Edinburgh Fringe Veterans Trade Tips With First-Timers — SkimNews
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- Frank Skinner (debuted 1987) told Cecily Hitchcock his biggest early fringe audience was nine people and one day nobody came at all; he now prefers work-in-progress shows over what he called the ambition-driven networking that defines modern fringe comedians.
- Joe Pasquale (fringe debut in his 60s) and Stephen K Amos (23 previous fringes) appear together in ensemble courtroom spoof "11½ Angry Men," with Pasquale revealing he has four months to learn tap-dancing for the role despite 40 years in variety.
- Fiona Allen (Smack the Pony actor) told Berlin-based Iranian comic Sepideh Kaav that she began standup in her 50s because, at 54, she wanted to inspire others her age to try it — and that the fringe felt like "a club full of open-armed, like-minded people."
- Gregor Fisher (Rab C Nesbitt actor) last performed at the fringe 45 years ago, staging a Scottish adaptation of an Italian play "out of the back of a van" in church halls, "funded by the government back when it cared about the arts."
- Multiple veterans flagged rising costs and corporatisation — Stephen K Amos said expenses have "gone through the roof" and the fringe "feels even more corporate-y now," while Skinner recalled that handing out a business card in the 90s would get a comedian "torn to pieces."
- Survival advice converged across the pairs: Ania Magliano shared her egg-frittata breakfast and toilet meditation routine, Skinner warned reading reviews "is how people get their hearts broken," and Amos bluntly told Pasquale "none of us are trying to get rediscovered, not at our age."
Why it matters: The fringe remains comedy's premier proving ground, but multiple veterans attested it has grown costlier and more corporate — Amos said expenses have "gone through the roof," and Skinner recalled that networking in the 90s would get you "torn to pieces," underscoring how radically the festival's culture and economics have shifted since Skinner's 1987 debut.
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