We are thrilled today to have the chance to interview Classic Brit award nominee Thomas Cameron.
Thomas is a twenty year old English tenor who has been featured on the BBC thanks to his critically acclaimed single ‘Bring Him Home’. He will be touring in the run up to the Edinburgh Fringe at various locations across England and Ireland including the The National Concert Hall in Dublin on July 12th and the Old Theatre Royal in Bath on June 1st
On 6th June he will be launching his new album, ‘The Voice of Thomas Cameron’ in Exeter. Details and tickets available through Thomas’s website.
As if a tour and album launch were not enough, Thomas is also a brand ambassador for the London based shirt manufacturer Just Winston and the unique Bow Tie company, Bow Dickie Designs.
It was truly a pleasure to work with Thomas on this interview and we wish him every success for his upcoming tour, album launch, and of course his Fringe performance!
A Night at the Musicals with Thomas Cameron is being performed at Stockbridge Church at 6pm on August 26th. Tickets available through the Fringe box office – click here.
Gavin Bell is a multi-award winning entrepreneur & vlogger who runs his own successful Facebook advertising consultancy here in Edinburgh
Navigating the Fringe is not easy – especially for first-timers. In his video, Gavin talks to performers marketing their shows on the Royal Mile and asks how best to survive the most intense month in the arts world!
Visit Gavin’s site for more information on the man himself and his Facebook Advertising Consultancy business .
It was a pleasure to hear from Frankie Regalia who is bringing her show – ‘Stoned, Stupid & Stuck (A Californian Fairytale)‘ to Edinburgh this summer. We find out her tips for promoting shows once in Edinburgh, why she avoids the Royal Mile, where she likes to hang out once in town and why she loves her hometown of Fort Bragg, California. Plus why we think her trailer videos reminds us of Alcazar’s Crying at the discotheque…
Today we meet Tiff Milner who is the writer/ director of Le Monocle. Le Monocle follows the story of Francine as she discovers the eponymous lesbian bar of pre-war Paris. Her story is interwoven with that of Violette Morris, an acclaimed athlete-turned-Nazi SS agent, and the LGBTQ+ community of 20th-century Paris. Le Monocle is showing at theSpace @Surgeons Hall at 19:20 from 2nd to 9th August. Tickets available from the Fringe Box Office.
Can you introduce yourselves and your show?
Hi! My name is
Tiff Milner and I’m the writer/director. Le Monocle is a brand new play
about the Parisian LGBTQ+ scene from 1922 – 1947. I discovered the story
of a lesbian bar named le Monocle while reading, and it intertwined
with the life of a famous athlete named Violette Morris, who had a
fascinating life which ended horrifyingly in her becoming an SS agent
for the Nazi regime in WWII. So we tell that history with the story of
the bar and the lesbian community.
What is the top reason people should see the show?
We
hope you’ll fall in love with this little bar as much as we have! In
all seriousness, as much as this is a historical story, it’s also
relevant today. It’s so easy to get angry at all the things going on
around us, but Le Monocle is about compassion and community, and how
that in itself can be bravery in the face of prejudice. It’s also a
really fun show, with a hell of a lot of heart, and a fantastic cast and
crew! They amaze me every single day I work with them.
What does a ‘successful Fringe run’ mean to you?
My
favourite moment is when the lights go down in the theatre and we get
to take people on a journey with a lively bunch of characters, so
success to me is giving every audience member a great show every night. I
hope people come away knowing something they never knew before, and are
touched by the story of these women. I hope it spreads a little bit of
warmth and strength!
This is your first time at the Fringe. What is the worst rumour you have heard about performing in Edinburgh?
Oh
gosh, you hear all kinds of things! “No-one will show up”, “It’ll cost
you your first-born”, “Venue managers are vampires!” – you hear quite
literally everything! The amount of paper waste that is rumoured to go
on at Fringe is pretty scary, so we’re trying to cut down on that a bit.
Your show is the story of a lesbian bar in Paris. Having just read about Le Monocle, it really has a fascinating tale to tell and even plays a key role in the history of France. What surprised you most about the story of the bar?
So many things surprised
me! When I was researching, every new discovery felt like something I
should have been taught about before and it had never even been
mentioned. Violette Morris was a bisexual woman who was key to the
invasion of Paris in 1940 – how was I never told this when I studied
WWII in school?! These stories often go untold, so it felt like learning
something hidden. One of my favourite little facts was that lesbians
would signify their sexuality by wearing a monocle – hence the name!
What message do you hope audiences will take away from your show?
I
hope that they take away a little bit of kindness, and that we show
that between the decision to act in anger or to be compassionate in the
face of prejudice, banding together and caring for your community is the
bravest thing you can do.
How are you promoting your show in the run up to the Fringe?
All of the ways! We have an Instagram (@greateggtheatre) as well as a Twitter account (@lemonocleplay) and a Facebook page. Our website can be found at lemonocleplay.com. We also have a cheeky Spotify playlist in the works, for all the lesbian blues and jazz music in our show – so keep your eyes peeled for that
To hand out flyers on the Royal Mile or not to hand out flyers? What’s your top tip to create a buzz once in Edinburgh?
We
want to keep paper waste to a minimum, so we won’t be going crazy with
the flyers! We want to support other shows too, especially female led
and LGBTQ+ shows, and you’ll absolutely find us talking about the show
in Edinburgh’s gay bars!
Where is your favourite Edinburgh hang out when you are not on stage?
The
gay bars, of course, will be a hang-out spot for us, there’s some
really good ones up in Edinburgh. But one of my cast members, a Fringe
regular, has recommended Oink! which has the biggest hog roast
sandwiches she’s ever seen, so I’m counting down the days for that!
Lastly do you want to tell us where and when we can see the show?
You can see Le Monocle at The Haldane Theatre, at TheSpace @ Surgeons Hall, from Aug 2-9, at 7:20pm. We’re really looking forward to seeing you all there and meeting you, and if you spot us on the Mile, please do come and say hi!
Thanks Tiff and we wish you the very best for Edinburgh! For tips about visiting Edinburgh as an LGBT tourist, see our guide. Tiff and others interested in the environmental impacts of flyering might also be interested in reading an article on the EFC from environmental journalist Matt Turner – ‘Flyering at the Fringe – a waste of paper?‘.
The EFC is very pleased to announce the launch this week of our own dedicated Youtube Channel.
The channel’s content will feature video interviews and film clips relating to our articles. It is hoped that the number of videos will rapidly grow in the run up to Fringe 2019.
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Businesses and community groups in the Old Town are campaigning for a clampdown on silent disco groups over claims they are making a fool of innocent tourists, and turning “gullible punters” into “complete idiots.”
The Edinburgh Old Town Association (EOTA) and the Old Town Community Council, as well as other community voices from Edinburgh Old Town have made expressed their concerns to the City Council claiming the dancing and large groups are “creating a hazard to themselves, other pedestrians and passing traffic.”
Edinburgh City council chiefs have admitted that the growing popularity of silent discos has “compounded” problems with overcrowding during peak festival periods. Congestion concerns have led to the drawing up of radical road closures, relocated bus services and suspended taxi ranks this year.
The Community Council claims, “Some of these represent huge unregulated ‘public gatherings’ of people that completely take over footpaths, bulldozing regular users out of the way. Tours over say 10 people, need licensed and regulated in number and timing.”
However, the Silent Discos may be safe for now as a a loophole in the law which means they do not need a street trading licence if they only sell tickets online.
Bill Cowan, planning and transport secretary at the community council, said: “The problems with silent discos have got dramatically worse over the last couple of years, especially the unregulated ones. “They are anything but silent. You can’t hear any music, but that doesn’t stop the participants from yelling, shouting and screaming as you would at a real disco. If you’re at a disco you’re in an enclosed space and under supervision. These people are prancing along pavements a metre wide. If you meet 40 of them pushing a shopping trolley up a hill it’s really serious. The council needs to figure out a way to control them.”
What do you think? Are the silent discos groovy and get your thumbs up or a menace to the Old Town? Let us know in the comments below!
A further 217 shows have been released this week, bringing the total to 466 for which you can now buy tickets for August 2019 performances.
The latest batch is representative of the Fringe – an eclectic mix covering everything from absurdist circus to folk music.
The ‘r’ section in particular contains some big names in British TV – Rhod Gilbert, the Reverend Richard Coles and Ruby Wax.
There are also thankfully many fringe first timers too. It is also good to see specific genres starting to get listed with 20 ‘new writing’ shows (America is Hard to See, Bacon, Black Dog, box. , Conspiracy, Fisherman’s Tail, The Good Scout, I Am, Liminality, Marrow, Me & My, Stoned, Stupid and Stuck, Tami Stone, The Things I Never Told You, This Thing is Here, Thunderstruck, Tokyo Rose, Ugly Youth and Up and Away) , 4 new ‘LGBT’ shows (John Pendal: Monster, Le Monocle, Marrow and Misfit Warrior), and in the year of Brexit (we think!) 2 new political shows (Andrew Maxwell : All Talk and Tom Ballard : Enough).
There is also a sense of relief that international acts are also starting to make their presence felt in the listings too, as many had feared the Brexit bourach had scared many potential acts off this year. So far there are performers coming to Edinburgh from 19 countries and as far away as Malawi, New Zealand and Australia.
It is sad to see. But even with just the first 250 shows released, we are already seeing performers make a big mistake when listing their shows which will cost them reviewers, ticket sales, and ultimately a return on their investment.
The Fringe is now so big that reviewers and Festival goers can’t read about every show, let alone see every one. So they make choices based on their own tastes and interests. The most common way people do this is to search for a type of show on the Fringe website or app. Here you can filter by ‘suitability’ (recommended age), date and time, venue, pricing, accessibility, and country of origin of the performer. These categories are largely out of your control once you have chosen your venue.
As important though is the ‘category’ and ‘genre’ sections. For category you have 10 options (Children’s shows, Dance/Physical Theatre and Circus, Exhibitions, Musicals and Opera, Theatre, Cabaret & Variety, Comedy, Events, Music, and Spoken Word). The ‘category’ can strongly influence how people perceive your show and determine which section of the printed Fringe guide you end up in, so choose wisely!
Our golden tip is to not stop with category and make sure you also choose genres too. Many performers omit to do this but are missing out big time on being found by their target audience.
After you have chosen ‘category’, ‘genre’ allows you to really classify in detail what your show is about. You can choose 2 classifications from a list of around 80 genres. So if you were to present a sow entitled ‘Drunken Shakespeare – MacBeth, Vodka and Coke’, you could choose ‘theatre’ as your category, and also ‘comedy’ and ‘historical’ as genres. The options are endless! But by choosing two you are doubling your chances of being listed if someone searches on the app or Fringe website.
This was brought home to me last year when I went to review a theatre play which considered a topical question on LGBT representation as leading men in theatre and film. Despite it being a Saturday performance and at a central venue, the audience numbered less than 10. Despite good reviews, the feedback was consistent across their 3 week run; ‘great performance, shame nobody was there to see it.’ I suspect there were other marketing problems, but key for me was that if you want to attract an LGBT audience, listing it as an LGBT production under ‘genre’ goes a long way to connecting with that audience!
Popular genres in my experience are ‘stand-up’, ‘sketch show’, ‘family’, ‘new writing’, ‘variety’, ‘musical theatre’ and ‘magic’. But if you are niche, have the confidence to label your show as such – ‘absurdist’ and ‘flamenco’ together might raise eyebrows but many people come to the Fringe to experience something different, so you might just intrigue people enough to persuade them into buying tickets.
Overall, getting your categorisation and genres right deserves careful consideration. Get it right and you will get visibility to your target audience. Get it wrong, and your target audience could simply miss your show completely!
At this year’s Fringe you could not have missed Hot Mess’s surreal poster featuring the comedy duo of Max Levine and Anna Piper in breakfast attire.
But who were this ‘Full English’ of comedy? Anna is a stand-up and actress originally from Birmingham, and was ‘highly commended’ by Funny Woman as part of their annual competition. Max is a writer and performer with credits including The Cambridge Footlights, and hails from Nottingham.
The two met as members of The Soho Theatre Young Company and developed a selection of comedy sketches which became the full ‘Bezzie Mates‘ show at this year’s Fringe. The fast paced show was all about Max and Anna’s intense friendship. The two even filmed themselves for a year to make sure they didn’t miss any good sketch ideas, which they then interwove into their show, including an astonishing story about Max’s Spanish teacher outing him at his year 9 parents evening!
We wanted to find out how Fringe 2018 worked out for the comedy duo, and what 2019 holds in store for them.
A. About Your Fringe 2018!
In three words, how was the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 experience for you?
Wild, non-stop, pies
What was your Fringe highlight?
We did a spot at ‘Spank!’ (a midnight cabaret at The Underbelly) that was totally bonkers. The audience were up for it, it was full of beautiful weirdos, and the whole thing ran over by an hour because everyone was having so much fun. Dream gig.
And your lowlight?
Anna : Max realising all he’d eaten in two days was a packet of McCoys and a KitKat.
We are interested to know your thoughts on flyering. Is it still an effective strategy? Did other marketing tools such as social media or positive reviews succeed more in getting bums on seats for your show?
We found that flyering worked when we could have a conversation with people, make a connection and sell the show. When we just tried to shift bits of paper it was less effective.
Tell us about your audiences this year? Was your typical audience member who you would have expected to come? Any surprise audience moments?
Our favourite audiences were weirdly always comprised of amateur sixth form theatre groups, specifically musicals. They just have so much optimism. We’re now pretty big in that scene.
What was the best show you saw at Fringe 18?
Max: I loved ‘Roisin and Chiara’
Anna: I loved ‘The Delightful Sausage’.
What tips do you have for first time performers at the Fringe?
We got told something super useful. Take a piece of paper and divide it into three. In the top third write what a perfect fringe would look like (huge profits, 5 star reviews, nominated for best show etc), then write the worst possible outcome (no one comes, you lose loads of money, no one wants to have sex with you). Then write something in the middle, a realistic set of goals. Finally, rip off the top third and bottom third and you have your Fringe Plan.
Also remember that people might not be having as nice a time as they make out on Twitter so try not to think too much about their 5 star reviews from ‘Edinburgh Sofa Retailer dot com’ – you’re doing good, just keep swimming.
What was your relationship like with the reviewers / media and what could be improved?
We never really nailed this to be honest. The people that did come came because it looked like their bag. No one we emailed more than once came. Not sure if the ‘thousands of regular emails’ approach work. You probably need to get publications interested throughout the year rather than just at fringe time. I think that’s our takeaway.
How has the Fringe helped your career?
We made lots of connections with producers and programmers. Now’s the job is following up on them all! Hopefully the impact will be some nicer gigs and some bigger opportunities to showcase our work on radio and TV. Fingers crossed.
B. A few questions to get to know you better
10. When you are not performing how do you like to unwind?
Max: Dystopian dramas. Margaret Atwood really puts things into perspective you know?
Anna: My seven cats. Some say seven is too many. To them I say, meow.
What is your favourite tipple?
Max: Red Wine!
Anna: Cider and black.
Edinburgh is famous for its Harry Potter landmarks. Which Harry Potter character are you most like?
Max: Molly Weasley, I admire her sense of ramshackle interior design and her strong marriage.
Anna: Hedwig. I’m most awake at night and I can rotate my neck 270 degrees.
What is your pet peeve when performing?
Slamming doors. IF YOU NEED A WEE THAT’S FINE BUT LET’S CLOSE THAT DOOR GENTLY SHALL WE?!
Would you ever go on stage naked?
That’s actually something they do at Spank! It’s called the naked promo. Someone gets naked and can promote anything they want for a minute. It’s kind of lovely when they do it because it’s for charity and everyone is on board. We’d be up for it but three rules: no cameras, good lighting and six months warning!
Where in Edinburgh is your favourite place to eat out, and where to dance the night away after?
Mother India. Oh my that Indian tapas is the one!
C. What next?
16. What have you done since the Fringe and what is the next big thing in your calendar?
We’ve been developing a radio sit-com and working on next year’s show! After all, venue applications open in December.
17. Will you be back to Edinburgh next year?
We hope to be. We’re working on something a bit different for 2019 which we came up with earlier this year. Early days, but we’re looking forward to our next Eddy.
And we at The EdinburghFringe.Com very much hope to see them back next August – full fry up on us guys!
Eamon and fellow comedian Anna Materowska brought their show ‘Humour Trafficking’ to the Free Fringe this year, with an 11 day run at Brewdog on Lothian Road. We hear from Eamon on the difficulties of marketing a free show, his future plans, and some sock advice for Fringe performers!
A. About Your Fringe 2018!
In three words, how was the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 experience for you?
Eye-opening, Exhausting, (too) Short.
What was your Fringe highlight?
A full-house on the wettest Sunday of the Fringe after standing flyering in the rain in Grassmarket for 2 hours.
And your lowlight?
Black Wednesday – in the crowd was another act who handed an audience member a flyer for their show while I was performing, they even laughed at the flyer!!
We are interested to know your thoughts on flyering. Is it still an effective strategy? Did other marketing tools such as social media or positive reviews succeed more in getting bums on seats for your show?
Flyering and rousing people from the pub we performed in were the most effective way of generating audiences and we had a great picture on the flyer that helped with that. We didn’t use the Fringe App due to the cost. Facebook and Twitter had minimal impact. We only ran for 11 performances so a review was probably unlikely.
Tell us about your audiences this year? Was your typical audience member who you would have expected to come? Any surprise audience moments?
Our venue had a capacity of about 40 and we averaged 22 per performance which we were pretty happy with. There was a real spread of ages and nationalities including one really confused Finnish couple who I don’t think understood a word we said. Favourite moment was when I shared with the room that an audience member had had sex on film as part of an art project (her mate dropped her in it).
What was the best show you saw at Fringe 18?
Jason Byrne.
What tips do you have for first time performers at the Fringe?
Extra socks on wet days, flyer shows prior to yours that are similar to yours, don’t get disheartened.
What was your relationship like with the reviewers / media and what could be improved?
Didn’t really have one, wasn’t sure how to get reviewers / media involved, maybe next year!
How has the Fringe helped your career?
Now started a regular Sunday night show in The Lamb and Flag, Covent Garden (London). The Fringe really helped in giving me the confidence to do this.
B. A few questions to get to know you better…
When you are not performing how do you like to unwind?
Cricket, films and darts.
What is your favourite tipple?
Guinness.
Edinburgh is famous for its Harry Potter landmarks. Which Harry Potter character are you most like?
I’m like Harry Potter (when he has let himself go a bit, well Voldemort’s dead and Ginny’s lost interest in, you know, “hide the wand”).
What is your pet peeve when performing? (e.g Mobiles, people taking photos..?)
Other performers talking at the back!
Would you ever go on stage naked?
Done it!
Where in Edinburgh is your favourite place to eat out, and where to dance the night away after?
Brewdog on Lothian Road.
C. What next?
16. What have you done since the Fringe and what is the next big thing in your calendar? Regular Sunday gig Mc-ing Laughs at the Lamb as well as regular paid gigs. I have just played the Stand Glasgow and will be hosting Stuart Goldsmith and his Comedians Comedian podcast at a comedy night in Welwyn.
