Charming Flashmob…

I’m a big fan of comedian Richard Herring and have been since the days of Fist of Fun and TMWRNJ

Having been to his Edinburgh warm-up for his “Hitler’s Moustache” show (which was brilliant) I’ve been following his daily blog Warming Up about how it’s been going. Through his blog and his podcast, he encouraged as many people as possible to head to his favourite takeaway joint in Edinburgh at 1.45 on a certain day, to test the owner’s boast that he had 100 potatoes on the go at once. The “break the tattie” event was designed as a way of thanking the owner of the shop who, from time to time, gives Richard Herring a free jacket spud for recommending the place.

The result appears to have exceeded expectation (in a similar measure to the number of potatoes being ready not meeting expectation) with a long queue stretching down the street.

Collings and Herrin at the Tempting Tattie from Jonny on Vimeo.

What’s great here is that in the age of T-Mobile ‘spontaneous’ flash mobs, that a genuinely entertaining, charming and philanthropic one can take place and all orchestrated via a blog, twitter and a weekly podcast. The people there had nothing to gain from the experience, other than being a part of something momentarily amusing and nutritionally beneficial, and yet it has spawned online videos, blog posts and coverage far beyond the means of the Tempting Tattie- given that the owner was unaware of what was planned for his shop, it seems unlikely that he’s aware of the slightly increased coverage it is now getting online.