Appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe has long been an expensive gig for comics. But while stand-ups may need only a microphone to ply their wares at the world’s biggest arts festival, the costs they have to bear – among them venue charges, accommodation and marketing – don’t come cheap, and are growing year on year. Many people attending the Fringe are unaware of its financial eco-system – but the majority of performers there are self-funding.
So it’s interesting to note the initiative taken by five Scottish or Scotland-based comics to broaden their fanbase. The five – Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Marc Jennings, Liam Withnail, Rosco Mcclelland and Stuart McPherson – have used their own money to record live sets in venues across Scotland, and they are being released weekly, free-to-view on YouTube, in a series called Summer Laugh, which is presented by the Some Laugh podcast.
For comedy fans who are new to any of the comics, the season is a decent primer, and the hope is that online views will translate into ticket sales in August, when they will all be performing new shows at the Monkey Barrel in the capital.
The first two sets – by Macarthur-Boyd and Jennings – are now available on YouTube. Those by Withnail, Mcclelland and McPherson follow weekly on three Sundays from 6 July.
Macarthur-Boyd’s Scary Times was recorded at the Pavilion Theatre in his home town of Glasgow. In a pleasing conversational set, he talks about charity gigs, the differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow, the ethics of zoos and being, as one heckler once described the bespectacled Glaswegian, a “speccie cunt”.
Some Laugh host Jennings recorded Crowd/Marc at The Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow, and it’s a crowd work special. Jennings thinks on his feet, always one step ahead of the audience. On encountering a salesman for a power tools firm, he reveals he’s “never used a power tool in my life”. It doesn’t prevent making some very good comedy from the exchange.
The comics' self-financing initiative to get their names out there in a very crowded market (there are more than a thousand comedy shows at the Fringe) should be applauded, and I wish them well.
