Jerry Sadowitz

[Bearsinmotion]

Is anyone following this?

Really strange - the Pleasance theatre have cancelled Jerry Sadowitz’s show at the fringe, citing audience walkouts and complaints of extreme misogyny and racism. But have not quoted what was said that was so offensive even to him. Both Sadowitz and people who were there have questioned the walkouts. The show had many, many warnings about offensive content, and that he was going to be getting his cock out, which he did, as do other comedians at the Fringe.

there are a few comedians supporting him on Twitter, around the defence of free speech. But what stood out to me in the language was that audience members felt “unsafe,” yet I have not seen a single person say that was them. Graham Linehan has written about it here. Just wondering if it was related to the TRA frenzy as Glinner implies, with manufactured outrage or whether Sadowitz genuinely went too far this time.

I used to love Jerry back in the day, and he was one of the few calling out Jimmy Saville when it counted, so I want to believe he’s not been targeted for once again calling out those doing real harm…

I have an awful feeling that the Edinburgh Festival is going to collapse in on itself if it keeps going like this. But if 'principles' are more important than business to some venues, so be it.

This is the Fringe, not the Festival, but no, it really isn't going to collapse. See the later story.

metro.co.uk/2022/07/25/edinburgh-fringe-in-jeopardy-over-slow-ticket-sales-17064931/

www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/aug/05/edinburgh-fringe-return-surge-in-sales

in other news I copied and pasted a few of the Pleasance’s buzzwords from their two statements into google

‘align with our values
Unacceptable
Dignity
Uncomfortable
Unsafe
Inclusive
Diverse’

I have really come to loathe the word "diverse". It's used in ways that are often completely meaningless, or as if it is in itself an unqualified good in all circumstances. In some cases it seems to mean a group of things that are actually all the same.

"Inclusive" is a close second.

I don't think it's ticket sales this year that is the issue, but the willingness of (particularly) comics long term wanting to come to an event that might cancel them, with all the repercussions that might have. How tame can a fringe be before it's not a fringe?

Yes, that's what I meant.

How tame can a fringe be before it's not a fringe?

I can see it becoming a fringe event in name only, as fewer of the edgy acts will risk going, or few venues will risk hosting the acts that are likely to be controversial.

There will still be a lot of money in it, but it will just be a place for mainstream entertainment. All the other acts will go elsewhere.

I think you are hugely exaggerating this issue.

Comics spend a lot of money on their fringe shows, often making a loss or at best, barely breaking even.

which is fine if you are using it as an experimental space for your upcoming big venue tour or as a PR tool with the aim of getting the attention of promoters/agents/management or generating enough publicity via press reviews to make up the festival loss of funds on your winter comedy circuit tour.

if your show gets cancelled after you’ve already shelled out the costs of accommodation, travel, cost of printed posters/promotional flyers etc (plus time off the day job for the smaller profile acts) you are going to miss out on most of the upsides whilst still incurring most of the downsides (and even if the venue refunds on your broken contract you will still have the other losses).

for Sadowitz, it’s a slightly different story as this wave of ‘bad publicity’ has reminded Gen Xers who watched the 90s TV shows of his existence, and they have just enough disposable income to buy up the tour tickets, but that’s a unplanned PR strategy that is one-time-only and not one a younger, less experienced cancelled comic who doesn’t have sleeper-fans from 30 years ago can replicate.

The fringe needs to be careful not to make the risks too big for future comics to bother with. That’s what will suck the soul out of the festival, but it will be a slow dwindle to death, rather than a big, obvious fall in sales in a short period. Ticket buyers will just decide that each year is getting safer and duller until they eventually decide to spend their money doing something else in August.

I suppose one of the Pleasance’s rivals could counteract/capitalise on this years hoo-ha by offering Sadowitz a high profile slot next year to ward off some of that fear (personally, I think a ‘Sadowitz presents’ event of a whole line up of younger, upcoming, potentially controversial comics chosen by Sadowitz could be a great way to handle it) but that would rely on Sadowitz accepting that offer and at 61 with what, almost 40 years of fringe experience?
He might just tell them to fuck off.

Here’s a couple of articles on the cost of performing at Edinburgh, one from earlier this year and one from 2016

www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-comic-says-fringe-now-23535642

theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/04/the-cost-of-staging-an-edinburgh-fringe-show-artists-open-their-account-books

2015! Must look for my reading spectacles before posting…

It's happened in music festivals. Most of the big festivals are very mainstream now.

I'm not saying these acts won't have anywhere to perform, but if there's a risk of being cancelled and no publicly from it, why would they bother.

It's going to be difficult for performers to not only appeal to their intended audience, but not offend those who were never going to buy tickets in the first place.