Things I've Learned From Talking to British People This Week

Hello pal! I'm in Edinburgh Scotland and nearly completed the first week of Fringe. I did FIVE shows yesterday. I'm pretty tired but exhilarated too, my show Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson had a sell out show four days in! More on that later, but in the meantime:​
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I've been sending out digital assets and emailing back and forth with vendors in Edinburgh this week in boosting marketing campaigns for Fringe, and I've picked up some new phraseologies that I've never heard before

• "to hand" – as in, "Do you have a Photoshop design in those dimensions to hand?" meaning "do you have one handy/ready to go?"
• "COP" – in the US, people would know what I mean if I say "I'll have it to you by COB" or "EOD" ... this is this same, except it stands for "Close of Play" which I find quite charming, like our workdays are just... play! Yeah, that's what I'll tell myself!
• When it comes to paper sizes, A0 is bigger than A1, which is bigger than A2, and so on. My show posters are A3, and my flyers are A5.
• Not specific to the UK, but I learned it through talking to Fringe vendors: everything is negotiable. I'm not a natural haggler. My solo show this year is the fourth time I've produced a show at Edinburgh Fringe, and this is the first time I've actually thought to ask for lower prices or discounts or for VAT removal, and it's slightly embarrassing because it means I could have saved a lot of money in the past. Like literally in years prior I just thought, "Oh, that's the price for placing an ad in the Fest magazine." This year I thought, "Hey, I'm on a budget, can you knock off £50" in various forms and almost universally the answer was "Sure!"

A realization about hot sauce

If you didn't know, there's a shortage of Huy Fong Sriracha, my absolutely favorite hot sauce (it goes on literally everything, even other hot sauces). Currently on eBay a 28 ounce bottle which would normally go for $4-7 is selling for about $28. Feh! I said, I can find a good alternative. So I ordered three other brands on Amazon and... I should have just bought the $28 bottle. I spent more than that on alternate options and none of them are as good (they're all too sweet). When I get back from Scotland I'm just going to splurge on Huy Fong (or maybe the shortage will be over by then).

Always your pal,

Chris

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