BCG Daily Thursday 1st August 2024
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Fringe accommodation: drunk landlords, blow-up beds and £5k bills
Finding suitable Fringe accommodation can be a challenge. Some of this year's performers share their formative experiences.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis, The Scotsman, 1st August 2024On the Mic Picks: Mark Thomas
Go and see the greatest political comedian working in the UK today.
On The Mic, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: Matt Davis
"This is my first time bringing three very different shows."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: 1 in a Chameleon
"It's a dream I only became conscious of a year ago, but I'm realising it's a dream that has been there all along."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024Master puppeteer Mark Down on The Sex Lives of Puppets
SNACK met with Mark Down, master puppeteer and artistic director/co-founder of Blind Summit, to discuss the journey to their new show The Sex Lives of Puppets, which you can see throughout its Fringe run.
Natalie Jayne Clark, Snack Magazine, 1st August 2024Sid Singh on heroes and fornicating pigeons
Sid Singh is no stranger to the Edinburgh Fringe and he's back once again, this time with his politically charged and passionate show American Coloniser.
Louise Holland, Snack Magazine, 1st August 2024Joanna Parson: A Transcriber's Tale
It's a one-woman piece, a musical monologue, and is thoughtful, funny and touching.
Caro Moses, ThreeWeeks, 1st August 2024My show's about to open at Edinburgh Fringe - but I'm hiding a huge secret
The future of my career could hinge on the success of my upcoming show, writes comedian Isabelle Farah. So why am I so worried that it could all come crashing down... just because I'm pregnant?
Isabelle Farah, The Independent, 1st August 2024Edinburgh Festival artists tell LBC they're being priced out of the city
Artists are having to stay miles out of Edinburgh in caravans and miss out on performing at the city's Festival Fringe entirely because of accommodation issues, LBC's been told.
Alan Zycinski, LBC, 1st August 2024Mhairi Black tells of ADHD diagnosis in one-woman show at Fringe
The SNP's former deputy leader in Westminster poked fun at former colleagues in a performance she described as 'essentially live therapy'.
John Boothman, The Times, 1st August 2024The people perils of making the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards...
The Edinburgh Fringe officially starts tomorrow, though shows often have a tendency to start yesterday. Bizarre and slightly surreal is normal. Talking of which, the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards are designed and handmade by eccentric inventor and designer John Ward. Here he explains a little incident which happened to him this week...
John Ward, John Fleming's Blog, 1st August 2024The biggest award in comedy just got bigger
The accolade is handed out by streaming service NextUp and stands 2m 2cm high - having increased by 1cm a year since its 2022 launch.
Chortle, 1st August 2024Fringe comedian Will Robbins vows to carry on after 'boycott' graffiti on his show poster
An Edinburgh Festival Fringe comedian making his debut full-hour run this year has brushed aside any worries about his main promotional poster being graffitied this week.
Kevin Quinn, Edinburgh Evening News, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: Kenny Goes to Sleep
"To mount your silly idea and be forced to stand behind it for a month - rain or shine - is the kind of creative risk-taking I'm into."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: Lynn Faces
"I love seeing absolutely, totally weird and bonkers work that I might not immediately choose to go to back home, the surprise and novelty is always really fun."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: A Midsummer's Tempest
"I learned doing my Master's dissertation that 'done is better than perfect'."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: Wrong! A F*cked Up Game Show
"I loved the exuberance and joy that seemed to lurk around every corner, and I loved that audiences were basically down for anything as long as it was entertaining."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: The Comedy Arcade
"Time is the most precious commodity you have at Fringe, and you take all opportunities to find audience; so when you give up an hour and the audience is small you feel responsible for the hour you took."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024Mark Downs: The Sex Lives Of Puppets
I spoke to Mark to find out more about the show, the puppets and Blind Summit.
Chris Cooke, ThreeWeeks, 1st August 2024Only Fans films at the Edinburgh Fringe
Three stand-up showcases for its OFTV platform.
Chortle, 1st August 2024
Piff the Magic Dragon clones his dog assistant Mr. Piffles
The British performer - now based in the US following his success on America's Got Talent - spent $60,000 (£47,000) making a new version of his chihuahua sidekick to allow the original to retire.
Chortle, 1st August 2024Michael Brunstrom: Copernicus Now
A former winner of the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality Michael Brunström is known for mind bendingly brilliant comedy shows on the most obscure topics.
Entertainment Now, 1st August 2024Miriam Margolyes: Graham Norton Changed My Life
In a world plagued by the kind of ubiquitous doublespeak that would curl George Orwell's hair, a conversation with Miriam is a thrilling experience.
Kate Copstick, Entertainment Now, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: Sour Candi
"We've learnt to really embrace the good, the bad and the slightly inconvenient."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024Nina Gilligan on living with fibromyalgia and chronic migraines
"Comedy is the backbone of my life - it helps me cope".
Laura Smith, The Sunday Post, 1st August 2024Fringe benefits: 10 of the best shows to catch at this year's Edinburgh festival
From ruminations on life, love and being Keir Starmer to dance-theatre unpacking toxic masculinity, here's our pick of 2024's 'Burgh necessities
Rachael Healy, The Guardian, 1st August 2024EdFringe Talk: Louise Leigh: Distracted
"I did my first Edinburgh in 1994 in a student production, where I got to play a dead body. I lay in Greyfriars Kirkyard watching the tattoo fireworks go off over the moving denouement of the play."
Dan Lentell, Get Your Coats On, 1st August 2024Unfiltered #50 - The reality of getting Fringe ready with The Comedy Games with Coach Mon
You've got to be ready for anything when you're training athletes (aka an audience full of primary school aged kids).
The Quintessential Review, 1st August 2024
Homophobic vandals tear down advert for UK's first LGBTQ+ comedy club
An advert for the UK's first LGBTQ+ comedy club has been ripped down by vandals, in what the owners say is the latest example of high-profile homophobia in London. The Queer Comedy Club is preparing to open its new permanent home at the Elephant Park development in the south-east of the capital.
Craig Munro, Metro, 1st August 2024Jonno from Sheeps shares his Perfect Playlist
"Chucklevision is the screensaver in my head."
Chortle, 1st August 2024In Conversation With Albie Marber
We sat down with Albie Marber, the writer and director behind Barbies and Drillas coming to Edinburgh Fringe this August 2024.
Tabitha James, A Young(ish) Perspective, 1st August 2024Fringe Quickies: 221 - YOGA & SEX...for women (over 40)
"There is no yoga or sex in my show and you don't have to be a woman over 40."
WJ Quinn, The Quintessential Review, 1st August 2024The Wrinklies: meet the Edinburgh Fringe comedians embracing old age
Do comedians age like fine wine? Kate Copstick on the Fringe performers who refuse to see getting old as a drawback.
Kate Copstick, The Scotsman, 1st August 2024
Frank Skinner reveals he is 'offended by his brutal' 90s jokes as he admits he is now 'educated by woke cancel culture'
Frank admitted his comedy act has not altered due to cancel culture but instead he has 'changed' as a person since becoming a parent.
Bethan Edwards, Daily Mail, 1st August 2024Have a Gander at The Edinburgh Fringe 2024 - Isabela Charleton: So My Dad F****d the Nany
Guiding Corr Blimey through the steamy truth of their new show coming to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Isabella Charlton hits the Gilded Baloon Patter Hoose.
Corr Blimey, 1st August 2024Fringe Quickies: 222 - My Little Phobia
"I think they'll still be laughing at a few jokes and then suddenly be washed over with a tinge of existential dread from My Little Phobia."
WJ Quinn, The Quintessential Review, 1st August 2024Interview with standup comedian Mustafa Algiyadi
"My philosophy will be to cram in everything I can. I don't want to miss out on anything, even though I know this probably isn't the smartest strategy. I'm banking on the idea that I'll find time to relax after the Fringe, but we'll see how that goes."
Tom Inniss, Voice Magazine, 1st August 2024What do comedians listen to before their Fringe sets?
RGM asked a host of comedians making their way to the festival this summer to let us know what music they listen to pre show. This is what they said...
Fran, Reyt Good Magazine, 1st August 2024Interview: Kate-Lois Elliott
Comedian, actor and writer Kate-Lois Elliott's family were brought up in a religious Christian cult based in South London until they escaped when her mother was 16.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 1st August 2024How I stopped bullying myself on stage and started loving comedy again
Comedy isn't therapy, says Hannah Platt, and it was damaging to think it was.
Hannah Platt, Chortle, 1st August 2024Mark Thomas on money, changes and starting again from the bottom
The Fringe veteran on some of the changes he's noticed on the comedy circuit of late.
Mark Thomas, The Scotsman, 1st August 2024Njambi McGrath - "The cancer of my parents' trauma gnaws me unendingly."
Njambi McGrath on the mammoth task of writing a searingly honest, angry and uncompromising anti-colonial stand-up show steeped in half a century of cultural trauma.
The Scotsman, 1st August 2024Why the Edinburgh Fringe is bulging with shows about grief and loss
Death is a perennial theme at the Fringe, but can theatre help people talk about it? Susan Mansfield speaks to the theatre-makers taking on the trauma of bereavement.
Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman, 1st August 2024Meet Julia VanderVeen's grandmother (and her eyepatch)
Julia VanderVeen is bringing her debut character show, My Grandmother's Eyepatch to Edinburgh Fringe, leading the audience through stages of grief as she attempts to honour her beloved grandmother.
Julia VanderVeen, LMAOnaise, 1st August 2024Unfiltered #52 - The reality of getting Fringe ready with Marguerite
"I wake up around 8:30 am to the sound of my parents slamming cabinets downstairs."
Maggie Winters, The Quintessential Review, 1st August 2024Fringe: how I joined a secret political correctness brigade
Australian comedian Rhys Nicholson turns his satirical gaze on the claim that political correctness is ruining stand-up.
Rhys Nicholson, The Scotsman, 1st August 2024Festival Mouthpiece: Eleanor Morton
With her new Fringe stand-up show, Eleanor Morton ponders the paranormal and speculates on spooks. Here she asks: what's scarier than an Edinburgh ghost?
Eleanor Morton, The List, 1st August 2024No Such Thing As A Fish on Edinburgh ''acts'
Whether you're a local who thinks they know it all or an annual August visitor who thinks they know it all, chances are you're about to be schooled. No one knows facts like the No Such Thing As A Fish crew. Read 'em and learn.
No Such Thing As A Fish, The List, 1st August 2024Aaron Twitchen on the best and worst of the Fringe
"Audiences deserve more than a sweaty comedian forced to change in a disabled toilet".
Chortle, 1st August 2024Fringe: Scottish Refugee Council to host charity gig
A refugee charity has announced it is hosting a comedy show fundraiser at the Fringe Festival to show solidarity through laughter.
The National (Scotland), 1st August 2024Fringe: Comedian on why Scotland would be 'great for EU'
For US comedian Derek Mitchell, everything started with what he calls a "depressing time with a sad salad".
Adam Robertson, The National (Scotland), 1st August 2024Eleanor Morton's Local Haunts
The Scottish comedian gives us the lowdown on the city's spookiest places.
Eleanor Morton, Fest Mag, 1st August 2024Susan Morrison on Ladies of Pleasure
The comedian delves into the history of sex work in the city.
Susan Morrison, Fest Mag, 1st August 2024Around the world in 80 puns
Glaswegian comedian and author Iain MacDonald embraces the international aspect of comedy as he takes you on a pun-venture around the world in this hilarious show in which he has a joke for each and every country.
Iain MacDonald, The Scotsman, 1st August 2024Viral comedy sensation Joe McTernan new solo show: Lost
Hilarious and relatable, Lost sees Joe face his fears, worry about his lack of plans to have kids, compare himself with his Dad, and, more importantly, discover that happiness can be found after heartbreak.
Edinburgh Evening News, 1st August 2024Videos
Online
TV
Podcasts
TV & radio
11am45 min
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Series 30, Episode 4 - Extreme ExplorationProf. Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by special guests Anneka Rice, Mike Massimino, Britney Schmidt and Jess Phoenix in a recording in Porto, Portugal, at the Explorers Club as they discuss science at the extremes of exploration.
6:30pm30 min
Kiri's Comedy Club
Series 2, Episode 3 - Comedy Double ActsKiri Pritchard-McLean chats to four comedy double acts - Shelf, Egg, Crizards and Lloyd & Williams - about sharing the stage with a friend, balancing comedy personas, and always having someone to check where you're going.
6:30pm30 min
The Train At Platform 4
Series 2, Episode 2 - Get A RoomAn over-amorous couple disturb the 14:15 to Kings Cross, in the comedy set in the claustrophobic carriages of a cross-country rail service.