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.
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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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