Festival Diary: Chris Brookmyre branches out into mind-reading

Edinburgh may be a city awash with magicians and mentalists right now, but there are not many to be found at the book festival.

Chris Brookmyre has perhaps identified a gap in the market if a surprise foray into sleight of hand is anything to go by.

The latest novel in the Victorian Edinburgh series created by Brookmyre and his wife, Dr Marisa Haetzman, under the pen name Ambrose Parry explores the growing public fascination for spiritualism and other “unexplained phenomena” in the middle of the 19th century.

After ventured into the audience to try to demonstrate how easy it was to demonstrate mind-reading, his writing partner warned him: “Don’t give up the day job.”

A late-night show featuring one performer and his accordion does not sound like it might offer the prospect of a party.

But the title Accordion Ryan's Pop Bangers does give a clue as to the revelry to be found at 11pm in the cellar at 32 Below on West Nicolson Street.

American singer-songwriter Ryan Simpson, who has relocated to Austria, has his audience jumping thanks to unlikely covers ranging from Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna to Gerry Cinnamon and Queen.

He tugged at the heartstrings with his own self-penned love songs, his determination to get to the Fringe despite the huge costs involved and his struggles with the voice disorder muscle tension dysphonia.

But Simpson reckons the audience response he is generating is worthy of a claim to be “the wildest show on the Fringe.”

The musician is at the Fringe months after making an appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, now watched more than 14,000 times on YouTube.

Simon Cowell delivers a withering verdict on his choice of musical instrument in the clip, telling Simpson: ‘I think the accordion just wouldn’t be invented today.”

However the music mogul leaves Simpson with a smile on his face when he adds: “You’re funny. I like you.”

Upstairs in the Counting House, the “adults only” Dirty Tattooed Cabaret prompts plenty of laughs and gasps in equal measure.

Little is left to the imagination by the time Irish trio Martin Mor, Logy Logan and Missy Fortune as they discarded their stage outfits.

Logan’s rotating near-naked juggling act was the pick of a show brought to a rousing finale when he stood on top of Fortune as she lay on a bed of nails – with the trio living up to a promise to offer what would be created “if Motörhead had sex with Cirque du Soleil.”

Performers will be honouring a stalwart of Laughing Horse’s “Free Fringe” this Thursday following the death of Lydia Mason at the age of 40.

The comedy producer was known as director Alex Petty’s “vice-admiral” due to her involvement with its venues and performers over the last decade.

Petty, a close friend for 30 years, described her as a champion of mental health support for acts across the Fringe landscape.

Close friends Vladimir McTavish and Jay Sodagar will be hosting a tribute edition of The Early Late Show from 2.35pm, which will also feature guests including Mike Shepherd and Katharyn Henson, with all proceeds going to the UK Sepsis Trust.