New film follows five comedians through the Edinburgh turmoil

Comic and film-maker Stuart Laws is to release a documentary following five stand-ups as they make their Edinburgh Fringe debut.

He filmed Sikisa, Lily Phillips, Anthony DeVito, Josh Jones and Amy Gledhill as they took their first full-length shows to the festival in 2022.

The Debuts – an hour-long documentary about the ups and downs of their time in Edinburgh –  is to be released on YouTube on Friday, and will have a special screening during this year’s Fringe.

Speaking on a newly released trailer he said: ‘I debuted at The Fringe in 2013 and I've worked with dozens of comedians in the years since,  I also still do shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and can confirm that it's a wild experience of constant performing, high expectations.

'Low, low, lows, late nights and long days whilst feeling the glare of audiences, colleagues and the wider industry all combine to turn the Fringe into a tightrope walk of mental health, professional success and alcohol poisoning.

‘And I thought, wouldn’t that be interesting to see what that looks like for five different comedians.’

Laws added: ‘I’ve watched many docs about the fringe and I thought that I could get a level of intimate access to brilliant comedians that would showcase what the festival is really like. The 5 I filmed were superb and all had brilliant months on paper, but found different struggles along the way.’

Sikisa explains what it was like to be filmed for a month:  ‘It was a good wave of emotions to be filmed while in my debut year of the Fringe mostly because Stuart seems to have a sixth sense of popping up out of nowhere when I was in the middle of a breakdown. 

‘Honestly the experience was actually helpful especially as all the comedians were on different paths.’

The film, made by Laws’ production company Turtle Canyon, will be available here on Friday and screened at Monkey Barrel on August 7 – tickets available soon. 

Published: 24 Jul 2024