I'm not flyering - I'll do tarot readings instead

Andrew Clover on doing a pared-back Edinburgh Fringe

comedy Fringe performer Andrew Clover is shunning flyers and will instead promote his show via an alternative route – tarot cards.

The comic – who was nominated for best newcomer in 2000 before Quitting Comedy to go travelling – says that he’s taking a stance against the festival’s promotional arms race.

He said: ‘The problem is there are now so many tens of thousands of performers, all hoping for attention – audiences, reviews, future work….It’s become the world’s biggest shouting contest.

‘My idea, this year, is to do the opposite. I have done no social media, no adverts. I’m just going to sit in the Gilded Ballon every day, offering a tarot card read for £1 to anyone who wants one.

‘That way I will get to speak to one person at a time. I will hear their story, and, perhaps, they’ll then be interested in mine.

‘This year I’m telling a true story, of how I sailed the Atlantic to Colombia, seeking ruined rainforest to rewild, but ended up nearly drowning, getting lost in the jungle, but found my way to The Lost City of the Kogis, and a moment that seemed to encapsulate the three secrets of happiness, of which the first is that we have what we need, right now. ‘

The comic is also cutting his festival costs by staying in a tent.

He said: 'In the past, coming to the Fringe has been an investment in a performer’s future. We’d come to Edinburgh, and pay up thousands of pounds, but hope to make it back, from a tour, or from some high profile work.

‘But perhaps a better approach is to keep costs to the absolute minimum, and hope for nothing, but the pleasure of being here.’

It’s a lesson he said he learned from his travels. He said: ‘For two months, I lived in a small cabin in a boat, which moved around at night, and which I shared with two other men. I was happy, and it changed what I feel I need.

‘Since returning, I’ve been able to live for free – by living in homes people have donated, or, for example, on an organic farm, where I planted vegetables, and lived in the packing shed.

‘In the Fringe, I know I will pay a little to stay in a tent. But I know that, snug there at night, I’ll have everything I need.’

• Andrew Clover will perform A Wild Call at the Gilded Balloon each day at 1.40pm

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Published: 16 Jul 2024