19:05 – Tonight is our big night in Edinburgh with our Stand Up for Freedom comedy gig featuring the best of comedians the festival has to offer. We’ll be live blogging and tweeting at http://twitter.com/amnestyuk all night long.
This show isn’t being recorded, there will be no video, there will be no audio and all the tickets have sold out. So this is the only place to find out what’s happening.
21:00 – Just done the podcast briefing and had a sneak preview of the next episode which is going to be out tomorrow. It’s a good one. If you’ve missed our podcast so far you can catch up over on The Guardian – http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/series/amnesty-international-comedy-podcast
22:00 – The auditorium is starting to fill up and so is the Green Room with Adam Hills, Doc Brown and Tim Key getting ready to go on.
22:10 – Adam Hills has opened the show and it’s off to a good start with a member of the audience asking him to sign her. I’ll let you guess which bit she asked him to sign!
22:15 – Doc Brown is out on stage. If you haven’t seen him, don’t leave it too long. He is going to be a big star very soon.
22:30 – Danielle Ward is treating us to a very special anecdote, before rushing off to do her show. Who is the most famous person from your school?
22:40 – The very very talented Tim Key is giving us all a lesson in the English language. If you could see his suit, it would look something like this:
22:55 – We are flying through the gig. Dan Antopolski is now on stage, a fellow South London-ite. He has a lot of good advice for any prospective parents.
23:05 – Jason Byrne has leapt up on stage and is helping to sign Adam’s introduction of the next act. Not sure he is sticking strictly to British Sign Language. Thanks Jason.
23:15 – Michael Mittermeier has come on stage to a huge applause. What do you mean you don’t know who he is. He is Germany’s top comedian and he is extremely funny. No really!
Michael has been in Burma making a film about Zarganar, a comedian imprisoned in Burma. Find out more about Zarganar – www.amnesty.org.uk/zarganar
23:25 - Fred MacAulay has taken over from Adam Hills to see us through until the end of the night with a warning about flying from Scotland to Bristol.
23:35 – It is an understatement to say that John Bishop has been warmly welcomed to the stage. He’s a class act. His show is sold out, but he’s got some issues with our Secret Policeman logo. I’ll have to feed that back to people in the office.
23:45 – Next up is my personal favourite Josie Long. Fantastic analysis of UK politics. Obviously I have no opinion either way but the freedom to make fun of those in power is what we are campaigning for in Burma – www.amnesty.org.uk/burma
23:55 – The legendary Emo Philips is on stage and Adam Hills is hooting with laughter from the green room.
00:05 – Our last guest tonight is Mark Watson who has run over from his show and only just got here in time. Two hours in and he’s still got everyone in fits of laughter.
00:20 – To wrap up the show Michael Mittermeier has come back on stage to tell Zarganar’s story. Even though he is in prison he is still writing comedy and people are smuggling his jokes out. If you haven’t already taken action for Zarganar find out how you can help www.amnesty.org.uk/zarganar
00:30 – That’s it from Stand Up for Freedom 2010. A massive thank you to all of the acts tonight. If you are in Edinburgh this month try and see their shows you won’t be disappointed. And than you to everyone who cam e along tongight, we hope you all enjoyed yourselves.
You can follow everything else we get up to in Edinburgh on twitter.com/amnestyuk and twitter.com/artsfromamnesty.
Goodnight.
Sounds like a great night, wish I was there!