

Posted by elise on August 19, 2009

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Who: Tommy and the Weeks
Where: Pleas­ance Beside
When: 5.15pm until 31 August 2009
How Much: £7-£8.50

In 140 char­ac­ters or less: “Tom Bell and Ed Weeks are com­plete oppo­sites, but won­der­ful, beau­ti­ful things can hap­pen when oppo­sites attract.”

As songstress Paula Abdul once so rightly pointed out, “It ain’t fic­tion, just a nat­ural fact. We come together, cause oppo­sites attract”. This is cer­tainly true of sketch duo Tommy and the Weeks, regard­less of the fact that nei­ther of them is an ani­mated cat.

Mak­ing up in gags what they lack in num­bers, Tom Bell and Ed Weeks kick off pro­ceed­ings with a good old sing-song of some eight­ies clas­sics, with the audi­ence heartily join­ing in. This is a slick show and the boys slide in and out of sketches so nat­u­rally it’s some­times sur­pris­ing to realise you’re in a new sketch.

There are some really orig­i­nal ideas in here, be it a club­bing shep­herd or a math­e­mat­i­cal faun. There’s a gen­uine sense of fun about the show, clearly demon­strated by the fact that the pair are enjoy­ing them­selves so much on stage. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the show and find your­self truly touched by the moments of pathos. Both are excel­lent actors and pull off the act of talk­ing over each other for comic effect bet­ter than it’s been done for years.

It’s hard to talk about the show with­out spoil­ing all the gags, but it’s a quotable and laugh-out-loud adven­ture. Ed Weeks exudes con­fi­dence, and Tom Bells oozes indie charm. Watch­ing their love/hate rela­tion­ship unfurl is a truly enjoy­able experience.Whatever these boys do next, it’s great to see some­one tak­ing com­edy so seriously.

High­lights include Ed Weeks solo song, Tom Bell’s worst (or best) ever date, and some really great paint­ing. See this show: you’ll be moved, amused and leave with a smile on your face.

Fes­t­buzz Rating:

Words: Elise Bramich

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Follow the Twitter Comedy Event Live!

Posted by Jennie on August 14, 2009

News­flash!

You can fol­low the live twit­ter com­edy event — kick­ing off in just 10 min­utes — through our spe­cially con­structed sites: the ‘twit­ter­fall’ that updates in real-time, or if you’ve missed a gig, try the ‘recap’.

Of course, you could always be bor­ing and use Twit­ter Search instead!

(Note: We’re expe­ri­enc­ing some time­outs with the Twit­ter Search API tonight, so you might do as well. Typical!)

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Win Tickets with FestBuzz for Photographs

Posted by elise on August 14, 2009

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Fes­t­Buzz Photo Com­pe­ti­tion: Show us your Festival

For each day one week we’ll be giv­ing one lucky Fes­t­Buzz Face­book fan a pair of tick­ets to a show of their choice (sub­ject to avail­abil­ity) for send­ing us the best pic­ture that sums up their festival.

We’re allow­ing 3 pho­tos from each user every day, so to enter sim­ply join our Face­book group (search Fes­t­Buzz in the Face­book to find us or click the link below), and upload a photo.

We want pho­tos that sum up your fes­ti­val expe­ri­ence– regard­less of where or when in Edin­burgh that’s hap­pen­ing. Fes­t­Buzz is cov­er­ing all the Fes­ti­vals, not just the Fringe, so if you’re enjoy­ing the Art or Book Fes­ti­val let us know about it by tweet­ing about it using the tag #fes­t­buzz or upload­ing a pic­ture to our Face­book group.

Not only will the best pic­ture win the pho­tog­ra­pher a pair of tick­ets, but we’ll also fea­ture it on our blog as well at http://blog.festbuzz.com

We’re not wor­ried about high qual­ity images, though it would help if we can tell what the pic­tures are of, but the sub­ject can be any­thing Edin­burgh Fes­ti­vals based, so be creative!

Get snap­ping and get uploading!

But first: Become a fan!

Fes­t­Buzz on Facebook

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Live Twitter Comedy — tonight!

Posted by Jennie on August 14, 2009

Tonight, we’re host­ing Scotland’s first live twit­ter com­edy event smack bang in the mid­dle of the Offi­cial Fringe Party, the “Twinge Party”.

At 7pm, you’d bet­ter be tuned into Twit­ter, as a lineup of top come­di­ans will be deliv­er­ing a series of jokes… in 140-character bites. By fol­low­ing the event’s hash­tag (to be released later today) you’ll be able to tune into the buzz and the backchat, but if you want an unin­ter­rupted front-row seat, tune into our spe­cial Twit­ter Com­edy web page to see nowt but the jokes.

At the Twinge Party itself, one screen will project the come­di­ans’ sets and another will show the crowd’s responses to their jokes, about the party and other acts. It will be a great chance for peo­ple to get a taste of what’s on offer this year at the Fes­ti­vals, whether they are at the party itself or just log­ging on from home.

The Twinge Party, spon­sored by Infor­mat­ics Ven­tures, is being run by Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val Fringe.

The first Twit­ter Com­edy event, organ­ised by up-and-coming stand-up Tier­nan Douieb, went live in June this year, and was highly suc­cess­ful with thou­sands of “view­ers” log­ging on from around the world to watch, read, laugh and tweet heck­les back at the acts. The Twinge Party will repli­cate some of this com­edy buzz with a short series of Twit­ter sets, with the acts tweet­ing live from the party to the world.

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Tweet Us To Win Free Tickets

Posted by elise on August 12, 2009

Start­ing today Fes­t­Buzz will be pick­ing one lucky tweeter every day for a week who will win a pair of tick­ets to a show of their choice (sub­ject to availability).

Fes­t­Buzz will ran­domly select one tweet in each 24 hour period that is tagged with #fes­t­buzz, so get your fin­gers at the ready! Tweet us about any­thing fes­ti­val based, be it reviews of the shows you’re see­ing, celebrity spots, Royal Mile antics, or even just about how busy it is in the Court­yard. Just make sure you use the tag #fes­t­buzz at the end to be in with a chance! Good luck!

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Festbuzz Review: Warehouse 364

Posted by elise on August 10, 2009

What: Ware­house 364 by Nottingham’s New The­atre
Where: C Cubed
When: Thu 6  —  Mon 31 Aug (not 18)
How Much: £6.50-£9.50

In 140 char­ac­ters or less: “Ware­house 364: Where good things hap­pen to bad peo­ple. Like Cube meets In Bruges.”

A tale of inter­con­nected, but seem­ingly dis­parate, strangers embroiled in das­tardly goings on as a result of some far­ci­cal mis­un­der­stand­ings. Ware­house 364 would have all the mak­ings of a turn-of-the-century par­lour com­edy were it not for the brash lan­guage and mot­ley crew of unsavoury char­ac­ters which inhabit this slightly sur­real underworld.

The show is about the sin­gu­lar part time pros­ti­tute Eleanor, bet­ter known as sim­ply E. Oddly start­ing the show with a mono­logue about loss of inno­cence, child­hood, and dis­tance, Anna Sher­riff plays an aim­less yet brave hero­ine whose fate is deter­mined more by hap­pen­stance than any of her own failings.

The story fol­lows E as she aspires towards a bet­ter life after a chance meet­ing and mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion with vil­lain Tuffnell (a world weary Tom War­ren), and a fleet­ing glimpse of the money and poten­tial power that could be hers.

As a result, she finds her­self in the gang­land hang­out of mas­ter drug crim­i­nals, (though slightly more eccen­tric and elo­quent than I imag­ine real drug run­ners are), try­ing to escape a maze-like series of rooms, chased by her hap­less room­mate Sally (exas­per­ated mother-figure Laura Wishart), and a bizarre selec­tion of thugs des­per­ate for blood, revenge and answers.

Will Vick­ers is a bit of a treat as head thug Lip­son, whom he has cho­sen to por­tray as some­thing of a Mal­colm Tucker, the anti-hero spin doc­tor from BBC hit satire The Thick of It. A psy­chopath in the true sense of the word, his scathing remarks are far more chill­ing than the rest of his gun-toting antics, and it’s a proper delight to watch his under­lings squirm under his gaze.

The only unset­tling thing about Ware­house 364 is the lack of a moral cen­tre: while I don’t believe any piece of art needs a sin­gu­lar pur­pose or eth­i­cal mes­sage to be suc­cess­ful, I was left doubt­ing my sym­pa­thies for any of the char­ac­ters, and feel­ing slightly dis­ap­pointed that there wasn’t any real res­o­lu­tion to the plot. How­ever, though the sud­den end­ing left me crest­fallen, I heartily enjoyed the ride.

Fes­t­buzz Rating:

Words: Elise Bramich

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Shiny new features!

Posted by Jennie on August 7, 2009

Well, isn’t this excit­ing. We’ve just added in one of the many new fea­tures that you’ll see pop­ping up on Fes­t­Buzz over the next few weeks!

What have we done? Well, in case you’re not quite as — shall we say — famil­iar with the site as we are, a hint: begins with a t and ends with a weet. Yup, that’s right — tweets are now live! You can see from the home page that some shows are already attract­ing a num­ber of tweets, though we’ve stripped out retweets for now to give a less spammy overview. (How­ever, we still count them, ‘cos being retweeted counts for some­thing in our book…)

Now, before you get per­nick­ety, a side note; we’ve got every­thing on what we like to call safe mode for now, as the tweets start to flow in, so our data gnomes can keep an eye on things and get the sys­tem all per­fect. This means we’re being par­tic­u­larly care­ful about match­ing tweets to shows right now; we’ll loosen the fil­ters up as time marches on.

How­ever, we’d like to hear from you if there are any glar­ing errors or flaws, obviously!

What can you expect to see next? Well, that’s partly up to the gnomes. Pesky things. How­ever, one of them was heard mut­ter­ing loudly about star rat­ings, and another has been repeat­ing the word ‘wid­get’ over and over in his sleep, so…

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