A SCOTS comedian decided that the show much go on despite selling just one ticket to his gig at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Aberdeenshire comic who has supported acts including Kevin Bridges, thougt he had reason to be upbeat about his return to the festival after Covid-19.
But the funnyman was shocked to find just one person had shown up for his set at the Stand Comedy Club on Friday.
Insted of walking away, he decided to give his all, tailoring his act for audience member Mike, from Leicester.
Now thanks to a post on social media by the solitary audience member the Scot has become an overnight success.
The gig on Friday night was attended by Mike Cass – a content director for Virgin Radio.
He tweeted: “I saw Robin Grainger on Friday night, the only person in the audience.
“He made me laugh so hard, I loved it. I go and see Des Clarke today and one of his guests was Robin telling the story of his only audience member.
Phenomenal audience tonight!
— Robin Grainger (@RobinGrainger) August 7, 2022
Half of them had heard about my one audience member experience! Thank you all. What a fun show!
20 lovely new members of the #robingraingerappreciationsociety
6.40pm daily at @StandComedyClub https://t.co/TBkKqyu7jH pic.twitter.com/f2lAxVsubW
“I feel I should start the #RobinGraingerAppreciationSociety.”
Following the tweet, Mr Grainger, from Portsoy who moved to Edinburgh 10 years ago, started to sell many more tickets, with Saturday's performance just a few seats away from a sell-out.
His tweet about what happened has more than 250,000 views.
He said: “My phone blew up all day yesterday. Overwhelmed messages of support from loved ones, audience members & the comedy industry."
The comedian said afterwards that he left his audience of one "crying with laughter".
Robin said: "I thought, he had paid for his ticket and I've got a microphone and an ego, so I went for it.
"I did different stuff - it was a lot more convivial than my normal show. I did a lot of adlibs, I wrote a lot of it there on the stage. I tried to tailor it to Mike, really. And he was really laughing.
"Afterwards, I was outside a bit flustered and he came out and he was crying, laughing, and he gave me a hug and he said that was brilliant."
He told the BBC "I had been busy doing guest spots, exit flyering, the things you do during the day at the Fringe, and hadn't checked ticket sales.
"I'm an optimistic guy, it was the first Friday - everyone was tweeting about busy audiences. I thought it would be fine.
"My lovely tech operator Eric came to give me my two-minute warning. I asked how it was looking and he winced.
"He said 'There's one'."
THE STORY CONTINUES!
— Robin Grainger (@RobinGrainger) August 7, 2022
I just did @des_clarke’s wonderful chat show & as I’m telling him the story of having one audience member on Friday, I hear “Robin!” from the crowd…
It was only Mike, my one audience member! He didn’t know I was on at this gig!https://t.co/TBkKqyuF9f https://t.co/uXulOKSZdC pic.twitter.com/VQAA0btWD2
Robin added: “I thought, he had paid his ticket and I’ve got a microphone and an ego, so I went for it.
“I did different stuff – it was a lot more convivial than my normal show. I did a lot of adlibs, I wrote a lot of it there on the stage. I tried to tailor it to Mike, really. And he was really laughing.
“Afterwards, I was outside a bit flustered and he came out and he was crying, laughing, and he gave me a hug and he said that was brilliant.”
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