"The Fringe is less of a commercial trade fair than cynics assume. But
the Edinburgh Comedy festival venues lie within easy walking distance
in an increasingly grotesque Philip K Dick-style wasteland of
alcohol-banner festooned architecture around Bristo Square. Here, the
Edinburgh Comedy festival uses performers' and sponsors' money to
maintain private bars in abandoned attics, where journalists and media
types are schmoozed by PRs in branded anoraks, again paid for by the
acts, coaxing them into their clients' nearby shows. Lazy journalists
reviewed only one Stand show between them in the national press last
year. The 10-minute walk from the Edinburgh Comedy festival was too far
and there was no private bar. A Fringe Leveson inquiry would be a mass
humbling, with many flying pies.
Newspaper editors and TV bosses
want to hear that their scouts have seen 'must see' shows, when in fact
having seen things everyone else has seen, when there are over 2,000
different shows daily, should be a sackable offence. Agents and PRs and
the mendacious Edinburgh Comedy festival maintain a symbiotic
relationship to control this consensus, like parasitical worms hanging
out of the cat's anus that is Bristo Square in August."
Stewart Lee takes aim and gives the Edinburgh Comedy festival and the commercialisation of the Fringe both barrels. Indignant responses from some of those in the firing line are detailed here.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
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3 comments:
To flesh this out further, I recommend listening to some of the first set of Herring's Edinburgh Fringe podcasts from this year, where not only does he disagree with the overall tone, but also does a terrible job of disguising his exasperation at the 'Stewart has spoken' cult that surrounds his former partner.
I also thought the Underbelly people's remarks were spot on. I certainly saw him play in their venue when he first returned to stand-up.
I'd say with the Free Fringe, there is much more variety now than there was in the 90's when I first went. This is not to say that the whole seperate 'Comedy Festival' brochure isn't troubling.
Happily though, I am 'in the know', and go and see loads of stuff at The Stand - which is the best room to see shows at the festival (tis a year round club after all rather than an office or sports hall or whatever) - we saw Tony Law, Simon Munnery, Herring's podcast recording and Daniel Kitson there, not to mention Michael Legge and Harry Hill in the additional rooms they utilise nearby during August. But certainly first-timers might be confused by the fact these shows do not appear in the 'Comedy Festival' brochure.
Then again, I do enjoy being around the Pleasance Courtyard and Bristo Square atmospheres too, so it's a shame it's become such a stand-off (no pun intended).
Having never been to the festival, I'm not exactly qualified to comment - but, while Lee's general point sounds valid to me, he was admittedly speaking from a compromised position, having himself seized upon the opportunity to perform at the Underbelly before. That said, I think you're right to distinguish (as he does) between "lay" festival attendees and those "in the know" - his point being that not everyone realises or appreciates that there's a world beyond the Comedy Festival venues (and, by extension, the commercial mainstream).
I certainly recommend you go at some stage. And work from the main Fringe Guide (plus the Stand website might save time in finding some reliable names for a decent price).
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