Making Creativity Pay

“So every day it was a real honest, quite transparent process. You looked in the bucket, you looked on the sum up and you knew what you have for the day and you got to take that home. I've had really good experiences with paid venues and really bad experiences and everything in between, but I just didn't have thousands of pounds to outlay this year. I wasn't going to do it. Last year [...

“[After stand-up] I moved into advertising, I'm a creative director in advertising so I write for a living and stand-up has always been a huge interest and so I realised a few years back I have lots of books about stand-up but there wasn't one about UK stand-up certainly over the last 25 years and so I thought that maxim ‘write the book you want to read’” This episode is with Jonathan Gran...

“I went very hard on marketing and promotion and one thing is getting the actors to feel confident doing that too. You are going to feed off the atmosphere of having 50 people in that room on the night so let's give ourselves the best opportunity to have a high exciting atmosphere in that room”  This episode is with writer and director Elise Simond who is taking her play ‘Speak of the Devil’ t...

“It's a medieval farce about women's rights in the wake of the Norman invasion in 1066. It's very much within the remit of things that I love to work on. It's taking ideas that are reflected still today about kind of the progress of women's rights and how we think about literacy rates and the way that we understand each other but reflecting it through a medieval farce in the wa...

This episode is with Lucie Lutte who is founder of Arts organisation Limitless Presents and director of upcoming play Extremism that is on at The Cockpit Theatre from 29th Sep to 2nd October We talk about what it takes to put a play like this together, running workshops for actors and creating opportunities to help people break into the sector. Tickets: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/extremism...

"Some people were really scared... it kind of surprised me how many tourists I came across that didn't even seem to realise that Edinburgh Fringe was going on. And they were sort of walking down the mile, like what is happening right now. Some people came up to me because I was in costume and they were like, right, what's all this about? Give me your pitch kind of thing. So yeah, you...

"I've taken four solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe previously, which have all been multi-character shows, and slowly throughout, the very first show I did was just all characters, and then second, third, fourth, I started more and more each time being a bit more myself in the show. and it's interesting because a lot of the time, especially after my last show in 23, a lot of the sort...

“I did a sketch show that was on the free fringe that during that month, I walked so much that I actually put holes in my shoes. So I had to buy shoes in Edinburgh during the fringe, but it meant I had a pair of shoes with holes in. I could physically show the audience. To go, look, I need money. I have actual holes in my shoes.” “For me, it's leaning on the nerd culture thing. I think that th...

“Ruby is daft and funny and high energy and silly, and whatever the content of the show is, it will be through that lens. And same with Hannah, it'll be dry and witty and things. And people who know me and have seen my stand-up, like know what I'm like on stage.  I think for me having done marketing and stuff for other fringe shows before, sometimes it's about making that clear what th...

“Maureen has learned piano in recent years and we had a scene where she sings a song and so she was playing piano, but because we're gonna be at fringe and renting a piano and then bringing it on and off stage just all felt too persnickety. Maureen has now learned the ukulele” This episode is with comedians Claire McFadden and Maureen Monahan who together are Sketch Duo Spooky Dookie. We talk...

“I have a Samsung TV, it will choose a specific channel to be the channel that's on and it's always something really  random when you switch the TV on and for a while it was like the space channel, so was just like satellite images of Earth. At one point it was ITVX's comedy channel, and so very occasionally I would switch it on and I'd be on the TV and that was very surreal” Elean...

“My partner Anna had come up with this idea that like Edinburgh is like the way that surfers will travel to remote places to catch the best wave. That is what Edinburgh is. It's the best wave. We're a bunch of surfers and we want to have the biggest, longest wave.  And all of the artists are hanging out at the club bar and we're like, how was the surf today? it was gnarly. I caught a r...

“ The more I give myself permission to do stuff, the better the act has got, and I think it has taken me 10 years to get to a point where I'm like, "Yes, this is what I want to do." I'm making a show now that I've wanted to write for the past 10 years. I've had such imposter syndrome with the acting side of things, 'cause I never went to drama school.” This episode is...

“I did take a year out because I needed to prove to myself that not everything was about Edinburgh Fringe. And actually made the most money I've ever made in a month” This episode is with comedians Adele Cliff and Katie Pritchard.  We talk about their daily topical comedy show, Adele’s work in progress show and Katie performing as Sir Elton Scone.  We talk about puns, promotion and lots more I...

Our latest Fringe episode is with Amy Mansfield who is taking her show HR: The Musical to the Gilded Balloon this August. We talk about the show, arts funding in New Zealand, taking the show to festivals in Australia and now the UK. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hrthemusical/   Fringe Show: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/hr-the-musical     YouTube: https://youtu.be/rDpAC2p6HJA?si...

“I've got really sensitive skin and obviously I immediately got a rash from covering myself in blood from Halloween that I bought three years before. I didn't know that that could go off, but it definitely can and it was” Comedian Sarah Roberts talking about taking her show ‘Scary Movie 7’ to the Edinburgh Fringe. We talk about the work behind creating such a fantastic poster, why she abso...

“It's very different in the UK than in America because from my limited experience in the UK, people know what clown is.  Clown is like another accepted form of comedy. So even if I'm on a lineup show in the UK, it's a little bit more like, okay, people know what this is” Latest episode is with Zoe Wohlfeld talking about taking her show ‘Dog Funeral’ to the Edinburgh Fringe. We talk abo...

“So in 2023 I had to switch visas to the Global Talent Visa. It's extremely intense and stressful and makes you question yourself because you have to prove that you are a good enough comedian to be globally valuable to the UK. I actually knew some comedians who had applied for that and gotten denied and so then were deported.” Latest episode is with Comedian Kate Hammer talking about taking he...

“So basically in 2024, nothing was really working in terms of performing. And I said to my friend, I'm really worried about my career. And he said, Max, what career? And I was like, fair enough. So I gave myself 90 days to get a new comedy agent. and that was the sort of big push that I needed. And in that time, I just started creating videos and putting them out on social media” Latest episod...

"Comedians will perform all those unhinged ideas they had in their notes app that never did anything, I realised how different every comedian was and that looking behind the scenes and being in the artist's bars, they all had different processes. And they would try jokes on each other. And I was like, why don't we see this?" Continuing our series of episodes with those performing...

“My show Church is about my story as a former mega church pastor, now queer, happy person. and it's about queerness, life, faith, finding, faith in humanity again. It features live music, it runs like a church service, it's at twelve forty, so it could be your first show of the day. Start the day with church and then go on about the festival.” Latest episode is with comedian Brit Barron ab...

“I have to do the fringe because I have to do a show, I'm telling myself it is better that I do like, God forbid, it's better to have a one star show that you do than a show that does not exist that in your mind has four stars or five stars. Like you just have to do the thing. Because otherwise, you know, I'm not a natural jumping off the cliff kind of thing. I'm naturally really r...

“I've gigged at Comedy Nights as the spotlight character, I do a lot of just straight Stand Up nights and I'll be like the character act. And I think often it's great, but there's always an adjustment of , okay, this is something slightly different. And I think if I'm being an inanimate object, it's like, not only is the audience having to go from straight stand up to a cha...

“Everybody says that the best person to flyer your show is yourself. And that's true apart from when it's me. I'm really bad at flyering. I'm someone who wears their emotions on their sleeve quite a lot, people can tell that I'm not enjoying myself when I'm flyering.  When you're trying to get yourself in the mindset for a show and be positive, there are better ways to...

“I was hoping to do [Edinburgh Fringe] and I didn't get anywhere that I wanted. In my mind, I'm like, I’ve got to be at the good venue. It's got to be worth the time and the effort. I'm not doing it for the love of the art. I could go to Droitwich Spa for the love of the art.” Latest episode is with harpist and performer Sam Hickman Sam is currently taking her current show First Wo...