As a stand-up comedian and improviser attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is a right of passage. So, after about a year of stand-up, I attended my first-ever Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and it was quite something. And by that, I mean really awesome!
With over 3 million people visiting Edinburgh in just one month and almost 1400 different shows playing, it is huge, overwhelming and incredible! As a newbie comedian, this first fringe taught me A LOT. So, let’s get into it!
There are So Many Styles of Comedy
When I first started performing stand-up comedy, I didn’t particularly like it as a discipline. I started it because it was the scariest thing I could imagine doing. So I have not watched too much comedy. That said, I often find that in the English-language comedy scene in the Netherlands, most people have the same sort of comedy style. This is probably because it is a very new and small scene.
By going to the fringe festival, I realised there is so much more scope to do anything you want. In one show, the comedian spent three minutes pretending to do stand-up comedy as a hoover, a different show was entirely from the perspective of a horse. I saw so many different styles of comedy, paces of joking telling and ways of making an audience laugh.
If I ever recover enough to perform again I am excited to unleash my weirdness. I’d like to worry less about conforming to the general trends in the comedy scene here.
Comedy Can be Wholesome
I have often worried about not being tough enough for comedy. Oftentimes, you see people roasting the audience when doing crowd work or making shocking and strong statements. I can really enjoy watching comedy like this, and well-performed roasts can be hilarious, however, it’s not really me! I’m not exactly wholesome, but I’m not particularly tough or mean.
I saw so many shows at the Fringe festival that were fun and silly, with no harshness or toughness involved at all. They were just hilarious and heartwarming. I’m thinking of a show like Alex Franklin’s Gurl Code, which was warm, kind and very feel-good.
I’m Not Weird for Tackling Hard Topics
People often give me feedback as a newer comedian to joke about easier topics than my illness. The problem is that talking about any of my life as an adult can be difficult in comedy because it’s very hard for anything to make sense without mentioning my illness. It is such an all-encompassing experience having ME/CFS that it has impacted the entirety of my adult life. Yet when I mention it on stage, I can feel people’s butts clenching in fear and discomfort is palpable in the air. I have to work really, really hard to make people feel comfortable. So it is tricky, especially as an inexperienced newbie!
That said, I don’t want to limit myself to only talking about my experiences from being a child. That would feel a little strange. Plus, I want to tackle the difficult topics and find the humour in the shit bits of my life. I’m tired of being invisible. I’m tired of people with ME/CFS being invisible – making comedy from this is a great way to make the experience of having ME visible.
Hour-long fringe shows are the perfect way to tackle tricky topics. Almost all of the shows I saw included some sort of adversity. People were talking about being trans and getting top surgery, Adenomyosis, unhealthy family dynamics, toxic relationships, you name it, there is a show about it. These shows, when done well, were hilarious and poignant. They were not moralistic but delicately danced with taking people through the discomfort of discussing difficult topics.
Comedy Isn’t a Great Career for People with ME/CFS
One of the less exciting realisations I had from The Fringe and the aftermath is just how inaccessible being a comedian is. Seeing the energy of other comedians, the long hours they are lucky enough to put in, and the importance of networking over a drink showed me a lot.
A great way to get noticed as a comedian is to take a show to the fringe. But given that I spent a week there, not even performing, and I am still stuck in bed a month later, it is hard to imagine I will ever be well enough for something like that. I’m not sure if I’ll even be well enough to visit the fringe for a week.
The general ethos in comedy is that the more stage time you get, the better a comedian you will be. When I was a little healthier last year, I was performing about four times a week. Currently, I am too sick to perform at all, and once a week would be a dream. Again, it’s hard to imagine that with this body I will be well enough to perform regularly and improve.
Having now spent a month cut off from working on my dreams and goals, and frankly struggling to be funny because being housebound and so sick is pretty depressing, I realise now that becoming a pro comedian is maybe an impossible goal for me – however much promise I can show. There is a reason I’ve not heard of one comedian who has ME/CFS before. It’s the type of illness that blocks you from a career in stand-up – or honestly a career at all.
It’s a bit of a bitter pill to swallow, and I will not cut myself off by saying I’ll never make it. However, the odds of me succeeding and making a career out of comedy are very limited by my unpredictable and way too sick body. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival demonstrated that to me.
My Favourite Shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2024
I saw so many incredible shows on this fringe, and there are even more that were recommended to me that I did not have the time and energy to watch. So here were some of my favourite comedians of the Fringe 2024:
Abby Wambaugh – The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows. This was phenomenal, silly, goofy and then suddenly quite heartbreaking. It very deservedly won Best Newcomer to Edinburgh.
- Sarah Keyworth – My Eyes Are Up Here.
- Elf Lyons – Horses
- Lara Ricote – Little Tiny Wet Show (Baptism)
- 0 – Marjolein Robertson
- I Know a Guy – Sharon Em
- Gurl Code – Alex Franklin
Go to the Fringe
If you have never been to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, you should go, go, go! It is like nothing you’ve been to before. There are endless fantastic shows, street performers and people. It is totally worth every penny!
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