Even though I’ve only been to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe once, one time was all I needed to have a life-changing experience. As a stand-up comedian, getting to perform every single night and getting paid to do so has been a dream of mine for years and the Edinburgh festival turned that dream into a reality, at least for the month of August 2019.

 

During the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, I produced a showcase show with two other American comedians. We “sold out” our show almost every night of the festival, a nearly impossible feat since many acts perform to single-digit audiences because there is so much competition. 

 

One of the pros and cons of participating in the largest arts festival in the world is being one show amongst thousands. 

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Whether you are a performer or a potential audience member, as soon as you step foot into the city in August, you will immediately receive a flyer to attend someone’s show and another flyer from a different performer immediately after that. 

 

Our show itself was a bit messy, but thanks to creative marketing and making our show “pay what you want”, myself, Jeanne Whitney, and Carter Morgan were able to fill most of the seats for our 24 performances of ‘1 Chick, 2 Dicks, 3 Americans Get Too Personal,’ a stand-up/storytelling show about revealing too much personal information about ourselves. 

 

Our show took place inside Just the Tonic’s perfectly titled venue “The Caves”, a cavernous theatre above a popular bar just off Cowgate and only a three-minute walk from the Royal Mile, the epicentre of this beautiful fringe festival in Scotland. 

 

We strategically called the show 1 Chick, 2 Dicks, 3 Americans Get Too Personal, because we knew having the number one in our show title would get us listed earlier in the massive programme and on the edfringe app. I believe the earlier you are listed in the programme, the more people will see the name of your show and the description. I don’t know how true this is, but I think it’s better to be listed on the first page of all the comedy shows than on page 27. 

 

Our show ended up being the first one listed in the comedy section of the printed programme, but having the show on the edfringe app and making every performance “pay what you want” helped us out even more. “Pay what you want” means anyone, who reserved a ticket to our show, got in for free. As a result, anyone looking for a free comedy show at 10:50 PM could look at the edfringe app and our show would be the first one to pop up, because of our number 1. 

 

Thankfully, our title and making the performances pay what we want to allow us the luxury of not having to worry about getting anyone’s attention. We barely handed out flyers and we were still able to pack the house every night. I’m not sure I’ll be as lucky in 2022!

 

There are two ways to put on a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. One, have people buy tickets or two, let people attend for free and hope they donate some money at the end. Whichever avenue you decide to take, you’ll have to start by submitting your show to a production company that has dealt with all the local venues. 

 

These production companies either require you to rent the space in each venue for your given time slot or if you agree to let the audience in for free, you can have the space for free. The latter is a much, much, much, cheaper way of doing things, but applying to these production companies who offer the venues for free can be more competitive than applying to the ones that make you rent the space.

 

During the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019, we ended up renting our venue and giving away free tickets (pay what you want). Since our show was a bit messy, we didn’t make as much money in donations as we could have if the show was fantastic. If someone enjoys a pay what you want show, they might end up donating more money than what the ticket price would have cost for a ticket. 

 

As a result of all three of us being new to the fringe and performing in Scotland, we still ended up losing money on renting the venue despite the massive success of our marketing. 

 

For 2022, I’ll be making my debut as a solo performer, as well as, bringing a new play I’m writing and directing for an incredible actor named Emil Ferzola. That’s right, I’m bringing two shows to the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with less help than I had in 2019. I have no idea what will happen!

 

The show with Emil, Bathroom of a Bar on Bleecker, will be taking place at The Annexe, a 45 seat theatre managed by Paradise Greene, a production company that requires performers to rent the venue for their time slot. I decided to put on this show with Paradise Greene for a few reasons. 

 

One, I love the venue. I want ‘Bleecker’ to be seen in a traditional theatre space. Two, Paradise Greene opens their application process before many other production companies do. Three, hopefully having the show in a nice looking venue during a primetime hour (around 9 PM) will encourage more reviewers to attend the show, which could then potentially turn into more ticket sales, if the reviews are good. While the rental is quite expensive, it provides a level of control that is hard to find with production companies offering free venues. I like knowing that ‘Bleecker’ is definitely happening. It already has a great home and time slot that will put us in the perfect position to attract the most audience members.  

 

I can’t afford to rent a venue for both shows, but fortunately, my solo show, Healing+, is much easier to produce so I’m waiting to submit that one to a production company that is offering free venues. I’m more willing to put this show up inside a small attic space at 2 pm than I would be for Bleecker because an attic at 2 pm actually fits the vibe of this show perfectly. 

 

I know I’ll get a free venue for Healing+, but I have no idea when or where it’ll be. That’s not a risk I was willing to take on Bleecker, especially since I’m not in that show. I want to make sure Emil has an incredible experience at this festival by getting everything confirmed for him as soon as possible and letting him perform in a comfortable environment at a great time every night.   

 

The plan is to make tickets for both shows pay what you want because I already found success doing that in 2019. Since I’m still trying to grow an audience in the UK (and, let’s be honest, in America too), I believe people are more willing to attend a show put on by a performer they’ve never heard of if they can get in for free. Hopefully, they enjoy the shows and sign up for my mailing list after. One of the reasons why I love the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is that the festival creates a meaningful bond between the audience and the performers since we are all experiencing this wonderful madness together. 

 

I’m looking forward to tackling the unexpected challenges that will appear as we get closer to the festival, but more importantly, I’m looking forward to all the unexpected opportunities that could appear by bringing both of my new shows to this fringe festival in Scotland. 

 

To me, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe represents hope. The Edinburgh Fringe represents the possibility of eventually making a living doing what I want to be doing. The Edinburgh Fringe represents how I want the other 11 months of the year to feel like.

 

See you in Edinburgh,

Mike

 

Come see Mike’s two new shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe:

‘Bathroom of a Bar on Bleecker’ inside The Annexe at Paradise Greene around 9 PM each night.

Healing+ at a venue TBA ( Hopefully a venue I am not renting! 😉) 

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