Tuesday 12 August 2014

Busiest Fringe ever?


Courtesy of Paula McBear on Twitter, here's the Socks live doing Mumford & Son the other night. Can you see the new Socks logo complete with sporran? World exclusive for you there.

Is this the busiest Edinburgh ever? It certainly seems that way. During the first couple of days I was already finding The Royal Mile busier than I'd ever seen it on an early weekday, and this past weekend I avoided it entirely as there wasn't room to lift your arms from your sides let alone hand out a flyer. This picture barely begins to suggest the density of bodies (taken on a Thursday):


This increased population in Edinburgh has spread to the Gilded Balloon area and seems to be working to my advantage. I've been less able to flyer due to my work in schools, but concentrating on the GB/Pleasance Dome/Assembly Gardens thoroughfare has paid off, especially in the last three days when I've resumed a flyering technique from previous years. In the 90 minutes before my show, I've been doing the tables in the Gilded Garden, with a "don't worry, they don't start till 10.30, loads of time" bit of schtick. Whether it's this that's made the difference I can't be sure, but on Friday sales went up from 48 to 74 in the last 90 mins; on Saturday from 50 to a sellout in the same space; Sunday not so much (we ended up with 50 payers); and last night, Monday, after the Socks had done a guest appearance in Pun Run at 9pm, the only flyering we did was the tables for 2 minutes after that and the audience went from 50 when I left the venue, 59 when I got home to change, 69 when I left home a quarter of an hour later, ending up with 80 paying punters. Our second best 2nd Tuesday ever. I shall be repeating this flyering technique every night, and we'll see whether it keeps up (sales for tonight currently stand on a major low of just 12).

UPDATE Tues 12th: Well bang goes that theory. I flyered the Gilded Garden around 8 and again near 9.30, then once again just before my show at 10.15 to nearly no effect. The day had started on 12 sales and ended on 28, historically our second lowest sales for this day. From feast to famine overnight, sometimes there's no science to the Fringe.


The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre ...And So Am I is at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014, July 30 - Aug 25 Gilded Balloon, 10.30pm


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