20th August 2024
Edinburgh
THE
PRESS
that say “why don’t you tell me a joke”, like I’m handing out sample cheese bites at the supermarket, and they will grace me with their presence should the sample pass the test. It is always 100% of the time a male person in front of their fellow males, wanting to assert himself as a cool dude who bullies comics.
Jin Hao Li
Sometimes I only drink coke because that shade of red on the can is the perfect look for how it tastes. If it wasn’t for marketing, I might not even jeopardise my health. Flyerers at the Fringe are like the Coca Cola red, inviting us to risk an hour or so of our lives. They build bridges between strangers, like matchmakers, Cupids with hundreds of arrows that pollute our Mother Earth. They are the true heroes of the fringe, and this is a memoir of a former hero. In the Fringe of 2022, we performed sketch comedy in a mouldy cave, and had to lie through our teeth and gums when flyering, I mean the
show was good but it was definitely not in a ‘comfortable setting’, which was allegedly a phrase I used to say. I would go up to someone, hold out a flyer and say “Taylor Swift?”, just to get their attention, which I don’t think she’d mind, since it keeps her name in conversation. Then it was all about retaining that attention. I was a walking tiktok. At times I felt like a fisherman but instead of a box of worms it was a stack of paper with my friends’ faces on it as bait. Sometimes if I’m lucky I’d catch a freshwater trout who's eager to swallow any worm, but on bad days I might come across a dirty dirty eel, ready to zap me with their witty remarks. These are the f*ckers
There was one day we formed a train, or maybe a caterpillar, and just went around saying ‘A flyer’? And if we were rejected we’d make a disappointed ‘awwww’. There came a point where the choreography of our flyering formation was worked on more than the blocking for the actual show. Another favourite memory was when my friend and fellow comedian Qin Wang helped me to flyer the show in mandarin to the Chinese students. She claimed that she was my sister, because we knew our market and selling family ideals is guaranteed to work on international students yearning for home. Flyering is such a big part of fringe culture, it keeps the buzz alive. I hope one day all flyers are edible so they don’t pollute Edinburgh so much. Jin Hao Li: Swimming in a Submarine Courtyard - Below
Jessica Regan
We moved in way too fast. Who moves in after the second date… me and London it turns out. Our first date was an audition for a big fancy drama school. The date went well…I get into the Drama School of dreams! London, it turns out is not the glittering metropolis I thought it was but actually a sprawling series of boroughs that vary wildly in terms of aesthetics and amenities. It is also the city I will go on to live in for the next twenty years in 16 different addresses. That does not mean I have had 16 landlords. The first was the worst, a baptism of fire from a truly callous man, who screamed down the phone at my housemate’s rent being 48 hours late in the days before internet banking, as a beloved parent lay hours from death. He took great pleasure in withholding our deposits - and only relinquished them when I told him my father was a solicitor. My father is not a solicitor but it felt good to put the actor training I came here for to practical use. Estate agents can be worse. One particular incident stands out, when an ex and I broke up. The couch was scratched badly by the owner’s cat so we left the throw we had bought for the couch and a bottle of wine for the next tenants who we hoped would have a better time than we had. We received a bill for ‘removal of items left’. We had in fact left an
actual PRESENT and an item that concealed the terrible state of the furniture the landlady was too cheap to replace. We refused to pay and verbally vivisected them in an email, a rare moment of unity in the midst of our undoing. I found house-sits and sub-lets, and finally the situation that suited me the finest: a landlord who has a house they care about and don’t wish to sell and a long-term tenant, trusted with picking the people who live there. The long-term tenant was a friend when I moved in six years ago but unquestionably family now. We made a faded but fairly-priced house as lovely as we could. We buttressed our sanctuary with getting the good bread and the organic wine instead of the holidays we are too afraid to take or can’t afford, knitting and writing our way through the uncertainty induced by our chosen profession… and we have three months left. The landlord is selling and why wouldn’t he. A house he bought for five figures 25 years ago will go for north of half a million and where we go is no concern of his. It’s an ending I didn’t ask for but that is renting. After I leave this postcode, I hope I can stay in the city where I work and learn and love. I used to hope I would buy a place in London someday. Now I hope I won’t have to leave.
16 Postcodes Courtyard - Bunker One
Emma-Louise Howell
Is this an age-old debate about whether audiences should be allowed on their phones during a show? Na. It’s about how we’ve made our entire show I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life feel like it exists within a phone. A story about online scams, we’ve been constantly expanding how we can use technology to tell the story and we wanted to share some of our lessons from bringing a high-tech show in the low-budget world of Fringe. PROS Writing Process: Embedding technology in the script as a dramaturgical tool has been FUN. Words are replaced with emojis, GIFs, memes and seeing how my amazing Director, Hetty Hodgson, and the Design team have used tech as storytelling devices has been so liberating as a writer. Performing Process: A one person show at Edinburgh is a killer. A 3 minute scene break where the audience can enjoy some stunning video design? Yes please, delicious, I’ll order 2.
Integrated Access: Not only have our Set Designer, Lulu Tam, and Video and Caption Designer, Matt Powell created a vibrant social media world across 4 digital screens but the screens and video have meant we can creatively caption our entire show, too, increasing access for d/Deaf & hard of hearing audiences. We use all the GIFs, memes and emojis to make the captions pop and it’s something we’re really proud of, especially as we were shortlisted for The Stage Innovation Award for that process, so if you’re using video projection at all, why not consider embedding creative captioning, too? SIDENOTE: Captioning also means that if I forget a line, I can turn around and read it like karaoke? I did it during our London run last year. Was it humiliating? Yes. Did it save my drybrain? Absolutely. PRACTICALITIES Cost: Technology isn’t cheap. A big fancy projector that can make the stage sparkle? £££. A radio mic that makes your voice sound like a video game? £££. Of course it’s going to cost more, not just for the tech itself but also operators and technicians. Plan well and factor
it into your budget from Day One so you’re not caught off guard. Prep: Tech takes time: prep, prep and more prep - and then probably prep again. Fringe tech times are short and everyone’s tired: you will save yourself time and stress if you’ve had all these conversations beforehand. How Did You Learn All Those Lines: Captioning the show means the script has to be fully locked quite early in the process in order for the Designer and Stage Manager to make something that can be built into the show. We have over 1000 video & caption cues in the show and changing a line can throw all of these out of whack. That isn’t to say you can’t change things, but be transparent and have a clear line of communication about how that happens. So our advice to you? If you’re thinking about a high tech show, consider it from the moment pen hits the page, build a hot to trot team around you and prep until you can’t prep anymore. And use it to create something FUN! I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life Dome - 10 Dome
William Johnston and Katie Sayer
Dubai and the UAE have become a hotspot for young influencers in the last decade. But homosexuality remains illegal in the UAE. So how do we reconcile the two? When it was football’s turn to confront this thorny question of international diplomacy, the demands from the British public to their idols were clear – show solidarity with the queer community; boycott the 2022 World Cup; rainbow armbands. It felt unfair that it was young footballers, who had borne the brunt of the backlash – it’s fair to say their choices were more limited. The same demands don’t seem to hold true of other celebrities. We wanted to write about this paradox, but the more we spoke to queer friends about it, the less a consensus seemed to emerge. Many of our queer friends saw holidaying in the UAE as hypocritical, and implicitly endorsing a homophobic regime. Others, pointed out that there is a queer subculture in Dubai, just
not an official one – it was even suggested that it would be racist to imply the UAE was homophobic. But it seemed to us that if the UK made homosexuality illegal, we would be rallying in the streets. It is not racist to critique human rights abuses around the world. This is an idea that we explore – how can you criticise another country’s culture and values, without being labelled as xenophobic? Love’s A Beach is a comedy about the first gay winners of a Love Island-style reality show. Six months on, their fame starts to fade – and while Ben is happy to return to normal life, Cyrus is desperate to be a celebrity. When they get offered an influencing deal in Dubai, their different attitudes to the offer threaten to drive the couple apart… Exploring this conundrum through a queer couple who take opposite stances seemed like the perfect way to create a comedy drama that was balanced in its approach to this sensitive issue. In Love’s A Beach, Ben refuses to hide his sexuality, while Cyrus is more than happy to jet
out to the UAE, and sees the need to hide his sexuality as a question of respecting custom. It’s a play about the pressure that is put on young celebrities, especially young queer celebrities, to be role models. The idea that those with platforms have a responsibility to use them well has morphed into the idea that celebrities are public property. Para-social relationships turn into reality when follower counts have a direct impact on your finances, and influencers are forced to morph into what their followers want to see, whatever the cost. We wanted to point out the ridiculousness of reality stars and footballers having to be the face of our diplomatic effort, when we frequently do trade deals with countries with less-thanperfect human rights records and nobody tries to cancel the Foreign Secretary. But if an influencer endorses a cause – or holidays in a country – that seems to conflict with the values we hold common, the consequences can be ruinous. Love’s a Beach Courtyard - Baby Grand