Edinburgh venues deny encouraging 'terrible' shows

Promoters of free shows at the Edinburgh Fringe have hit back at claims they encourage too many inexperienced comedians to inflict ‘terrible experiences’ on audience.

Nica Burns, the director of the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, last night said that having less at stake meant new acts were coming tot he festival when they were ‘simply not ready’.

Peter Buckley Hill, founder of the Free Fringe model that charges performers nothing for their venue, says he actively rejects acts who don’t have a full hour,

And he blamed the established venues for encouraging comedians coming when ill-prepared, saying: ‘After all, if an act is prepared to pay for space, why should the money venues not accept that act? 

‘If the act fails at a money venue, people blame the act itself, not the venue.  However, at the Free Fringe, audiences judge the entire Free Fringe by each individual show.  We can't afford to put the sort of acts on of whom Nica Burns complains.

‘We get numerous applications.  Each application is examined and the act is seen, although nowadays more on video than live, and a judgement made by experienced working comedians. 

‘If we judge an act not ready for a full hour show, we normally counsel the act into a compilation show within their current abilities.  We have occasionally taken a chance on shows with an interesting story.  For example, we gave Alfie Moore a one-hour show relatively early in his career, because as a serving police officer he had a story to tell.’

Hill, who won the Edinburgh Comedy Award panel prize in 2009, also blamed the rival (or ‘pirate’ as he calls it) Free Festival, run by the Laughing Horse, for giving new comics hour-long slots when they have not been give a full paid set by comedy clubs. ‘When an act is rejected by us for a one-hour show, that act often goes to the Laughing Horse and is accepted by them,’ he said.

‘Lack of quality control is the biggest threat to the free movement.  So we, the Free Fringe, have always exercised quality control.  The Laughing Horse ripped off our idea without understanding it, and therefore brought in shows which should not have been given Fringe space...

‘If there are such shows as Nica Burns refers to, they are not in the Free Fringe.  Or if there are, it is despite our systems, not because of them.  She is quite right to suggest that poor quality control is the biggest threat to the free show movement.  The real Free Fringe passes that test.’

However Alex Petty, who runs the Laughing Horse venues, said offering shows to anyone who wants to perform them reflects the true open-access nature of the Fringe. ‘It is all about freedom at it very heart,’ he said. ‘And I believe the free shows are more about that freedom than a price point.

‘The system the paid venues impose stifles creative freedom, so only big names that have no need to be at the Fringe anyway can perform, or those performers that have big bank balances, rich parents, or are willing to risk bankruptcy can put a show on in the hope of success.

‘The free show formats allow performers to take that risk, produce the show they want without that risk of bankruptcy or losing thousands. A cost that, without other options, would lead the Fringe to being a very stale, artistically poorer place.

‘As a producer I programme my venues to get the best shows in them as possible, and I can take risk on someone who is a talented newcomer, has an original idea, or fits the uniquely bizarre nature of the venue or Fringe.  I’m not selecting only from those that can bankroll my venue. That is, and should be the beauty of the Fringe.

‘And a lot of these shows will work, a lot will be good and some brilliant – but also some will miss the mark, or be awful.  The whole Fringe is a lottery now, and always has been. At least for audiences and performers it is no longer a lottery that only the rich can afford.

‘The amount of money willing to be thrown at a project is no barometer of quality, having sat through many awful shows where audiences have been asked to pay £15 a ticket in my 13 years of Fringe-going.’

Published: 5 Aug 2013