The very first programme at the Gilded Balloon

Compared to some Edinburgh Fringe venues, it didn't originally look like all that much: A solitary studio theatre housing just seven shows a day, run by a part-time comedy promoter who'd just quit her job at the Norwegian consulate to run it.

But from those humble beginnings, Karen Koren's Gilded Balloon now celebrates its 30th year on the Fringe. Although by some distance still the smallest of the so-called Big Four paid-for comedy venues, it has grown to offer more than 100 shows.

Its biggest success has surely been Late N Live – although now just one of several raucous late-night showcases, in its day, before too many snazzy artists' bars sprang up, it was THE place to go, to witness the bloody combat between comedians and crowd that would be the talking point everywhere the next day.

The show was one of those first seven offered in 1986, tapping into the burgeoning London alternative cabaret circuit. As you can see from our reprint of the original programme, it originally the rather cumbersome title: As Seen On TV: Late N Live Cabaret and sold with the slogan: 'The Boys Have A Night Of Raw Sex With Fluffy Girlies.

The Boys were the Oblivion Boys – energetic comedy duo Stephen Frost and Mark Arden, who between them became the face of beer thanks to the 'I bet he drinks Carling Black Label' ads. Frost still performs improv with the Comedy Store Players while Arden is an actor, though little seen on TV since playing Bryan on the ITV sitcom Teenage Kicks in 2008.

Raw Sex were a deliberately downmarket cabaret band comprising Roland Rivron and Simon Brint, who were regulars on the French and Saunders TV show. Rivron has had an eclectic career in music and presenting, including his own disastrous chat show in the 1990s, in which the entire set floated on the River Thames. Brindt, meanwhile composed for many TV comedies, although sadly took his own life in 2011, aged 60.

Amanda the The Fluffy Girls was Amanda (now Mandi) Symons, who has a packed performing CV, including touring with Rik Mayall and The Young Ones as Mr Amanda Symonds. She is currently in the London production of George Orwell's 1984.

Guest stars listed that first year include one Paul Martin – later to find fame after changing his surname to Merton for Equity reasons –  Arnold Brown, James Macabre, a deadpan act whose real name was Jim Miller and who would go on to date Jo Brand; and alternative comedy pioneer John Dowie, now also retired.

That year, Late N Live started at midnight and ran till 1.45am – early compared to the 1am-5am shift of today. Admission was £3 compared to up to £16 today.

The venue was an art gallery on Cowgate, which had formerly been a department store and originally a warehouse, built in 1823 for draper and silk merchant James Spittal, whose shop was called – yep – The Gilded Balloon. The building was devastated by a fire in December 2002, forcing a move to Teviot.

In the first year, the full line-up was:

12:45pm: Back From Balham with Mark Bunyon for the first 10 days; then Black Snow with Brian Wright for the second. Bunyon continues to write and perform on the cabaret circuit; Wright penned Shaking Spears for Shakespeare for the Greenwich Playhouse in 2003

3pm: Dreaming Frankenstein with Liz Lochhead. Lochhead was already well established as a performance poet in 1986  - but now she is the National Poet of Scotland , and performing a daily show this Fringe too.

4.45pm: A Sham Four Bards with the Baloonatics A group of Cambridge students who'd won a Fringe First in 1983.

7.30pm: Testament Of Youth with Rohan McCullough. An adaptation of a haunting war memoir. McCullough is still an actress and appeared frequently with Sir John Mortimer in his poetry and prose entertainment, Mortimer's Miscellany.

10pm: Arnold Brown and Oscar McLennanA shared bill, a year before accountant turned stand-up Brown went on to win the Perrier Award. Now 69, he still performs regularly and appeared in Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle on BBC Two. McLennan was, and is, a surreal storyteller more than a stand-up; his latest project Waiting on the Kiss of the Chicken King, a novel turned into a theatrical piece and album, including this video with comedian Kevin McAleer:

Midnight: As Seen On TV: Late N Live Cabaret

The Gilded Balloon programme also reveals the price of food in the venue: £2.90 for chilli con carne with pitta bread and salad; £3.25 for a quarter pounder beef burger and fries.

• This year, the Gilded Balloon is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a gala at the Playhouse Theatre on August 15, featuring such Gilded Balloon alumni as Johnny Vegas, Alan Davies, Ed Byrne, Barry Cryer and Greg McHugh as Gary Tank Commander.

Published: 4 Aug 2015