Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe has been helping to answer the most important question at Fringe, ‘Have you seen anything good?’, for three decades.
Returning once more with his legendary showcases, Mervyn will also hold a special charity gala to celebrate a phenomenal 30 years at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Edinburgh Fringe can be a daunting place; an overwhelming smorgasbord of productions. Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe cuts through the noise to help audiences find the perfect shows for them.
Every day Mervyn and his team of arts professionals scour the festival to identify seven shows to invite to stage a five-minute ‘taster’ and to speak with Mervyn – and his trademark pink suit – about the performance and performers. T
he unique daily showcase covers all genres of performance, from comedy, theatre and cabaret to music, dance and circus – and everything in between!
More information can be found here
You’re returning to Edinburgh Fringe for the thirtieth year, what have you got in store for audiences?
This year is the 30th anniversary of my daily lunchtime showcase Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe. So once again, more amazing shows will be discovered by my review team and the best ones invited on the showcase. This is an essential guarantee. If this idea was going to work, the audiences needed to trust me and trust my showcase.
Every day audiences can expect to see highlights from seven quality shows in 90 minutes. Everyday a comprehensive selection from all over the Fringe, theatre, comedy, dance, music, cabaret, circus – the lot. And every day there is a different selection of shows to check out. So many people come along more than once.
I started all this back in 1992 and basic recipe has not changed. And so the format for all the guest acts would be – I’d introduce them – they do five minutes of their work – a short interview with me to add any details and information to further excite the crowd to come. As the audience leave they get flyers with booking details for each of the shows that day.
So the structure is solid and secure but every day and every festival it’s the fabulous acts that we find that make the whole 90 minutes so exciting.
What is it about the Fringe that keeps you coming back?
The simple answer is that I enjoy the whole thing. The atmosphere, the people, the audience regulars, old Fringe friends, new shows, everything really. Before Pick of the Fringe in 1992, I had done 5 years of solo comedy and song shows. (So this is really my 35th year!)
Could I have carried on every year with that sort of show? Maybe. But once people starting asking me “Have you seen anything good?’ I took the chance and changed direction and hosted a showcase with a clear structure but which also allowed me to be totally spontaneous with the audience and the acts.
The joy of basically winging it for 90 minutes is a real buzz. The performers are comfortable with that because they know I will always make them the star of the show. It’s my job to make them feel comfortable and to feel great. Never forget it’s a strange and new venue for them.
So on a personal level, it’s the joy of discovering somebody or something new and helping them build an audience. If an act can grow their audience then they will also grow the around town “word of mouth”. The greatest PR tool at the Fringe is people talking about their favourite show in queues and cafes.
And why do you think shows like Pick of The Fringe are important in supporting the artists who come to Edinburgh every year?
May I start by saying that there aren’t any shows like Pick of the Fringe. There are line up show of comedians and bands but no one else provides a safe, calm well-resourced space for shows that cannot gig around town. Theatre, dance, opera, spoken word, classical music – all have a huge presence on the Fringe and so often the media only ever focussing on comedy. Probably because comedians are the only performers to make it to TV (the sole ambition of many Fringe comedians these days) and so are likely to be known to the social media audience.
It’s really tough to bring a show to the Edinburgh Fringe. The costs alone can be awful. Accommodation is the biggest problem for the festival. Edinburgh landlords charge absurd rents, so absurd that many performers are not bothering with the Fringe this year. As a result of ever increasing costs, visiting shows must also increase ticket prices to help their budgets. Money is also a big issue for audiences too.
Time and again performers tell me that after appearing on the showcase their audience numbers increased dramatically and sustained for the rest of their run. To perform new work to a sizeable audience every night, not only helps a company to test their material night after night but also helps the budget too! Often, they will also be building an audience for when touring after the Fringe.
I must also mention that my last show is always my Spirit of the Fringe Awards show. These awards can also change the course of an artist’s life. One writer told me that my award opened up festival invitations from around the world and he is now a well-known and established playwright.
How has Edinburgh Fringe evolved over the years you’ve been going?
In many ways it’s simply lost its “Fringiness”. Year by year performers have got more professional and organised. The bigger the Fringe got – and it’s now around 3500 shows – the harder it is to emerge and get “bums on seats”. (My Pick of the Fringe of course helps enormously with that)
In the old days acts would happily work their show up to speed in the opening nights. These days shows must hit the ground running. Acts must arrive fully prepared. The Fringe is still a great 4 week run to grow your show with nightly audience feedback, but you absolutely have to start like it’s a traditional opening night.
It isn’t just the growth in number of shows on the Fringe. Technology has changed the Fringe massively.
- Internet booking during the summer resulting in audiences with daily pre booked shows. This leaves less and less room for old fashioned Fringe spontaneity.
- Email communications are often insisted on rather than just phoning up people.
- Although flyering still works there has been a huge advance in social media advertising and promotion. The need for this has increased with audiences not wanting paper flyers for eco reasons.
- And of course the essential ubiquitous mobile phone – valuable for everything including those phones calls and emails!
For us the mobile phone has changed how we work as a team. We used to run the whole enterprise using landline phones. Queueing outside a busy phone box in the Edinburgh rain, clutching a fistful of 10p pieces, desperate to phone in the news, up-dates, crises, to the kitchen of the flat – or the office as we liked to call it.
The ease of mobile calls was then usurped by the invaluable team WhatsApp group. For us this is a 24/7 notice board of progress and problems from my team scattered all over the Festival.
What do you think is your fondest memory of being at Edinburgh Fringe?
There are so many wonderful memories in a 35-year run but the fondest? Well, it has to be Moira bringing onto the PotF stage our six-week-old baby son Alfie. His first ever Fringe – and the ungrateful chap doesn’t even remember it. Kids eh!!
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Pick of the Fringe, or your charity gala?
I’d say in a world of tight budgets, if you want to find some kind of guarantee of value for money then – like in the cinema – why not see some ‘trailers’ first. We’re there for you every day from 12.40-2.10pm in Pleasance One!
You will see seven very different pieces of Fringe work from all over the festival – and you may be surprised at what actually excites you. I had one man say to me “I only really like comedy, but I went to that theatre show you had on yesterday and it was brilliant” I mean, how wonderful is that!!
Many people come back day after day as I always have a different seven shows each and every day. They find the service I provide invaluable when looking for the guaranteed best shows – and not just the occasional Fringe favourite but the new and exciting acts. Often they are on their first Fringe and needing some good publicity – not just because it’s their first time but because they are really talented. That’s why I have a review team to guarantee quality each day.
The Charity Gala this year is to celebrate my 30 years of Pick of the Fringe will be a 1hr 45 mins extravaganza of top talent who I have met over my 30 years with a sprinkling of new discoveries from this year’s festival.
All proceeds will go to Imibala Trust charity Cape Town. My wife Moira who produced the first shows from 1992 is a trustee and so it made sense to choose Imibala.
For those reading this who have been to my 20th and 25th Galas where the proceeds also went to Imibala – the hot news is that that a small troupe of those township kids who benefited from that money are bringing their own show to the Counting House and will open the Gala show for us. For me on a personal level this is an emotionally satisfying trilogy.
So you see, just like my 30 years of Pick of the Fringe, one never knows how things will grow and evolve.
Have a great Fringe and I do hope I’ll see you one day at Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe.
