We are now almost right at the midway point of the Fringe. And so far, it has been relatively painless.
Although there have been lows, it doesn’t feel anywhere near like the ordeal that was last year, but there is still plenty of time left for that.
I think the reason it has been a much more pleasant experience is that out venue is much nicer than last year, with bar staff who actually know us by name and will give us the time of day.
We have probably been working harder to get our audience in than we did last year due to our location; we flyer for at least two hours every day and make an extra effort to talk to people about our show to get them to come along.
We are also fortunate to not be in Stag and Hen Do central again. And although our venue is a bit of a walk from the centre of town, combined with the 11pm timeslot, it means that people who do make the effort to specifically come and see our show actually want to be there the majority of the time. Instead of what we had last year, where a large percentage of the crowds we had would have been there regardless of what show was on.
And this year, me and Paul regularly have a pint in the pub after the show, instead of doing what we did in 2011 and escaping the venue as quickly as possible when we’d finished.
I will talk more about the Fringe attendance another time when I am struggling for things to write.
Instead, I will talk about last night’s show. On what is traditionally the midway Monday day-off for a number of shows, we decided to keep going. For our efforts, we were rewarded with what I think is probably our second biggest audience yet with 18 people. They were a friendly bunch, and although both Paul and myself had decent gigs, we weren’t quite as good as the previous night.
We made £25 in our collection bucket at the end. When you break it down for the hours of work we have put into it, it works out well below the minimum wage. But the Fringe operates in a different world. And as long as I have enough money for a pint and something to eat, then that suits me just fine.
- Love and Langton’s Dirty Laundry is on at 11pm every day until August 25 at the Kilderkin, 67 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8BS, as part of PBH’s Free Fringe.