Portsoy comedian Robin Grainger receives viral acclaim after selling only one ticket to his first Edinburgh Fringe performance
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A PORTSOY comedian who sold just one ticket to his first Edinburgh Fringe show has received rave reviews after experiencing viral success.
When stand-up Robin Grainger performed his first set at the famous Edinburgh festival on Friday August 5, he had no idea how many tickets he had sold but was optimistic that the festival's post-Covid return would bring in a crowd.
Robin, who used to deliver the Banffshire Journal around Portsoy as a teen moved from Portsoy to Edinburgh 10 years ago to pursue his comedy career.
He said: "When my tech operator gave me a two minute warning I asked how it was looking and he winced.
"I thought, well nobody really winces for a good reason do they? You never win the lottery and wince. It's always for a bad reason, you stub your toe and you wince. So I said, 'well what does that mean?' and he said 'there's one'.'
"I felt every single emotion in the space of 90 seconds and then I just decided to abandon the fear of it, I thought I'd just see how it goes and try to do the best show I could.
"Luckily Mike, my only audience member, was amazing and he laughed in all the right bits. I think most people wouldn't have done the show, they would have offered him his money back and offered to go for a beer or a chat - that'd be less intimidating than a spotlight and a microphone and intro music like I had.
"But it ended up being a really great show. Mike was amazing, I've been doing stand up more than 10 years and it was one of my favourite gigs, it was really fun."
Unbeknownst to Robin, after the show his audience member Mike Cass, from Leicester discussed the show with legendary comedy critic Kate Copstick, who wrote a Facebook post on Saturday morning giving the comedian a 5 star review.
By Monday reporters for the BBC had been in touch and within half an hour the BBC's story had gone viral worldwide and become the third highest viewed story on their website.
Since then, Robin who started his comedy career while at college in Aberdeen has done three gigs a day at the festival and has been contacted by press across the world including Germany, Ireland and Toronto.
He said: "It's been pretty full on and overwhelming in such a beautiful way. The response has been really positive and people have been really nice and stuff so it's been really good.
"A week after the surreal experience of gigging to just one person, my show was sold out, so that was wonderful. The material is strong, I just needed people to come and see it."
"People have been coming through from Portsoy, Buckie, Banff and Aberdeen to see the show, which is lovely. They always turn up late but I understand because its a long way to go."
Prior to his success at the Fringe, Robin has toured as support for Larry Dean, Tom Stade and Gary Meikle and was hand-picked for multiple Kevin Bridges And Friends shows. Now the comedian hopes to do a return to his Aberdeen roots with a show at Break-neck comedy club and has also been invited to cities across the world.
"Galway and Leicester Comedy Festivals have both been in touch, I was in the news in Australia and there are a few festivals there at the beginning of the year and people have messaged me on Instagram to say I have fans in Ghana, Portugal and Germany. I'll do whatever, I just want to keep gigging really.
"The plan is to do the Fringe, Breakneck and then I'll take Banffshire across the globe and tell everyone about butteries – I'm always keen to shout out Portsoy, Banffshire and Aberdeen, that's where I went to college and uni and where I started stand up as well so its good to be able to get a bit of shine on the north east as well.
Robin Grainger's show Robin Time, will be on at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at The Stand Comedy Club at 6.40pm every night until August 28. Details of Robin's future performances can be found on his Facebook page: @RobinGraingerComedian and Instagram: @robin_grainger
