The Edinburgh Fringe Show, with Ewan Spence

Ten years ago, a single-hander show turned up at the Fringe… Rebecca Perry with ‘Confessions Of A Redheaded Coffeshop Girl’, which starts as “what if a coffeeshop with David Attenborough?” A hook that brought you in, before the performance and the piece delightfully dragged you further… a further that included an interview on this podcast. Ten years later, Rebecca is back at the Fringe, and ten ye...

One of the delights of the Fringe is learning something new. Theatre is the great educator, hiding it within music, within moments, and sometimes even with mime. For me, the life and work of Sutara Gayle is one of those moments. She was a pioneering female deejay on London’s infamous reggae scene in the 1980s, which earned her a first record contract; she lived through personal tragedy that sparke...

One of the key returns for many acts and troupes from the Fringe is to come away with an award. There’s an insane amount of competition to win one, but they can set the tone of your career for the following years. But what does it take to manage and run one of the awards? The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards started in the years after Covid-19, and brought a fresh look at the comedy scene across the Fr...

There are so many puns available to me from today's show. “The World’s Greatest Lover” is a new musical debuting at the Fringe, but with international ambitions beyond Pleasance One.  Writers Julien Salvia and Ludovic-Alexandre Vidal bring the titular lovers from the annals of history. Romeo, Casanova, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Marquis de Sade and MC Saint Valentine to the Fringe stage. Not only is...

Kinder is an excellent example of a show taking risks at the Fringe, both for the production and the audience. There are hints on what to expect on paper - a story of a Drag Queen preparing a “comedy roast” but finding out with an hour to go, it’s actually a booking for a children’s story time show. In that short liminal space, there is some theatrical magic that lifts the story to something power...

Accomplished jazz trumpeter Jay Phelps debuts at the Fringe this year with Miles. It’s a look back on the life of Jazz virtuoso Miles Davis in general, and the creation of the album “Kind Of Blue” in particular. It mixes in many disciplines, including the acting talents of  Benjamin Akintuyos as Davis, the music of the album, and Phelps’ music talents on the trumpet. Not only that, but Phelps has...

Jay Saunders and Nick Cheng are from Project Comedy; a part of Project Recce, which helps Military Veterans and Service Leavers to move from military service to civilian employment.  As they describe it, “military humour is more than just entertainment—it’s a survival tool. It forges camaraderie, boosts morale, and keeps teams strong in the toughest conditions. Now, through Project COMEDY, veteran...

As week 2 starts here in Edinburgh, let’s welcome Narin Oz to the pod. Returning to the Fringe with her fourth show, Inner Child(ish) sees Oz looking to reconnect with her titular inner child … through the medium of the Tom Hanks motion picture Castaway. Her inner child misbehaves, breaks rules, and flips reality around. Behind all this is Narin learning to live in a world of neurotypical people s...

Today, we listen to Annie Lareau talk about her life, which she is bringing to the Fringe in the show Fuselage. Annie was meant to be flying home from the UK with 35 university classmates for Christmas in 1988. They changed to an earlier flight, and Anie, who couldn’t afford the fee, stayed behind, as her friend boarded Pan Am 103. A flight where a bomb exploded, crashing the aircraft into the Sco...

1984 is a story that has been told countless times and becomes more relevant every time it is told.  Box Tale Soup brings their version of the classic warning to the Edinburgh Fringe this year. I caught up with Noel Byrne to talk about the challenge involved in bringing a classic to the stage. Box Tale Soup has established itself as one of the leading puppetry companies coming to the Fringe over t...

What if Cabaret, disaster movie, philosophy, and Geri Halliwell? You get Apocalypse Cabaret: Songs for the End of the World! To learn more about this one-woman cabaret show, I talk with Scout Durwood as she brings this dark delight to the Edinburgh Fringe. With a mix of original songs, standards and a dash of existentialism, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. This is Durwood’s first play, which m...

One of the delights of the Edinburgh Fringe is finding something that’s just a single step to the side of your average show. It’s in those little side streets where you can find something spectacular. Kit Loyd is on one of those side streets. He’s brought Frenzy to the Fringe, a delightful and engaging mix of comedy, physical theatre, and mime. It’s also his first full hour at the Fringe. I sat do...

Today’s guest is Saaniya Abbas. From the UAE comedy scene, she is the first local comic to officially debut a solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe this August. How do you go from a sheltered upbringing in New Delhi to a sometimes controversial comedy career? We talk about Sanniya’s background and her first steps in comedy, before finding wider acclaim and turning a hobby into a profession.

Some will know him from the dim and distant past as Barry Ferns. Edinburgh Fringe historians will know him as Lionel Ritchie. Others in the comedy scene of 2025 will know him, once more, as Barry Ferns. And there you have the premise for his Fringe show, My Seven Years As Lionel Ritchie. This strong narrative hour charts the highs and lows of being a professional comic at the Fringe, the lead up t...

This week's Fringe preview takes in not only a Fringe show, but the evolution of social media storytelling itself. Grace Helbig and I start by talking about he early days of content creation on the internet... I started podcasting with the Fringe Show in 2005 while Grace started during the first flush of YouTube in 2006. That starts us down a path of online personae, presenting yourself, and the g...

As we head through July, we'll be bringing you preview interviews that help set the scene for Fringe 2025. That could be the history of the Fringe, how traditional and online media impact the arts, the future of the Festival in Edinburgh, and the impact it can have. In our first preview, Ewan Spence meets Henry Naylor to talk about his new solo show 'Monstering The Rocketman,' a timely drama about...

The Edinburgh Fringe Show started in 2005, and as Fringe 2025 appears on the horizon, we're going to get started on our 21st season covering the largest arts festival in the world. We have a few traditions in these parts. One of those is our prologue podcast—a chance to ensure the website, podcast feed, and all the other digital components are ready to go. We'll have weekly preview interviews thro...

And with that, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 comes to an end. Trying to capture everything that happened is a task worthy of Hercules, so I hope that I've brought you a flavour of the Fringe during August. The Fringe has always faced challenges from its first days to this year and beyond. Instead of an interview to close out August, I wanted to talk a little about our Fringe community and my...

As we come to the end of week three, we sit down with Anthony Alderson, director of The Pleaseance Theatre Trust. We touch on several critical issues running one of the largest venues at the Edinburgh Fringe, including the continuing impact of COVID and the importance of government funding to the Fringe community and The Pleasance. Given the cost of the Fringe is on everyone's minds, we talk about...

Tim Benzie joins us on the show today to talk about his two Fringe shows, "It's A Mystery" and "Solve Along A Murder She Wrote". Yes, he loves his cosy crime shows, but doesn't everyone secretly love a mystery? We start with the rules of detective fiction before our talk turns to Agatha Christie and Dame Angela Lansbury, how you can do a solve-along-a with a murder, and the advantages of having tw...

Mark Dean Quinn joins me on the show today to do his best not to talk about his show 'Oh No (That's Not Your Cheese).' He's found the right level of fame, and doesn't feel the need to go any further. Nevertheless, we've lots to talk about, including the importance of the Free Fringe and how this can offer more artistic freedom, his work on the Edinburgh Fringe Performers' Forum, and why he is read...

Juliet Cowan has an impressive CV of character roles in TV and film following her stand-up appearances, yet 2024 is her first hour of comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe.  The delightfully titled show has Cown looking at the impact of the menopause and its reflection on the rush of hormones in her teenage life. We...

To open up week three, I speak to Nina Gilligan on her show Goldfish. We start with the classic observation of a Goldfish's memory before exploring what that means to Nina and how it ties in with the show. We also go into the importance of "the hour" at the Fringe, why it is well suited to Nina's show, and how she could never be as vulnerable on the regular circuit as she can be in Edinburgh.

Rachel Kaly is over from the US to bring their debut hour to the Fringe. Hospital Hour looks at Kaly's many appointments and visits to the American healthcare system for psychological treatments. We also talk about what the fringe means in general and Edinburgh specifically. How do you know when an hour is ready for the Fringe, and how does the show change throughout the month?

A fun conversation with Louise Atkinson today as we talk about her show She's Got The Look. The press release provides my first question (to the light of morning DJs the world over), but we go into more topics on the business and art of being a comic. How can you make comedy accessible to everyone? How does Edinburgh fit into the United Kingdom's festival circuit, and why is the Fringe one of the...