Edinburgh comedy - now 45% FREE!

Thumbing through this year's Edinburgh Fringe programme my eye kept being caught by the words "Free (non ticketed)" under comedy shows. Were there more free shows in the comedy section than in previous years? So, apropos of nothing, and because I had a little time to kill while waiting to have new tyres fitted (I'd driven over a screw, now you ask), I did some counting up.

I looked at the Fringe programme for this year and compared it to the programme for my very first year with the Scottish Falsetto Socks, 2007. And here's what I found.

In 2007 there were 609 comedy shows, of which 172 were free. That's 28% free.
In 2015 there are 1116 comedy shows, of which 487 are free*. That's (almost) 45% free**.
(Interestingly if you subtract 2015's 507 free shows from its 1116 total shows, you get 609. Magic.)

**AMEND: Bob Slayer of Heroes of the Fringe has pointed out to me that his Pay What You Want shows aren't free ("We sell tickets, therefore these are paid shows - albeit with a tweak" he writes on Facebook) so I have adjusted the figures accordingly.

*Of these 507 (before I amended the figure), 23 are BBC events and 30 are "pay what you want" events. So only the BBC events will be entirely free of bucket-rattling or the need for some last-minute hand-in-pocket action.

So in 8 years, the number of comedy shows has not quite doubled, and the percentage of free shows has nearly trebled. If this trend continues, Edinburgh comedy shows will be predominantly free within a year or two.

What this tells you I cannot say. Famously comedians, producers, and indeed all performers at the Edinburgh Fringe would tell tales of the amount of money they lose every year, making you wonder why anyone ever returned. Now the Free Fringe model has radically transformed the scene as far as comedy is concerned. This exhaustive article by Anthony Miller of Pear Shaped Comedy looks at the history of the rival free fringes and festivals and their current state of mixed fortunes, but after reading it you may feel just as mystified as when you began.

At a glance, the situation for theatre is markedly different. In 2007 68 pages of theatre, in 2015 95 pages of theatre, a negligible amount of it free. Eee, I remember when aaaalll this were theatre, as far as the eye can see.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are at The Gilded Balloon throughout Edinburgh Fringe 2015, August 5th - 30th. Tickets are on sale now.

 

The Edinburgh Fringe by Alistair Moffat (1978)

I have just finished a quick but informative read in the form of The Edinburgh Fringe by Alistair Moffat, which I picked up in Cardiff at the weekend. Complementing the longer book Banquo On Thursdays - The Inside Story Of 50 Years of the Edinburgh Festival by Iain Crawford, which I bought last summer in Edinburgh, it fills in more of the gaps in my knowledge of the Fringe's early years.

Moffat's book is from 1978 (Crawford's was from 1997) and so represents a Fringe almost entirely different from that which modern Fringe goers would recognise. The box office on the High Street is newly opened, all the talk is of the higher end of Fringe theatre and how Edinburgh created the concept to begin with, The Traverse rules the roost, there is a complete list of every single Fringe First Award won to date (there were, by 1978, 52 of them), and there is no comedy.

Apart from glancing references to the Cambridge Footlights, some Oxford students who'd gone on to fame and fortune, a mention of Hinge and Bracket, and a couple of plays by Billy Connolly, comedy barely gets a look in on the Fringe by 1978. Chris Langham's theatre company Franzshow wins a First in 1976, but his (or anyone's) forays into stand up are still some way away.

The stats are fun to look at - in 1973 there were 87 performing groups doing 1386 performances across the three weeks. This had "grown considerably" to 123 groups doing 1971 performances in 1975. But compare it to 2015's "over 3000 shows in more than 300 venues" (which, we can assume, adds up to around 90,000 performances) and it makes this diatribe from the Guardian in 1976 by Cordelia Oliver seem irredeemably quaint:

"The Edinburgh Fringe grows grosser every year like a fat old cat going to seed and not giving a damn. The official Fringe programme lists at least two hundred companies... in every space from Craigmillar to Leith... Some say the very essence of the Fringe is its free-for-all nature: that it's the way it grew and to try and change things is to tempt the fates. Others say nonsense, the fates were tempted long ago when the Fringe itself went official, appointed its own director and began to print its own programme of events. So why not go further and devise some way of indicating value for ticket money: why not even appoint some trusted scout to be on the look out for unusually stimulating small groups from anywhere in the world and invite at least one to Edinburgh each year."

I wonder what Cordelia would have made of the situation that has developed since, where TV talent scouts and agencies have long since used Edinburgh in just that way. I cannot imagine the dominance of Avalon, Off The Kerb and the like is what she was envisaging. Which reminds me, the Television Festival doesn't get a mention in this book.

I need to refer back to the Crawford book to find any mention of multi-tenanted venues, with which Fringe companies are most familiar now, The Wireworks not being built until 1978, followed by The Assembly Rooms in 1981 (then The Circuit in 1981, Pleasance 1984, Gilded Balloon 1986, The Stand 1995 etc etc).

One venue that was being built at the time of the 1978 book is the Old Chaplaincy Centre on Forrest Road, being developed by Bradford University Drama Group. And this choice quote from their report on that building stands out as a voice from a long distant era:

"Nobody goes to a Fringe show if they do not think they will enjoy what they see, no-one goes to be seen there, or because it is the 'done thing'. Of all types of theatre, the Fringe concentrates most exclusively on what happens on stage or in the playing area."

Really, anonymous voice from 1978? Really?

Here, in total innocence, we see how the Festival Fringe Society of the 1960s proudly brands its programme with the legend "FFS". The past is, indeed, a foreign country.

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe (2024) - on sale here.

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who  

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are at The Gilded Balloon throughout Edinburgh Fringe 2015, August 5th - 30th. Tickets are on sale now.

 

10 Brand New Socks Reject Title cartoons

Well, that was a day well spent. 10 new Reject Titles cartooned up and ready to leak out on Twitter and Facebook. Hev came up with some of the best (inc Hill St Shoes and Cagney and Lace-Ups). Enjoy.

June 25 Cheltenham
June 27 Old Joint Stock Birmingham
July 17 Carriageworks Leeds
July 19 Sheffield New Barrack Tavern
July 23 Spread Eagle Croydon
July 24 Porters, Cardiff
July 25 Bedford Fringe
Aug 5 - 31  10.30pm Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe

Read more at http://kevfcomicart.blogspot.com/#SK5SZuYd2AZ5TJ2Q.99

Doctor Who End Of Time revisited by The Socks

Out of the blue the Socks have been invited to re-do their 2010 parody of Doctor Who's The End Of Time. Can't tell you why just now, but if it comes about the way it should, I'll fill you in. In the meantime, enjoy a hi-res update of an interesting blast from the past.

May 22 & 23 Brighton Komedia
June 25 Cheltenham
June 27 Old Joint Stock Birmingham
July 17 Carriageworks Leeds
July 19 Sheffield New Barrack Tavern
July 23 Spread Eagle Croydon
July 24 Porters, Cardiff
July 25 Bedford Fringe
Aug 5 - 31  10.30pm Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe

Brighton is the new Edinburgh. (1995)

Having just devoured the new 2015 Edinburgh Fringe programme, and recently performed previews at Brighton Fringe, I've chanced to compare the programmes from the two events and come to a stunning conclusion. Brighton Fringe is the new Edinburgh Fringe. Circa 1995.

This year's Brighton Fringe programme weighs in at an impressive 102 pages and carries an array of shows that seems, to my eye, unrivalled outside of Edinburgh. Of course Edinburgh's programme far outweighs it, with a postal-delivery-worker-stretching 440 pages in this year's volume. But it was not ever thus.

I've had the pleasure of putting shows on at Edinburgh since 2001, and first attended as a punter in 1984, so squirreled away I have quite the collection of programmes. And my pile of Fringe programmes shows quite a steady development over the years.

Last year's Edfringe programme was 408 pages long, 2013's was 392 and 2012's was 376. Back in 2001, the first Fringe programme to feature one of my shows was a mere 176 pages long. And my faded but treasured 1984 programme is but a pamphlet at just 72 pages.

Which shows the Fringe programme growing at a rate of about 20 pages a year. So Brighton Fringe is up to the size that Edinburgh was in approximately 1995 (a year I didn't go, so no prog in the vaults sadly). All of which tells us very little I'm afraid, but if this continues Brighton might want to look to its future with some trepidation. Will their streets be blocked solid with jugglers and fire-eaters for a month, and will every home-owner find themselves renting out their place to visitors at the cost of the GDP of a small developing country every summer? Heaven forfend.

As a small coda, 2015's comedy section in the Edinburgh Fringe programme is slightly smaller than it was last year - 137 pages to 2014's 141 pages - which I at first thought might be down to a smaller number of display ads (certainly the Scottish Falsetto Socks bought an 8th page ad last year and haven't bothered this time, and I notice a lot of fellow shows following suit. What difference this makes to everyone's sales, only August will tell). However, having totted up the number of display ads in the comedy section I find this year has 47.5 pages of ads to 2014's 46.75 pages. Meaning this year has 89.5 pages of actual comedy listings to 2014's 94.5 pages. (2012's programme boasted 143 pages of comedy, inc ads, while 2001's had only 33.)

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are at The Gilded Balloon throughout Edinburgh Fringe 2015, August 5th - 30th. Tickets are on sale now.

 

Edfringe 2015 - My Top Ten favourite titles (Comedy section)

10  Hal Cruttenden: Straight Outta Cruttenden
9  Lou Sanders: Excuse Me, You're Sitting On My Penis Again
8  Eleanor Tiernan - Don't Cry For Me Eleanor Tiernan
7  Stewart Lee: A Room With A Stew
6  Sajeela Kershi: Shallow Halal
5  Craig Hill: Playing With My Selfie
4  Expect The Unexporcupine
3  That's The Way Aha Aha Joe Lycett
2   Brendon Burns and Colt Cabana Sit In A Fucking Yurt at 11pm and Provide Comedy and Commentary to Bad Wrestling Matches
1  David O'Doherty: We Are All Of Us In The Gutter, But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O'Doherty
 

Magna Carta Lincoln comic - in full

In May of 2015 I visited a series of schools in Lincoln giving very special Comic Art Masterclasses which, as well as teaching the pupils how to write and draw comic strips, were themed around the subject of the Magna Carta. The kids had to produce comic strips on the subject of King John, Magna Carta, liberty, freedom and justice. Then, as well as them each going away with the little photocopied comic we'd produced together, their work was edited and coloured by me, with a linking story that I wrote and drew, and the finished item was published in full colour by Art Reach, who devised the project, and distributed at Lincoln cathedral to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. Sounds good eh? Wait till you see the whole eight pages. Here they are in all their glory. (Click to enlarge any page) 

Ending up with the caricatures I drew of all of their faces. Not a bad four days work (plus finishing-off time) I'm sure you'll agree. And I did the same a month or two later in Barking (see those results here).

 

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. 

Minging Detectives: Reject Titles - brand new Socks trailer

The Socks have made a brand new video trailer, running down the titles they rejected for the new show, Minging Detectives. We hope you enjoy it.

Keep it to yourself, but sales for Minging Detectives are at a record high at the moment. I know, with statistics correcting themselves to the mean, this could be a blip. But as of June 8th sales stand at 96. On this day in 2014 we were at 71, 2013 it was 77, 2012 (Olympics year) we were only at 53, and on this day in our record-holding year of 2010 sales stood at 75. Mind you, 2010 shot up to 105 sales by June 10th and had doubled that by June 22nd, so let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet. Still, the current level is good while it lasts.

May 22 & 23 Brighton Komedia
June 25 Cheltenham
June 27 Old Joint Stock Birmingham
July 17 Carriageworks Leeds
July 19 Sheffield New Barrack Tavern
July 23 Spread Eagle Croydon
July 24 Porters, Cardiff
July 25 Bedford Fringe
Aug 5 - 31  10.30pm Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe