Edinburgh Fringe Programme - Work In Progress

Our advert takes price of place in the Comedy section. Let's see what effect that has.

Q: What do the followings things have in common?

Robert Burns

Synesthesia

Early Mornings

Heathers

Legally Blonde

Thrones

Trump

A: That’s right, this year at Edinburgh they’re all followed by the words “…The Musical”

It’s the annual ritual of digesting the Edinburgh Fringe programme, enjoyed in this household since 1984.

The Fringe Programme’s size - it’s plateaud.

Though I doubt this will be reflected on the streets of Edinburgh, which will be thronged with hordes outnumbering those seen before, the number of pages in the massive Edfringe prog feels like it’s gone down. Though it stands at 458 pages, which is the pagecount it’s had for the two previous years, this feels like stagflation in the context of years gone by.

The Fringe programme has reached a plateau (though from the side it still looks like one).

(In 1984, the first programme I have was just 74 pages long, in 2001 it was 176 pages, by 2012 it was 376, 2013 392, 2014 408, 2015 440, 2017 to now 458. So it was growing at 20 pages a year for over 30 years, then levelled out)

Comedy is 145 pages (up 3 on last year, in 2001 there were 33), while Theatre takes up 105 pages, up on last year’s 103. 

This year’s Sock show, Roll Up, was very much inspired by the mushrooming in recent years of cabaret, burlesque and drag (and how much of that ended up in the show? You’ll see). This year Cabaret has 19 pages, to last year’s 21, Circus & Physical has 19, to last year’s 13. 

Most popular comedians names

As a result of the programme alphabetising by first names (a debate for another time) we can see which names were the most popular in the year comedians were born. This year’s top comedians names (based on acts with their first name in their show listing) are:

1st - Dan / Daniel / Danny 18

2nd - Tom / Tommy 17

3rd = Dave / David  and John / Johnny / Jonny / Jonathan  13

4th - Andrew / Andy 12

5th - James / Jamie. 11

6th - Matt / Mat 10

7th = Paul, Michael / Mike / Mickey / Micky, Nick / Nicholas / Nik, Sam / Samantha / Sameer  9

8th = Alex / Alexander, Chris / Christopher, Joe / Joseph, Steven / Stephen / Stevie  8

9th = Jack, Lucie / Lucy, Peter / Pete  7

10th = Ed / Edward / Eddy / Ed, Lou / Louisa / Louise / Luisa, Marc / Mark , Richard / Rich, Rob / Robbie / Robert, Sarah / Sara, Stuart / Stewart, and Will 6

11th = Adam, Ben, Harry, Martin, Jim / Jimmy, Phil, Tony 5

12th = Gareth / Garrett, Gary / Garry, Aidan, Anna , Josh, Kate / Katie, Kevin, Ray / Raymond, Robin / Robyn, Simon, Susan / Susie / Suzi  4

So Dan is the funniest name this year, with Tommy a close runner up. Well done the Mums and Dads of the late 80s and early 90s.

Favourite Titles - 15 of the least worst pun-loving criminals…

Al Murray: Landlord of Hope & Glory

Darius Davies: Persian of Interest

Sam Wyatt: I Predict A Wyatt

Ken Cheng: To All The Racists I’ve Blocked Before

Phil Wang: Philly Philly Wang Wang

Currie & Brice: Kraudwerk

Ignacio Lopez: EspañYOLO

Josh Pugh: Maybe the Real Comedy Awards are the Friends We Made Along the Way

Jamie Oliphant: The Oliphant InThe Room

Aidan Greene: Eternal Sunshine of the Stammering Man 

Newcastle Revue: Tyne & Tyne Again

Sean Patton: Contradickhead

Bob Slayer: Wrote The Copy for This Show in March When He Didn’t Have The Foggiest Notion of What Might Happen On Any Given Day in August, He Still Doesn’t Really, But At Least He’s Found This Snappy Title

And this year the most irksome feature that’s caught my eye is…

The Work In Progress Syndrome  

What’s happened here? For a long time there’s a been a tradition that comedians bring WIP shows to the Leicester Comedy Festival in Feb, then to Glasgow in March, and to Brighton in May, because they’re working up to the big final showcase of Edinburgh in August. So what’s the idea of so many comedians bringing Work In Progress shows to Edinburgh and (in some, not all, cases) charging punters full whack to watch them? It would seem Edinburgh has become the new Leicester, and Fringe audiences are the guinea pigs testing out stuff for, I dunno, a tour venue in a provincial Corn Exchange?

So, the Walk Of Shame In Progress this year features (in no particular order):

Eddie Izzard

Russell Howard

Stephen K Amos

Mark Watson

Joel Dommett

Nina Conti

Omid Djalili

Dan Clark

Geoff Norcott

Iain Stirling

Jamali Maddix

Jonny Donahue

Lew Fitz

Nathan Cassidy

Richard Brown

Zahra Barri

Joseph Emslie

Stuart Mitchell

Katie Mulgrew

Stuart Goldsmith

Kiri Pritchard-Mclean

(We’ll give Stewart Lee & Mawaan Rizwan the benefit of the doubt for their shows, Wok In Progress and Werk In Progress respectively. Everyone else is saving their finished items for someone else to see at a later date. Here, for further excoriation, are Kate Copstick’s opinions on Work In Progress shows at Edinburgh)

Best of luck to everyone taking part in the biggest and best arts and entertainment festival in the world. We’ll see you up there.

The Scottish Falsetto Socks brand new show ROLL UP! is previewing Nationwide:

June 17 - Grassington Festival Yorkshire
June 22 - Strule Arts Omagh
June 27 - Neath Comedy Festival
July 8 - Barnes Fringe
July 12 - Kings Arms Salford, GM Fringe
July 20 - Bedford Fringe
July 28 - Derby Bar One 

July 31st - August 25th, The Scottish Falsetto Socks ROLL UP! at the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose 9.30pm, every night of the Edinburgh Fringe 2019. Sexy new venue, sexy new timeslot. Book now!