Georgie Grier performed to a sold-out crowd at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival only a day after just one person turned up to the same show.
Jason Mansford and Dara Ó Briain were among the thousands who consoled Grieg after she shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, that only one person had turned up to her show at The Gilded Balloon.
On Thursday (3 August), Grier wrote: “There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one-woman play Sunsets at #edfringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…?”
Grier – who has a supporting role in Steve Coogan’s 2019 comedy Greed – accompanied her caption with a photo of herself wiping tears from her face.
The post went viral, garnering attention from people on social media, as well as some big names in comedy including Manchester comedian Manford and Mock the Week star Ó Briain.
Since then, The Guardian reports that Grier performed to a near-sell-out crowd the next afternoon.
Seeing the crowd prior to beginning her show, Grier joked: “Hello Wembley!”
Speaking to The Daily Mail, one ticket-holder, Susan Keelan, said she had been handed a leaflet for the show after she had seen Ó Briain post a link about what happened.
“We thought well that’s fate, we’ll definitely give it a go,” said Keelan. “It’s not that I felt sorry for her because it’s so hard for them all – we’ve been here for three days now and we’ve gone to a lot of shows.
“The competition is huge and the talent is amazing and so much can fall under the radar but going to see her today just seems to be a good opportunity to pick this one up and give her [Georgie] a bit of a boost.”
Since Grier’s post went viral, the one person who was in attendance at the show revealed themselves to be Sophie Craig.
Responding to Grier’s tweet, she said: “I was that one person in the lovely Georgie Grier’s audience. We had a lovely hug at the end and she was so professional and brave and she gave me everything. You should be so proud angel! Thank YOU! Now go get em girl.”
Ó Briain tweeted in support of Grier, writing: “We’ve ALL done it. Soon, you’ll dine out on this anecdote. More than once I had to buy my audience a drink, as a thank you for being the only ones there.
“Best thing, though, it’s all stage time and the show will get better every single time, ready for the big crowds later.”
Grier’s one-woman show tells the story of a woman “fascinated by romantic comedies” who “tries to create her own walking-off-into-the-sunset moment”.
More information and tickets for Grier’s show can be found here.
