London comics discuss how expensive Edinburgh Festival Fringe really is

Three London based comedians and writers discuss just how much of a financial burden the Fringe can be and whether the tradition is worth the cost.

Transcript

00:00 based in London, what's it like coming up to Edinburgh as a London comic?

00:03 I feel like coming up to Edinburgh as a London comedian is sort of split on one side. You

00:08 have the fact that it's so much fun, you've been working so many hours on the show and

00:13 now you get to do it every single day in front of audiences from all over the UK and all

00:17 over the world to be honest, which is really, really fun. You get to see loads of other

00:22 shows but then it's the other aspect which is that it's very, very expensive. It's hard

00:27 to make much money. Prices for accommodation in Edinburgh during the month is just insane.

00:39 There's ups and downs but it's nice to have that much stage time and if you're on stage

00:45 about an hour a day that would take about a week in London to get so it's good practice.

00:50 It is really expensive. I definitely think that venues and stuff are quite expensive

00:56 and accommodation is expensive.

00:59 Do you think people will stop doing it or do you think that it's just got so much under

01:05 condition that people will just carry on?

01:06 I definitely think there should be more schemes to make sure that everyone can go because

01:11 otherwise loads of people will stop doing it and then you're just segregating a whole

01:17 group of people really.

01:20 As a comedy writer it's important for me to come up to Edinburgh Fringe to become inspired,

01:24 to see what's out there, to build up a network, to get to know people. As I say the ultimate

01:32 thing is inspiration because it's great to meet other like-minded writers and again to

01:37 see what they've got on offer and to build that network.

01:40 So I think the tradition of Edinburgh definitely outweighs the negative of paying for accommodation.

01:47 It's such a rite of passage and it's become a tradition for so many people to come up

01:53 every year so that's definitely not a deterrent from paying the extra for accommodation.

02:00 I think that's the reason why people are still coming. It's the biggest art festival in the

02:05 world. It has such a long history around it and I think, you know, when you say that people

02:11 come up there are people that don't come up anymore because it's too expensive to them.

02:15 So yeah, we are here and we're doing it and I was very lucky this year. I got a really

02:19 good deal accommodation-wise but most people aren't going up because it is just too expensive.

02:25 Is there anything that can be done to kind of like take that financial load off comedians?

02:31 I mean in my head there should just be some sort of regulations of what you could sublet

02:36 your property for, in my opinion. Obviously that's coming from my side and obviously I

02:42 think that makes a lot of sense that I want prices to be lower. But I feel like there

02:47 should be some sort of regulations, maybe a cap, just because Edinburgh Fringe is becoming

02:52 you know a rich person's playground, which it has been before as well, and it also means

02:58 a lot of like industries like comedy and theatre is just going to be based around loads of

03:03 rich kids.

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