Edinburgh Fringe Question

[CatrinVennastin]

Hi,

Anyone knowledgable about the Edinburgh Fringe? My sister has been seeing a guy for about 6 months and he's told her he's written a comedy show for the fringe. We live in London and he lives in Manchester.

He's started saying to her how expensive accommodation is in Edinburgh and I think he's about to ask her for money.

Thing is I cannot find a listing for his show on the official Fringe website, or any trace of this show via google using his name. He's told her the venue is a bar near the grassmarket. Do you get unofficial venues for shows? I have never been to the Fringe so don't know how it works. Am just concerned about my sister as she's head over heels for this man and I don't trust him.

Thank you!

A lot of the Fringe is absolute nobodies playing free, impromptu shows to two auld men and a dog in siderooms, so the fact there's no listing anywhere doesn't preclude anything.

There are venues across the city, some large , some tiny underground rooms or bars, but most shows will be listed in the online Fringe programme if official. Accommodation is expensive.

"Free Fringe" shows may not list online until later.

You get all sorts of venues, but agree all shows are generally listed on the online programme as it's a good way of advertising. Also, most performers would probably have booked their accommodation about a year ago and not be doing so a few weeks out.

If he's only thinking of booking accommodation now then he can't be that serious about his show, he's talking £££££ for a month in Edinburgh at this stage.

Defo wouldn't be giving him any money even if he is telling the truth! An unlisted show in a sticky side room of an oul' man's pub near the grassmarket isn't going to make his fortune.

The depiction of these types of fringe shows in baby reindeer was pretty accurate!

He's right about how expensive the accommodation is.

Yes, he could be performing ( or maybe not).

There are hundreds of shows every day, in all sorts of venues and on the streets.

Surely she has asked him about his show? What is it about? Is it a ‘one person’ performance? - if it has a cast, when/where were the auditions?

One of my DC’s auditions in November and starts rehearsals in January for shows each year, would your sister’s partner have needed to arrange auditions, rehearsals - actually even if it is only him, he would need to rehearse. Would she have missed him over time?

Usually performers in shows have fliers to hand out, to publicise the show and also to drum up a following, linked to SM. Has he had fliers printed? Has he publicised this show via SM?

Loads she can ask!

Yes the accommodation in the city is ridiculously expensive but most performers would have got this sorted way before now, that would ring alarm bells for me.
Has he told her what venue he is playing? If he can give her the name it would be easy to confirm. If he's not forthcoming with this I'd tell her to steer well clear

I’ve Been to free Fringe shows in a room which only seated 8 people and they were still on the fringe website.

a lot of the performers sleep on floors, like 5 people to a room. Even if accommodation is expensive it’s not up to your sister to subsidise him.

I’ve done it about 10 times (and yes shared a room once or twice). But it’s very late to only just be thinking about accommodation. Most shows are listed but it costs money to be in the program so it’s not completely unheard of not to be listed. There are about 3000 shows each year…

I've been to a Fringe where the venue was a tent in a multi storey car park and that was listed. The website can be a bit of a bugger though. Why not ask for a link for your friend in Edinburgh who wants tickets? If it's not listed I doubt very much it's on the Fringe. Most shows on the Fringe make a loss.

The website is awful, the fact you can't find it on there doesn't mean it isn't. I agree with asking him to send a link to his listing.

Terribly late to be looking for accommodation, if he's needing to travel so far he would have booked a long time ago and probably somewhere outside Edinburgh that only takes a few mins on the train to Haymarket.

There are loads of questions she can ask, venue would be one and easy to check too.

If it's a bar near the grassmarket, the three sisters pub is a possible venue.

Accommodation is very expensive and there's a right shortage.

thank you everyone that is so helpful.

He hasn't got any social media presence either. I get that some people don't like social media though. His instagram is public but zero followers etc.

Wonder how he's planning in promoting his show without a listing or social media

Definitely weird.

From what I can gather this show is a one man performance and it's for ten days and in a small bar which he said is two minutes walk from the Grassmarket. This seems to be all he has told my sister so far. He mainly seems to talk about the creative side, not the details.

It was the accommodation bit that jumped out at me as I thought that would be something that needed sorting out well in advance.

The fact that he has no social media presence I think is odd given that this would be a good way to promote yourself.

With no social media presence or self-promotion he might get the odd straggler in. There are LOTS of bars around the grassmarket. Seems really weird to me. There are over 3k productions at the fringe, and something crazy like 50k performances over the month. Has HE ever been to the fringe? I wonder if he has been sold this as some big opportunity and been scammed himself. Unless he's a total undiscovered talent he's unlikely to have any kind of success and I def wouldn't be fronting him!

Is he the actual performer or is someone else performing his show?

@PaTuBo he’s the writer and performer apparently