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I don't usually use
my Metro column for blatant self-promotion (though the initial reason I began it - for what I thought was an 8 week run- was to subtly promote my 2012 tour), but today I did a double whammy of letting the commuting world know that I am recording my DVD on Friday and that I am not going up to the Fringe this year (and what I am planning to do instead). I think that that's a story that is worthy of a column, but I can't deny that I thought it might help me shift a few tickets. I was wrong about that. It made no difference.
Even so the DVD recording is going to be pretty much full (still room for another 100 if you want to come down - might be a very few £10 tickets left if you use the code HERRINGLOTD), whereas Thursday I might have most of the downstairs full. It's a big theatre and much as it would be nice to sell out both shows, this is stlll acceptable. And plus the show will be recorded for posterity (as if posterity cares). I am not sure I've taken all the routines as far as I can, so it's strange to think that I only have one more go before the whole thing is set in stone (my DVDs are made by the Flintstones).
The news is properly out about my insane plan to do all my old shows and a new one over 6 weekends. A couple of comedy sites (like
Chortle and
Beyond The Joke) wrote about it and the Independent wanted an interview. I suspected as I talked to the guy (who was on a very tight deadline) that he might not be entirely sympathetic and sure enough
he called my decision not to go to the Fringe "a boycott" which it really isn't and suggested I might be being churlish, which I really don't think I am. And my humorous complaints about toilet brushes and chopping boards come across as genuine grievances rather than comic relief. I am still a fan of the Fringe, but just don't think it's for me any more (for the moment). It’s a bit annoying that he’s written it up like I am petulantly walking away. I just realised that the Fringe is maybe not the best place for me to do my shows and that it’s no bad thing for one of the more established acts to stand aside and give newer comics a (tiny, tiny) shot at getting reviewed or noticed.
I think it’s worth publicising the fact that a) most acts don’t make money up there (I think the locals charge so much because they assume we’re all rolling in it- the woman who rented me an expensive parking space seemed a bit crushed when I told her that I would have lost tens of thousands of pounds) b) the Fringe is in danger of being polarised with the acts in the middle being squeezed by the Free Fringe and the big TV names. It’s a fascinating time for the Fringe and I am sure things will settle down and it will go from strength to strength and maybe acts will realise there is no value in spending huge amounts on advertising and PR (I’ve heard that PR agencies this year are informing their clients that they can’t guarantee shows will get reviewed, which seems to be saying - “there’s no point in hiring us”) and the Fringe can become about taking chances and experimenting and getting better at being a comedian. And it’s still worth it for all those things, for newer and younger comedians, plus the incredible chance to see what everyone else is up to and socialise and form friendships and working partnerships. I owe nearly everything I have to Edinburgh and the money I have spent there has been well worth it, both in terms of what it has helped me create, but also ultimately financially. The massive loss of last year has not led on to anything else for me (in terms of the play at least, the stand up tour will be my bread and butter), but was paid off by the profits from the previous three years. BUT it will be great if the Free Fringe proliferates and it might be good if some of the bigger name comics took some time off. I once (with my tongue a little in my cheek) proposed an Edinburgh tax on the acts that make money, that perhaps 10% of any significant profit would be paid into some fund that could pay for new acts accommodation or whatever, because just as it seems wrong that acts lose thousands of pounds at the Fringe it seems equally wrong that big acts who have plenty of money come up there and make tens of thousands (I also wondered if I could appeal to those bread heads by suggesting that some acts for whom Edinburgh had launched their careers, banded together to buy a big building where acts could stay for fair and minimal rents - it could be rented out to students in the year and the millionaires would have an investment in a building that would go up and up - obviously this is a dream of an idea and it would require a lot of work from someone, but it would be great if comedians banded together and tried to make things a bit fairer. They won’t, but it would be nice if they did). The big acts I suggested this to argued, with some justification, that their successful shows were already helping to fund the non-profitable ones and maybe the big names draw some more punters up to the Festival and mean they see other shows. I didn’t really expect any of them to go for this voluntary tithe or non-profiting landlord scheme and as I said to the duplicitous Independent journalist you can’t ban people from the Fringe for being too successful. For the new acts there may be other ways to get your work out there and for the older acts maybe the Fringe isn’t the right place to be. I love it still and will miss it (though I think I spent more unhappy days at the Fringe than happy ones - even in good years there are always a couple of days at least where it hits you hard) and heavy lays the head that relinquishes his crown (according to the Independent i have been dubbed the King of Edinburgh - I don’t know how this started, but it has to stop). But also there’s a lightness in my step knowing that I won’t be putting myself through the comedy mill again this year, even what I am doing instead is much harder.
It might not really be an Edinburgh issue at all. There are so many comedians trying to make it nowadays that the market can't sustain them all. Perhaps things need to be tough and bleak for a bit so that only the strong and obsessive survive.
Maybe I won’t be able to come up with a show without the deadline. Maybe I will miss it all too much and be rushing back next year. Maybe I am churlish and washed-up and only doing this because I am old and no one cares about my stupid comedy any more.It's really not that. Damn that Independent guy has even got to me. Boycott the Fringe everyone. Boycott it. What do you mean you've already paid to take part? Um... Ok, as you were then.
