The Festival Cafe - day nine

Joanne Smithers

Assisted suicide, anti Semitism, a capella music with a side order of long format improvised musicals. It's not a recipe that should work but sprinkled with Festival Café magic it all came out like a beautiful moist sponge, one with fresh cream and raspberries, or maybe a cherry scone with just the right amount of cherries. . . I may have become sidetracked. The BBC office at The Tun is the spiritual home of cake, or 'fine piece' as I believe it is known in the trade.

So I was hanging out with Emily, Al and Jody from Baby Wants Candy backstage. Emily and Al are big fish in the American comedy pond and are the director and one of the founding members respectively and Jody is the musical director. Baby Wants Candy is one of the longest running improv shows in the world and it shows in the haunted look in their eyes. The guys are so attuned to spontaneously creating musicals from titles suggested by the audience that it made asking them simple questions quite long winded-

Jody and Al from Baby Loves Candy join Guy Masterson and Janice Forsyth on the sofas.

Me: "Can I get you a drink?"

Them:" First scene it's a cold snowy day in the 1920's Chicago, a man is being led off towards the Police Station. A young girl walks by and catches his eye - she begins to sing: Hey mister can I get you a drink? You're off to the clink; can't I get you a drink? Hey mister, can I get you a drink? Dum de de dum, dum de dum"

Me: "eh, no, that was wonderful but I was actually just offering you a coffee. We also have sandwiches and cakes on the table. Just shout if you'd like anything, my name is Jo"

Them: "A young girl nervously waits by the door, peering in to the dark theatre. There are two performers on stage preparing to start the show. She nervously calls out, "excuse me, can you hear me? Can you hear my voice? My name is Jo, can't you hear me? I want to be in the show, boy o boy I want to be in the show! Da de de da de dad a . . ."

etc etc

I jest; their musicals are obviously of a far higher standard. Or are they? Go along to Assembly at George Square One at 2015 to find out for yourself. But be quick - the last show is on Monday the 29th.

Today's show is available, on BBC Radio Scotland's website to listen again and make sure you catch our last show tomorrow, on air at 1315.

Annabel Cooper

So despite yesterday's predictions that the world was ending, we all got up as normal this morning to find the BBC offices, Edinburgh and the rest of the world (not that it even exists during festival season anyway) firmly intact. Yet I still rose with a heavy heart and sense of impending doom because of the stark realisation that today's was the penultimate show of Edinburgh Festival 2011! Sad faces all around. But we can save all the mushy reflection and luvvie air kissing for tomorrow because as they say in this business 'The Show must go on...so dry yer eyes and make me that cup of tea...yesterday!'.

Ah such is the life of a BBC runner. But on the show must go and indeed, on it went with a fine cast of talent from across the festival spectrum - as you have no doubt come to expect from the Festival Café. Presenter Janice Forsyth never fails to impress me with her thoughtful and insightful interview style and I thought she dealt with some controversial and difficult topics with trademark finesse today. The serious themes coming from Chris Larner's examination of assisted suicide from his one-man play 'An Instinct for Kindness' and Fringe legend Guy Masterson's modern take on Shakespeare's Shylock.

Voices

But I doubt even Shylock himself could have helped being uplifted by our musical guests, the unique melting pot of a capella that was 'Voices'. Gleaming like angels in their white outfits and with voices to match, the NYC based troupe herald from all four corners of the planet, taking in sounds, styles, sights and smells from Persia to Cameroon and back again. Their off-the-cuff 'Celtic' vignette (completely unplanned and devised exclusively for the Festival café) was a masterstroke in Beatboxing-laced funk, all wrapped up in your granny's favourite tartan blanket (or something equally NME-soteric as that!). Voices join Beardyman and Fascinating Aida in that special place in the Festival Café's heart for treating us to exclusive, personalised creations. If you didn't hear these audio treats live, get down to the BBC Radio Scotland website immediately!

Right, I'm off to make that cup of tea and try not to think about that impending sense of doom...

Lalita Augustine

Today was really interesting for me. I was looking after actor, writer and director Chris Larner (probably better known as Clingfilm from London's Burning) who is up performing in his award winning solo show "An Instinct For Kindness" where he recounts the true story of taking his terminally ill ex wife Allyson - who suffered with MS - to a specialist organisation in Switzerland to end her life.

Chris Larner

Chris was in good spirits today despite the harrowing topic of assisted suicide being ever present. After making sure he was happy with his "mini latte" (a latte with less milk in it than normal) we had a good chat about the topic. I asked him more about the facility they had gone to, the process and cost involved and how he and their son had felt at the time. Chris agreed that turning the experience into a play had been a cathartic experience for him and had helped him with his grieving process. We also agreed that the subject of death is maybe one that most people in the UK may not feel comfortable talking about but that it was inevitably part of life.

On to a lighter topic, we also had a unique a cappella experience with New York based multi-cultural ensemble Voices. They performed three songs on the show, with a mixture of human hip-hop beat-boxing, chanting and Indian, European and African choir and gospel stylings, they certainly raised the roof with their performance!

Guy Masterson was also on to talk about his production, "Shylock". Shylock was a character in Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice" and was a Jewish usurer. Masterson's play dissects "The Merchant of Venice", giving a comedic, moving performance all about the character.

We also had American improv production "Baby Wants Candy". The successful show runs in New York city and Chicago and tours internationally. The show is based on audience suggestions and the group then spontaneously choreograph dance numbers, rhyming verses and comedy to create their show.

So, we are almost coming to the end of our run here at the festival (sad face) but you can enjoy the experience one more time tomorrow with our host Janice Forsyth. Guests tomorrow will be former stand-up comedian turned crime fiction writer Mark Billingham, Comedy opera from Adelmo Guidarelli, musical duo Frisky and Mannish and the winner of this year's comedy competition "So You Think You're Funny."

Catch you all tomorrow for one last hurrah!