Show report for Hot Toddy, "Welcome tlTo My Reality", 12:15pm, show number 141, full run. I was very pleased to be performing at a new venue for the 2024 edfringe. Hot Toddy is a cafe just off the bottom of the royal mile on Jeffery street, 2 minutes round the corner from Waverly station. The performance space is located downstairs, so unfortunately not wheelchair accessible. The space being downstairs means that there's practically no distraction to the show from the day to day business of the cafe, and vice versa. It seats about 40- 50 people with chairs set up in rows and the benches around the room. It's a small room, about 10 by 5 meters, so it doesn't take many people in there to feel like a pretty full room. It being right off the end of the royal mile makes it a great location and easy to send people to if flyering on the mile, so that should be your prime flyering spot. There isn't a massive amount of passing trade directly outside, but depending on the time of your show, you may get a few extra people. Some performers mentioned that the chairs in the room weren't ideal as they were stool/ puff style seats. For audience members with back issues, these seats could prove to be a problem so it may be worth considering PBH providing chairs, but this raises a storage issue which will need to be discussed with the venue. On that note, there's no any storage space in the venue, so if your show is particularly prop or set heavy, be prepared to bring everything you need to the venue for every show. PA and microphone wad provided by the venue, which was wired straight into their speakers and worked wonderfully. If you're not using music in your show, you may very well not need it. Lighting in the room was good, but make sure all of the lights are on. There's some lighting around the room behind the benches which really add to the light in the room, so those ones in particular need to be on. Otherwise you'll have a very dark show.
During the afternoon/ evening, they do whiskey tours/ tastings. There were about 4 tastings most days, which requires the room to be reset with tables and chairs around the outside of the room, so if you have a show between/ after tastings, the room will need to be reset. This year, the staff were kind enough to reset the room before and after tastings. The back wall of the room has a beautiful mural which makes a great backdrop. The size of the stage can vary in depth depending on seating set up. On average you've got about 4 meters wide by about 2 meters deep, depending on how close together the rows of chairs are. The exit at the back of the room gives a good bottle neck for the audience leaving, without the door feeling congested, which I found was great for the bucket take after the show. The WiFi in the venue is good too, so using a card machine was easy. Overall, the venue is wonderful and the staff are lovely. Luca, Ben and Alice, the management team are so accommodating and made running shows there so easy. The food and drink there is very good, so even if you're not performing there, I highly recommend popping in for a bite to eat.
Dates: 2-24 August Show: A POLITICAL BREAKFAST (co-run with Chris O'Neill Time: 9.30am I was the venue captain for Hot Toddy (mainly because ours was the only show there) . New venue for A POLITICAL BREAKFAST, previously in Burrito n Shake (1923-4) and Natural Food Kafe (2018-9, 2022). The performance space is Hot Toddy's whisky tasting and function room in the basement. It usually holds 50 but because of the panel show format we lost 15 seats. As it's underground there is no natural light and also not accessible. It has dimmable lighting controlled through several knobs behind the bar. I gather it has a PA but the show is unamplified so we didnt explore that. As the performance room is well removed from the upstairs cafe there is no sound bleed. Also no special lighting requirements for the show. We just used the house lights which can be dimmed in groups. The panel sits on the benches on the side of the wall decorated in lit murals. The audience is sat in a mixture of threatre and cabaret style and the layout is configured widthways to facilitate discussion. The benches on the other three walls are reserved for those eating hot food. The front row also has tables for coffee and cold food. There is a second row of stools is forthose with neither food or drink . The non-bench seats are backless stools. Not ideal particularly for an older audience, but it wasnt a big issue. The venue is air conditioned. Numbers were slightly up on last year, perhaps 6%, but takings were up 25%, reflecting i think the more conducive venue compared fo the basement of Burrito 'n' Shake. Numbers were up enough to count as a sell-out run. The owners (Luca and Ben) managers (Alice, Keir) and staff were great, and it seems very happy to have us, because it corrected a hole in their business during the fringe, selling breakfasts. I think they may need more staff in future as breakfast were commonly still being served during the 2nd half of the show.
Next year, Hot Toddy are happy to have more shows in the morning and early afternoon, but only if they actively help sell their hot food offerings, particularly breakfast. They are not interested in having shows, however successful, that don't help them sell more food. For that reason, Chris and I are thinking of adding A POLITICAL BRUNCH to Dates: 2-24 August