Very pleased to have done the 4 km swim at Swim Rutland this morning. The setting is beautiful (here’s a photo that I took of some of it yesterday evening), it was organised really well, and it was the right kind of challenge. And it meant a weekend in the country!

I’m really glad to have been a part of London Trans+ Pride again today, with good friends (and so many thousands of people overall).

Tony Bird@tonybirdlondon.bsky.social · 2w ago

Gorgeous day for Trans Pride 🏳️‍⚧️ bumped into loads of friends. Massive turnout too. Certainly busier than last year. I'm hearing reports of 150,000. Which is amazing as last years was 100,000 and was the biggest in the world to date Thanks to @thisstage.bsky.social for the photo of me chanting

Last night’s Edinburgh preview of the new @awkwardprods.co.uk show Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella was outstanding. The show is both serious and fun, with a lovely mix of vulnerability, strength and humour. It’s well worth seeing at the Fringe.

Pride really was wonderful. I’m so glad finally to have seen it today.

VERY excited to have picked up a hard-copy @edfringe.bsky.social programme today, Thank you, @sohotheatre.bsky.social! (Yes, the cover has a slight tear.) It’s very big this year, but I look forward to digesting it. My first 16 shows are already booked. Any recommendations/ shows to promote?

After a few near misses over the years, I finally caught Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats tonight. I’m very glad that I did.

We still have space at Show Off! this Friday night (at The Square Pig in Holborn, central London). Doors open at 18:45 and there will be live music (with one break from 19:30 to 23:00). There will be air conditioning, and plenty of lovers of musical theatre. Join us? More info in bio.

The High Life last night was such a delight: the show is fantastic and the energy levels on stage and in the audience were top-notch. The journey to Glasgow was definitely worthwhile.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was great tonight. It is well worth a visit.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day for my first open-water swim of the season.

It’s not often that material from a show one night contains the answer to a question in a quiz the following night. So thank you Ed Gamble!

Great to see Copenhagen tonight, around 25 years after my first (and only other) viewing. It’s well worth seeing.

Unsurprisingly, John Proctor is the Villain was absolutely brilliant tonight.

It was really exciting to see American Psycho at the Almeida Theatre on Monday night. Excellent show.

5 classes you took in university: Existentialism Goethe & Romanticism Social Psychology Conflict of Laws Psychiatry and the Law (A confusing mix? Maybe.)

Tony Bird@tonybirdlondon.bsky.social · 6mo ago

5 Classes you took in university: Typography Design History Calligraphy Photography Printmaking Yes I did a graphic design degree and technically most of it was at an art college. Though it merged with a university in my final year

My fifth show of 2026 involved a bit of a field trip - but it was well worth it. I’m glad - finally - to have caught The Last Ship, in a new production.

It’s very normal to run out to the supermarket just for toilet roll and ice cream, right?

I saw more than 100 shows in 2025. There was a lot more comedy this year, but also lots of musical theatre, roughly matched by plays, and quite a few shows that defied categorisation. Seeing them all has made my life much richer, and I hope that it has also helped to inspire me to create in 2026.

Why, in 2025, are opticians separating frames by gender in their displays?

If you had told me that I would see shows in three different London theatres in 2025 in which the principal performer would crowd surf, I would have been very surprised. But here we are - and all three shows have been fantastic.

It has been really lovely to have Show Off! back up and running again - and especially brilliant to be reunited with so many lovely people. One more to go this year - on 14 November- and then, with any luck, several more in 2026. Here: Matthew Gent, Robert Hazle and Tasha Sheridan on 26 September.

I finally saw Ohio tonight, at the Young Vic. It was brilliant. It’s well worth a visit.

It’s tonight! Very excited to be bringing Show Off! back (again) - and also quite conscious that it is going to be a very busy day.

Songs For A New World tonight was fantastic!

Tonight’s show was Every Brilliant Thing, with Sue Perkins. It was fantastic.

Some exciting professional news: Show Off! is returning in September! Matthew Gent and Tasha Sheridan will be co-hosting, with Robert Hazle at the piano. I will undoubtedly mention this again between now and then:)

Normal levels of theatre activity will resume next week - and there is certainly a daunting mountain of admin to be handled in the meantime - but it has been very strange going from the wonderful overstimulation of the Fringe to a very quiet and largely theatre-free late summer week in London.

I made it back to the Edinburgh Fringe this year as a punter, seeing 25 shows in 3 1/2 days last week. I absolutely loved it, despite the exhaustion that came with it.

The summer fun is largely over now. The coming weeks and months are likely to be action-packed, with plenty of cause for anxiety, but I’m also looking forward to lots of things. I will likely be a bit more present here going forward.

The weather was mixed, but it was nevertheless great to fit in a swim at the West Reservoir today.