Mayfly (in August)
The mayfly lives for a single day.
What that’s like, I couldn’t say, I
Don’t speak mayfly.
They have just twenty-four hours,
Before their life is done.
A fringe audience?
One.
This mayfly’s made of many people.
(Let’s hope it’s many. Sometimes it’s few.
Those shows are usually harder to do).
But any room, with an act and an audience in it,
Can make a mayfly for the next sixty minutes.
(A duration sometimes departed from.
Do check the listings at edfringe.com).
When mayfly members meld together,
By heart, and art, all held together –
Whatever we were, we’ve now become,
Crowding in the darkness – one.
Who knows what we’ll see together?
What demons we’ll set free together?
What wild wonders we’re fated to find
While part of this multiple mayfly mind?
So join a mayfly.
Sit down. Say hi.
You may laugh. You may cry.
Watch each show like it’s your last –
We’re mayflies, our lives pass too fast.
From the stage, you can quickly tell
If this mayfly is flying well.
Some are thoughtful. Some are quiet.
Sometimes it’s church. Sometimes a riot.
Some mayflies go to the loo.
(Which actual mayflies cannot do.
They hold it in. Let’s all try to).
But when the stage lights fire,
And the house lights fade –
And the mayfly’s there,
For the show you made –
All of the hype and the flyers and the quotes,
All the rehearsal and all of the notes,
All of the dreaming, all of the fear,
They all disappear – the moment is here
For telling the story. Playing the role,
From the depths of your heart to the depths of their soul.
And yeah, maybe a show doesn’t go as it could,
It’s not very good, or it’s misunderstood.
It can’t get the laughs that it probably should…
Mayfly,
Never say die!
Your next mayflight, later tonight,
Take a wild chance on someone unknown –
You may find your mayfly mind is blown.
All of the worry and feeling upset, it
Gets washed away in the show, if you let it.
We’re mayflies now. Real life? Forget it.
(We die at the end of the hour, but don’t sweat it).
I’ve been a mayfly,
Since I was yay high,
Way back before social media and A.I.
And may I say I
Hope some of you may buy
Tickets. To my show. A big old bumper box-office binge.
(This poem’s art, but it’s commercial. Just like the Fringe).
Please come.
Please come.
Help the thing thrive.
(Top Gunchained, Gilded, five past five).
A new comic play, that gives you Top Gun,
Alongside the tale of a father and son.
Now, it’s almost time for this mayfly
To say bye.
Why’s Top Gunchained the show to choose?
(Beside my striking resemblance to a young Tom Cruise?).
I’m retelling Top Gun as a one-person play, I
Promise you planes. I’m hoping they may fly.
Top Gunchained, Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 30 Aug , 5.50pm