Comedy Awards boss rejects calls for tighter rules on working conditions

Edinburgh Comedy Award boss Nica Burns has rejected calls for regulation to guarantee better terms and conditions for those working at the Fringe.

Speaking at the official opening day of the festival, she said that more rules would stifle the spirit that has made the Fringe the success it is.

‘Everything goes back to the original founding idea of the Fringe,’ she said at a comedy industry lunch. ‘Performers came – uninvited, unfunded, uncurated, unrestricted by anything except talent, determination and how they fund themselves to participate.  The Spirit of the Fringe can be summed up in the word: choice. 

‘People come because they choose to, they want to participate.’

She said that everyone who comes to the Fringe, whether as performer or offstage role, embrace ‘real entrepreneurship  and real risk-taking’ acknowledging that the festival is built on ‘hopes and dreams – some of which will come  to nothing, or worse’. 

‘Should all this opportunity to participate be taken away? No.’

She called the Fringe a ‘celebration’ but noted that it was just one month out of the year, adding:  ‘ For performers it offers incredible career opportunities, for everyone else it’s not just a temporary summer job… it’s a life-changing experience.

‘We all go home to work less hours for better pay and with better conditions but not not half as much fun.  Let the performers and workers  decide whether to come or not. Hands off our Fringe!’

Last week, anti-exploitation campaigners Fair Fringe  released a  new dossier exposing what they called ‘terrible’ and ‘shameful’ working practice at the festival saying there was widespread examples of volunteer labour and workers not being paid the £9 an hour living wage.

Burns also spoke of the crisis in the media that means fewer professional reviews are being published. 

She said comedians come to the Fringe, in part, because they can be ‘properly reviewed by informed and respected critics – where else can up-and-coming new comedians get reviews except here?’

The Scotsman this year threatened to pull its  daily festival supplement until it was saved a last-minute deal with the Big Four venues – Pleasance, Underbelly, Assembly and Gilded Balloon – who agreed to sponsor it, guaranteeing 900 reviews over the festival.

The newspaper is up for sale by the US hedge funds that own it, and Burns called on any new owners to commit to the long-term future of Fringe coverage. 

She called for a summit to come up with  a future press strategy for the festival, and pledged her financial support if money needed to be found. Fringe chief executive Shona McCarthy agreed to set up the  summit.

Burns also thanked the new sponsor of the Edinburgh Comedy Award, Dave, for their support and commitment in airing daily short updates from the festival in its second two weeks.

In its report on working conditions, the Fair Fringe campaign said: ‘Festival employers insist that if they paid their staff a proper wage their business would collapse. But the reality is that any business which can’t afford to pay its staff properly cannot afford to operate.;

However, Pleasance director Anthony Alderson told The Scotsman that its volunteer programme created a ‘celebrated legacy… with volunteers going on to build careers in major theatrical institutions across the globe’ – including him.

‘Volunteers at the Pleasance receive a subsistence to cover expenses and we provide accommodation at no cost to the individual, with each participant receiving a single private bedroom,’ he added.

Nica Burns’s speech in full

Today is the official opening day of the Fringe and it’s already kicked off with a lot of opinions piling in about a number of issues.  Some fun, provocative headlines: Is the Fringe too big? Does it need to be limited? Are the working conditions unacceptable? Are people being exploited? Should it be more regulated?

Everything goes back to the original founding idea which we all love, the Spirit of the Fringe. Started by performers, constantly reinvented by them, uninvited, unfunded, uncurated, unrestricted by anything except talent, determination and how they fund themselves to participate.  For me, the Spirit can be summed up in the word: choice. 

People come because they choose to, they want to participate. This goes beyond performance to embrace all those who come to work here, to help deliver the fringe and drink it all in.

Real entrepreneurship, self-investment and a lot of risk taking. And always, hopes and dreams. Some of which will be fulfilled and some of which will come to nothing or worse.

 For performers it offers incredible career opportunities, for everyone else it’s not just a temporary summer job. I know many people with successful careers in entertainment, who started here – working front of house, on street teams, really mucking in. It’s a life changing experience. 

Should all this opportunity to participate be eroded or taken away through restriction and limitation? No! It’s a month. It’s a festival, a celebration. It’s insane and marvellous. 

Then we all go back to the real world, to study, to work, less hours, better pay, better conditions, but not half as much fun. Where else in the UK can you just get up and do it? So yes to entrepreneurship. Yes to people’s choice. Yes to open access. Let the performers and workers decide whether to come or not. Hands off our Fringe!

Here’s an interesting thing. If you Google "is the comedy bubble about to burst?" you’ll find that it’s been bursting every year since the 1990s.  In 2012 we apparently had a comedy crisis. 

 Comedy is alive and well and still growing here.  This is another incredible record-breaking year. There are over 750 shows eligible for Dave’s awards this year. Comedy is by far the largest part of the programme, up by 2 per cent,  a whopping 10 per cent more than theatre, double figures for the first time.

When you ask comedians what they want from the Fringe, one of the key things is to be properly reviewed plus a star rating, by an informed respected critic. 

There are many more opportunities outside this festival for the best theatre makers; but where else can an up-and-coming or new comedian get reviewed, except here? It is critical to the development of their careers.  

It’s serious. This festival is like a jigsaw, every piece must be in the right place or the whole picture doesn’t work. The threat to our newspapers is becoming the missing piece. What has been a concern for some time is now a crisis.

Yesterday, The Scotsman made a statement in its paper. Just before the festival started we nearly lost the Scotsman’s daily festival supplement with its huge range of features and reviews and their Fringe First awards.  

The Scotsman has given enormous support to this festival from day one and has a special relationship with it. Through their Fringe Firsts, they guarantee to see every new play, they champion new theatre makers just as Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards champions new and up and coming comedians.

Losing the Fringe Firsts, and losing the review supplement, would have been a disaster for all performers. Both have been saved by swift and decisive action. The University of Edinburgh is partnering the Fringe Firsts and the four big venues Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly are sponsoring the reviews supplement which has promised a whopping 900 reviews. All while guaranteeing the independence and integrity of the paper and its journalists. Quite right. 

Now,  the Big Four get a fair amount of stick but right now as far as I’m concerned they are the Fabulous Four. So just for once, let’s say thank you. Let’s hear a really big cheer for Bill, Karen, Anthony, Ed and Charlie [the artistic directors of the venues] 

But The Scotsman is in the process of being sold. Dear future owners of the Scotsman: you and your paper are important to this festival. No doubt you have many tough decisions to make. Please renew your commitment to this festival and make your review supplement a central part of your business plan. Please save this wonderful newspaper, expand it online and take it forward. 

To everyone who cares about this festival, please buy the Scotsman as an additional newspaper - £1.70 and there’s a really good deal online. Show the new owners that we value it.

We can’t come back in 2020 without having done everything we possibly can to ensure the long-term critical coverage of the Fringe.

 What happened at The Scotsman was more than just a warning. The time for moaning is over. We need to take action. I’m calling for a summit to address the future press strategy for the Fringe. If sponsorship is the answer, if money is to be found, we must find it. I’m in. 

I’m looking to the brilliant Shona McCarthy, chief executive of our wonderful Fringe Society. Shona please pick up the baton and make it a priority for this autumn and to all the key players at the  festival,  stand with her. 

We need to have an action plan to be delivered for the 2020 Fringe and beyond. Together, I am certain that we can ensure that the work performed at this, the greatest arts festival in the world can continue to enjoy the legitimacy that serious criticism gives it. Let’s put back this critical piece of the jigsaw.

Please raise your glasses for our annual toast, to the Edinburgh Fringe, to comedy and to Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards!

Published: 4 Aug 2019