Highland comedy trio (from left to right): Tom Cairns, Stephen Clark and Matt Black.
Heard the one about three Highland comedians sticking two fingers up to the famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Faced with costs akin to holidaying in Dubai, Monaco or the Cayman Islands, the Inverness Comedy Club trio are shunning the capital’s famous three-week arts showcase for Evanton, Lossiemouth and Aviemore – and other northerly spots.
Matt Black, Stephen Clark and Tom Cairns investigated the possibility of performing at the Fringe and found it no laughing matter.
With Edinburgh bursting at the scenes with performers, tourists and arts lovers, prices for even low end accommodation sky rocket.
Edinburgh Castle: The capital can be extremely expensive during the Edinburgh Fringe
A performer’s bill for food, board, the booking of venues and printing of promotional material during Edinburgh’s busiest time of the year can easily run into thousands of pounds.
The trio, along with five special guests, decided it made far more sense to take a special ‘On the Fringes of the Fringe’ tour to six smaller locations, also including Dornoch, Perth and Huntly.
The Fringes of the Fringe comedy tour poster.
Other dates could yet be added by the time the trio set off at the start of August.
Matt, a scaffolder by day and increasingly popular stand-up on the Scottish scene by night, explained why the Fringe was beyond the means of a great many ordinary working class performers.
Comedian Matt Black.
“Even at the best of times, for me to go and do a show at The Stand in Edinburgh, travelling there and back in a day, would cost me £100.
“That’s before you include the cost of taking a day off work.
“Some people at the Fringe are paying nearly £3,000 for the cost of the venue, flyers and posters, and then there’s travel, food and accommodation on top. It’s crazy – simply unaffordable for many of us.
“A few years ago, my fellow comedian Joe Sweeney did a show down there and he drove back and forth from the Highlands every day.
People can obviously pay a bit less if they are local, but while I would have liked to have gone to the fringe this year, I came up with the idea of just taking the fringe show around a few Highland towns during the time of the fringe.”
Costs can exclude audience members, too, so Matt hopes the comedy tour will bring something new and different to those places.
Tom Cairns
“When you say to someone you do stand-up, people often ask ‘oh, have you done the fringe?’
“They like what they hear about the Fringe but have maybe never been, so we’re aiming to take a bit of that to them.”
Stephen Clark
Guests on the tour will include Highland talents Rude and Good (Rab Mulheron & Joe Sweeney), Hazel Urquhart, Adam McLeod, Iain Duncan and Michael Herd.
Matt has been instrumental in starting up Inverness Comedy Club, initially at the Market Bar and more recently at Tooth and Claw, with shows every month or two.
The next will be on August 29, with the Glasgow comedian Al Thompson joining the fun.
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