Making Creativity Pay

"With the advent of social media and Myspace as was, we sort of got a bit of a following and we've been growing our audience ever since" This episode is with Sheldon Southworth AKA Dickie Ticker from the band The Lancashire Hotpots. The band's motto is “ 21st Century Folk for 21st Century folk” and have released albums including Never Mind the Hotpots and Achtung Gravy and have p...

“It’s a romantic comedy with added sexy cowboys” Eleanor Birdsall-Smith is producer of the sell-out Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Cowboys and Lesbians’ which is about to embark on a 3 week run at the Park Theatre in London and The Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol. We talk about her background in TV, her Fringe experiences including the importance of reviews and the tactics of flyering as well as the impact of...

"Even though they took my songs, I still felt like a failure, and I did for the largest part of the last 10, 15 years. I felt like I failed at music" Alexis talks about her experiences as a singer/songwriter, comedian and actress, about going viral on TikTok and her resurgence as a pop star 20 years on. We talk about having songs she’s written being recorded by Kylie Minogue and Rachel S...

Kat Molesworth who as well well as having a huge amount of experience in digital marketing is event producer at Content is Queen who are running the International Women’s Podcast Festival which is taking place in London in October. We talk about traditional offline promotion for podcasts, what makes engaging social content to drive activity to your podcast as well as discussing the festival and Ka...

"I think life is bigger than AI. I don't think AI is bigger than life. That may be the most naïve thing anyone has ever said on the subject. We'll see." Andy Stanton is an author best known for his ‘Mr Gum’ Children’s books and has written a book called Benny the Blue Whale: A Descent into Story, Language and the Madness of ChatGPT which is available in print and also as an audio...

“If you're really Into making it, into doing it, the worst thing in life is getting to 85 and not having tried to do the things that you want to do or not having been your best self” Dec Munro is a comedy director and producer and co-founder of the Bill Murray comedy club. Dec has directed loads of Edinburgh Fringe shows for performers such as Stuart Goldsmith, Mawaan Rizwan, Angela Barnes, So...

"I was in hospital listening to this country album, going, ah, life's too short for me to be listening to country music every other week" On this episode is comedian and podcaster Liam Withnail. Off the back of a sell-out run of his show 'Chronic Boom' at the Edinburgh Fringe. I talk to Liam about his experiences at the Festival in August, what he did to promote the show, the...

“It used to be you'd focus on one thing and you'd focus to do it to the best of your degree, but I think now everyone has to be really multidisciplinary” - This episode's guest Elf Lyons who has a broad range of talents that we discuss in the podcast.   We talk about her Edinburgh show this year ‘Heist’ with Duffy and how audience response turned a two week run into a whole month and h...

This episode is the second of a two-parter with Theatre Correspondent Fergus Morgan, the previous episode discusses Fergus' experience as a freelance Theatre Correspondent for titles such as The Scotsman and The Stage, as well as appearing on Radio 4 and in publications across Europe. In this episode we discuss the Edinburgh Fringe, the role a reviewer plays in a show getting noticed and the b...

This episode is the first of a two-parter with Theatre Correspondent Fergus Morgan. In this episode we discuss Fergus' experience as a freelance Theatre Correspondent for titles such as The Scotsman and The Stage, as well as appearing on Radio 4 and in publications across Europe. We also discuss Fergus' own Newsletter The Crush Bar, the differences of being your own boss as a Newsletter pr...

"Flyering is like a one-on-one direct intense experience of rejection, constant little micro bits of rejection and that can really suck" This episode is with Laura Thurlow whose show " A Preoccupation with Romantic Love" is on between 19-27th August as part of the Free Fringe. She discusses flyering, the importance of the Free Fringe, the impact of Social Media and lots more. D...

"Always have your flyers on you...you gotta be flyering all the time here" - Latest Fringe episode is with Lisa Verlo talking about her show Hollywoodn't which details her experiences of Hollywood in the 80s. We talk about flyering, Social Media and impact of time of day of her show drives the whole flow of a day when you're at Edinburgh. Tickets: tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/even...

Any Digital Marketing or promotion can be incredibly cost-effective or a time sink depending on how well you do it.  In this episode I talk to Charlotte and Ellie of Award-Winning Digital Marketing Agency Wagada Digital about how individuals and businesses can make the most of digital Marketing. Areas we cover include: Paid vs. Organic Social Media Picking the right Social Media to match both your...

"I've even been promoting on LinkedIn" - This episode I spoke to Lisa O'Hare about her Poetry/Spoken Word Show " Do you Remember The First Rhyme " and JJ Pyle about her show " How to Find a Husband in 37 Years or Longer " We talk about Lisa being a first time performer after attending the Fringe for decades, JJ's X-Rated graffiti, being kicked out of Edinb...

Finally the Fringe can start - The Champ is in Town! This episode was with Damien St John half of the Sports Podcast Awards 2023 Nominated Podcast - Wrestling with The Champ We talk about moving from an audio podcast to real life performances, comedy writing and developing characters as well as how to do a good bucket speech at the Free Fringe and the advantage of being able to flyer in character....

Eleanor Birdsall-Smith is our latest guest on the podcast. She is the Producer of ‘Cowboys and Lesbians’ which is on at the Pleasance 10 Dome from 2-27th August. We talk about venue selection, coming to the Fringe for the first time, having a more considered flyering approach and the importance of social media in trying to promote the play to a young audience. Tickets: https://tickets.edfringe.com...

“At no point in the last six months have I been relaxed. At no point has there been a lull where I haven't thought, oh, I should be doing something” . This episode we hear from Mikey Fleming co-writer of ‘Best Man’, the focus on getting things right, an aversion to flyering and lots more and we also hear from the cast of Attendants on their thoughts about the Fringe. Best Man is on every day (...

Lisa's show 'Too Big for Her Britches' is on now at the Edinburgh Fringe: "A hilarious and heart-breaking dark comedy driven by 20 characters and 11 original songs, in which the heroine, Luna, endeavours to disentangle herself from bad decisions and an overbearing, narcissistic mother." We spoke about what she's looking forward to about performing at the Fringe and though...

“It’s easy to drop your guard in the ethical soup that is the Fringe” -  In this episode we talk to Miriam Attwood of Storytelling PR. Storytelling PR team provide publicity, consultancy and advocacy for culture and activism related artists. We talk about what having an activism and representation focused PR company means, Miriam’s extensive experience of the Edinburgh Fringe including running PR...

3 Years in the making: Bibi Lucille and Anastasia Bunce about the show Meat Cute that’s playing at the Edinburgh Fringe this August. We talk about the development to get to this stage, some dubious methods of marketing the show and plans for promotion over the month. We talk flyers, Instagram, Daily promotion and lots more. Links: Tickets: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/meat-cute   Twitter...

"Not everyone leaves London in August" - Although there's lots of noise made about the Edinburgh Fringe, London also has a major festival of its own with over 300 different acts performing from 31st July to the 27th August in Camden and beyond. In this episode we’ll be speaking to Zena and Michelle founders of the Camden Fringe. We talk about how the Camden Fringe came about, how it...

"Everything is data to me and everything is fascinating"- Steph talks about her new show Excelf-esteem which uses the data she finds all around her to drive her comedy. We talk about the economics of running a show at the Edinburgh Fringe, promotion through social media, flyering and even using Near Field Communications to get the message out there. We also cover her tactics for working...

" for me activism comes first " - this episode we talk to Comedian and Writer Juliette Burton about her Edinburgh Fringe show ' No Brainer ' how she uses both the 'old-school' techniques of radio and flyering as well as online methods to draw an audience. Juliette talks about the importance of being part of a bigger team or family at the Fringe and how she aims for her sh...

Ahead of Podcast Show London on 24th/25th May, we’re running a series of short daily podcasts with a variety of people in the podcast industry. This episode is with Becky Lamb-Pritchard - Head of Marketing at Distorted We talk about what Becky’s looking forward to most at the Podcast Show, the rise of video podcasting, its importance in podcast discovery and discuss how Distorted’s AI created podc...

Ahead of Podcast Show London on 24th/25th May, we’re running a series of short daily podcasts with a variety of people in the podcast industry. This episode is with Mark Asquith - Co-Founder of Podcast Hosting service Captivate We talk about what he’s looking forward to most at the Podcast Show, why he sees Anchor (now Spotify for Podcasters) as not necessarily a bad thing for the podcast industry...