2014 Fringe Review Round-Up
Published: Monday 8th September 2014
Seeking out, collecting and recording reviews for the entire course of the Edinburgh Fringe is a bit like trying to read a large academic textbook: for most of the time it is a hard slog, but then you come across something that perks you up. It makes the whole thing feel more worthwhile, and results in you feeling glad you put the effort in.
For example, I like trying to spot a "review rainbow". That's when a show has been given a 5 star, 4 star, 3 star, 2 star and 1 star review. It helps emphasise that no single review alone should determine your ticket purchasing choices; multiple reviews should be found to gauge a consensus. Two such rainbows occurred this year: Boxman and Josh Howie.
One-star reviews are by far the best things to read, of course (well, apart from when one discovers a rare zero star review). Sometimes the act is truly awful and I must admit it is often amusing to witness someone venting their spleen having been subjected to such a show; but sometimes one has to laugh at how badly executed the review is.
I found it comical that someone at Arts Award Voice failed to realise that Marcel Lucont is a character act. It was funnier still when Lucont included an extract of that review on his posters.
The above review raises the question of whether the opinion of certain publications should carry more weight than others? For example, some blogs seem to give everything either 4 or 5 stars, whilst certain other publications are loathed to award any fives at all.
To be as comprehensive as possible, British Comedy Guide aims to collect every review published, no matter who published it, so this year I monitored over 80 different sources for reviews. However, thinking ahead to next year, are there some websites I should not cover because the writers are too amateurish and inexperienced? If the latter, which websites should I exclude? This is massive editorial decision. I would like to find out the opinions of acts and agents. If you've any views please let me know via ian@comedy.co.uk
It's worth highlighting there are likely to be some changes at next year's Festival. I noticed more frustration and worry than ever that audiences are concentrating too much on the ratings rather than the reviews themselves. Indeed, experienced websites such as Chortle have signalled they're now thinking of abandoning star ratings altogether so their nuanced opinion isn't boiled down to one of five simple grades stuck on a poster. 2015 is going to be interesting.
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