Stanhopes protest at Comedy Festival branding

Controversial US stand-up Doug Stanhope is playing a one-off show at the Edinburgh Fringe – to an audience of just one person who will have paid £7,349 (£7,348 concessions) for the privilege of spending 16 hours with him.

The event, which is in the official programme, is designed to highlight the increasing commercialisation of the Fringe at the expense of performers.

Stanhope says the figure represents the average lost by a comedian playing one of the ‘big four’ venues – Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance or Underbelly – which this year have formed their own Edinburgh Comedy Festival in an attempt to woo a big-money sponsor.

He says the idea could damage the spirit of the Fringe, as it will do nothing to benefit comedians or their audiences, serving only to create income for the venues.

Stanhope said: ‘The big agents in the Edinburgh Comedy Festival are acting like douche-bags – they are trying to monopolise a festival which is for everyone.’

The person who pays£7,349 will spend the day of August 23 with 40-year-old Stanhope, from 8am to midnight, but with ‘strictly no mates or hangers-on’.

Stanhope last visited the UK in 2006 when he played the 540-seat George Street Theatre at the Fringe, followed by a three-week run at London’s Soho Theatre. Last year, he launched a bid to be a candidate for the US Presidency, but was thwarted by red tape.

Critics of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival fear it is divisive – as many Fringe comedy shows, even from well-established will not come under its banner – and exploitative, doubting how much of the £1.5million sponsorship the venues are seeking will filter down to the acts.

However, the venues behind it say the new branding is necessary to attract commercial backing to help the ‘fragile’ state of their Fringe budgets.

Published: 2 Jun 2008