Comedy promoter warned after ripping off The Stand's club name and imagery

Scottish comedian and promoter Alan Anderson was threatened with legal action after trying to exploit the reputation of the biggest venues at the Edinburgh Fringe, Chortle can reveal.

The stand-up operated a venue at the Fringe World festival in Perth, Australia earlier this year, which he called the Edinburgh Courtyard.

And he called individual performances spaces within the site ‘Monkey Barrel at Edinburgh Courtyard’,  ‘The Stand at Edinburgh Courtyard’, ‘Pleasance at Edinburgh Courtyard’, ‘Gilded at ‘Edinburgh Courtyard’ and ‘The Stand at Edinburgh Courtyard’, despite having no links to those venues.

Anderson – who also runs the Rotunda comedy club in Glasgow – even used The Stand’s iconic cowboy image at the Perth venue.   

Last year, he spent £7,500 buying the old backdrop from the Edinburgh Stand, after bosses decided to replace it with a new version that did not feature  a gun. Soon afterwards, he claimed he had burned it – but actually he had it shipped out to Australia to use in his venue.

The company that actually operates The Stand comedy clubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle failed to see the funny side and called in the lawyers. A solicitor acting for Salt N Sauce Promotions fired  off a ‘cease and desist’ letter threatening further action if he didn’t stop ‘passing off’ his venue as being linked to theirs.

Managing director Mike Jones told Chortle: ‘We were concerned that Alan Anderson's use of our trading name and former badge of trade (the old cowboy backdrop) was an attempt at passing off which could cause customers to believe that The Stand itself was operating the Perth venue. We instructed our solicitors to send a cease and desist letter.’

It is believed some of the other Edinburgh venues raised concerns with Fringe World.

Anderson did not respond to Chortle’s request for comment, and the other Fringe operators either declined to comment or did not respond.

Published: 19 Apr 2023