Edinboro.....
So this week sees the start of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This is when all kinds of entertainers sell at least one kidney and their entire Star Wars toy collection to raise funds so that they pay a handful of people a huge amount of cash in order to do whatever it is they get paid to do for the rest of the year.
It sounds crazy because it is crazy. The good people of Edinburgh get to charge "London prices" for the high-ceilinged properties that they got for a steal 10 years ago. This cold hard cash is then used to fund a month on the beach in southern Spain, or a gastro-tour of Italy. Good on 'em I say. It's one of the reasons I'm excited about next year's Olympics. For that month I'll be able to do the same damn thing!
An enormous number of my comedy chums are going up to 'Clowntown' as it's been re-christened, with shows they have worked their asses off to write and produce and direct. They've spent most the the last six months trying it out wherever there's four walls and something resembling a stage. They've built props, they've almost made their brains bleed coming up with a 'concept'.
These crazy kids have a head full of plans and a heart full of dreams. For some of them it will be life changing, mainly the ones with the hotshot management who've got the power to drag the international festival bookers, tv researchers and press along to the venue.
The ones who will get nominated for the Perrier (I have lost track of what it actually is called these days) tend to be the ones who you've already seen on every BBC2 and BBC3 panel show, on Live at the Apollo or on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, or maybe even Show Me The Funny. The winner of any of the awards they hand out up there certainly won't be a complete unknown with no major representation behind them that's for sure.
There's another side to Edinburgh though, for those four wet, cold, rarely sunny weeks you get to do what you love to do - perform - every day. Better still you get to perform something you've written that really means something to you. You also get to hang out with all your comedy chums - in August the whole place is one huge backstage. You can have breakfast with one bunch (the teetotal bunch obviously), lunch with your management (who will pick up the tab hopefully), and post-show bag of chips with your bestest mates as you stagger back to your flat.
I've only ever done one Edinburgh as a performer. In 1999 I was part of the Screaming Blue Murder Big Value Comedy Show at the Cafe Royal. The guys I worked with up there became some of the best friends I've ever had. Even if I don't see them on a regular basis, we have that bond.
I've never done a solo show up there, never had the balls, the idea, nor the inclination to be really honest. What this means is that when I do take a show up there I will be eligible for "Best Newcomer" as the only criteria is that it has to be your first one hour show. For that reason alone I have begun writing a show, and I plan to perform my first hour in 2013 the same year I'll be celebrating 20 years in showbiz. I think I'd enjoy being in the running for best newcomer by then!
To all those with bigger balls, brighter ideas and stronger wills than me I salute you. Have a brilliant Edinburgh 2011 you lot, see you in a couple of years.
It sounds crazy because it is crazy. The good people of Edinburgh get to charge "London prices" for the high-ceilinged properties that they got for a steal 10 years ago. This cold hard cash is then used to fund a month on the beach in southern Spain, or a gastro-tour of Italy. Good on 'em I say. It's one of the reasons I'm excited about next year's Olympics. For that month I'll be able to do the same damn thing!
An enormous number of my comedy chums are going up to 'Clowntown' as it's been re-christened, with shows they have worked their asses off to write and produce and direct. They've spent most the the last six months trying it out wherever there's four walls and something resembling a stage. They've built props, they've almost made their brains bleed coming up with a 'concept'.
These crazy kids have a head full of plans and a heart full of dreams. For some of them it will be life changing, mainly the ones with the hotshot management who've got the power to drag the international festival bookers, tv researchers and press along to the venue.
The ones who will get nominated for the Perrier (I have lost track of what it actually is called these days) tend to be the ones who you've already seen on every BBC2 and BBC3 panel show, on Live at the Apollo or on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, or maybe even Show Me The Funny. The winner of any of the awards they hand out up there certainly won't be a complete unknown with no major representation behind them that's for sure.
There's another side to Edinburgh though, for those four wet, cold, rarely sunny weeks you get to do what you love to do - perform - every day. Better still you get to perform something you've written that really means something to you. You also get to hang out with all your comedy chums - in August the whole place is one huge backstage. You can have breakfast with one bunch (the teetotal bunch obviously), lunch with your management (who will pick up the tab hopefully), and post-show bag of chips with your bestest mates as you stagger back to your flat.
I've only ever done one Edinburgh as a performer. In 1999 I was part of the Screaming Blue Murder Big Value Comedy Show at the Cafe Royal. The guys I worked with up there became some of the best friends I've ever had. Even if I don't see them on a regular basis, we have that bond.
I've never done a solo show up there, never had the balls, the idea, nor the inclination to be really honest. What this means is that when I do take a show up there I will be eligible for "Best Newcomer" as the only criteria is that it has to be your first one hour show. For that reason alone I have begun writing a show, and I plan to perform my first hour in 2013 the same year I'll be celebrating 20 years in showbiz. I think I'd enjoy being in the running for best newcomer by then!
To all those with bigger balls, brighter ideas and stronger wills than me I salute you. Have a brilliant Edinburgh 2011 you lot, see you in a couple of years.
posted by JoJo Smith at Thursday, August 04, 2011
2 comments
