Optimal Time For Comedy
Occasionally you are able to get cheap comedy tickets in the Edinburgh Festival due to the fact that there are loads of buy-one-get-one-free deals happening. All this really means is that if you use a two-for-one deal, it sets you back the identical price to attend a performance as it would ordinarily, due to the fact that during the Festival all the ticket prices increase two times. I will go for stand up night at my local comedy place over that.
Most folk are of the opinion that the optimal time to enjoy stand up comedy in Edinburgh is during the Festival every year.
I'm one of those that disagree with this statement. Make the most of the Festival whenever you've got the opportunity, but see beyond it as well. Occasionally the warm-up performers somewhere else would be better.
A prime reason that folk give for attending the Fringe is that we can see the best known comedians, and have the opportunity to watch the next big things in comedy while they're still relatively unknown.
My personal experience begs to differ.
The most famous stand-ups' shows inevitably sell out in advance of the stage where you have actually found out they are happening, and as a result you're less likely to see them perform in relation to any other time of the year.
In addition the argument that you can get to witness the up and coming acts as they're discovered: in all honesty, I suppose it's conceivable, but you're more likely to watch someone who gives you 20 minutes of fairly comical material, and forty minutes of rubbish.
None the less, they had a terrific review due to the fact that the reviewer merely had time to stay for the first ten minutes.
Which are the explanations which folk provide to support their affirmation that the greatest chance to see standup in Edinburgh is in the Festival? One argument is the number of gigs that are on.
Rather than the normal few stand-up shows, there are loads during the Fringe.
But my argument is that quantity does not necessarily mean great material. In my time I have gone to scores of stand up comedy gigs at the Fringe, and a large proportion of them have been terrible. I've left a number of performances after being there for as much as 25 minutes without ever getting the urge to crack a smile, never mind guffaw. Simply due to the fact that a comedy gig is in the Festival doesn't necessarily mean it is likely to be entertaining. I attend many stand-up events all year round, and in my experience there are much fewer really dreadful performances being staged at other times of the year.