£100-a-time 'bribe' to win Fringe coverage

Comedian Caimh McDonnell has come up with a novel way of getting his Edinburgh show seen by critics ... by offering to pay £100 for every review published.

He reckons the stunt is a more efficient way of generating coverage for his show, The Art Of Conversation, than spending the same amount on publicists at the Fringe.

And the fact this very story exists on Chortle already suggests he may be on to something.

McDonnell jokingly called the scheme ‘undoubtedly a new low for British journalistic integrity’, but lest he be accused of directly trying to bribe reviewers, the money – up to a maximum of £3,000 – will all be donated to charity.

In a message to critics he said: ‘Every year performers at the Edinburgh festival spend thousands of pounds on PR for their shows.  I’ve decided to cut out the middleman...  That’s right, I really am paying for reviews.

‘To be clear, this a shameless non-PR PR stunt on my behalf. However, what I’m definitely not doing is trying to buy a good review. I just want to get my show seen and let it stand entirely on its own merits.

‘I’ll pay up to a maximum of £3,000. Any more than that and I’ll be forced to eat the leftover flyers from my show to survive for the next 12 months. I’ve checked and they don’t contain enough fibre to sustain human life.’

The money will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support for very review published before August 20 by a recognised media source, but not by punters posting on edfringe.com or similar.

Published: 20 Jun 2012