What's your enduring memory from the first Fringe you ever went to? | Comedians share their Edinburgh experiences

What's your enduring memory from the first Fringe you ever went to?

Comedians share their Edinburgh experiences

Lots of cuddles as I navigated the crowds along Cowgate. Such friendly people
Sandra Hale, Self Helpless!, The Caves, 13:20

Being spat on accidentally on the way for my first gig of the Fringe.
Ashley Haden: We are STILL all C*nts, Southside Social, 22:00

Watching Eddie Izzard at the Counting House in 1992 and realising that the bar could be very high indeed. After this gig, I deliberately took in some less funny shows or else I might never have taken the plunge myself
Dominic Holland Eclipsed, Voodoo Rooms, 16:40

A street performer paid for my performance with whip lessons and a beer.
John Hastings, Audacity, Pleasance Courtyard, 21:15

One of my fellow comics taking so much MDMA that he threw a can from our window at a McDonald's a good two miles away screaming ‘fuck capitalism' then he cried in a wardrobe. It was beautiful.

Danny O'Brien: RaconTour, Underbelly Cowgate, 22:20

I was a little girl. I'd never seen my mum [Janey Godley] perform before. She was a new comedian doing a gig at the Spiegeltent. This woman got up and she had a fishbowl on her head and she started singing: ‘I’ve got a fishbowl on my head’. I shouted: ‘Mrs, I think your fish is dead.’ Everyone laughed (except the woman with the fishbowl and my mum) and I thought, 'this is easy’
Ashley Storrie: Morning Glory, Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 15:30.

My first Fringe was in 1995, I was 18 and in a student theatre company doing a play called The Beast of Penprivvy in what is now the Pleasance Dome. Chesney Hawks came to see our play, so we repaid him by going to see his. It was a musical, in a church hall out of town and it was pretty bad. We hid from him afterwards so we didn't have to pretend to like it to his face.
Angela Barnes: Fortitude, Pleasance Courtyard, 19:15

Forgetting to put the date and time of my show on my 5,000 flyers and having to write it on by hand with a Sharpie.
Rich Wilson-Metamorphosis, Opium, 14:30

I’ve been going to the fringe since I was born as my dad [comedian and Red Dwarf star Norman Lovett] would always be doing it. When I was really little I thought that comedians were the most annoying, boring people ever. I remember me and my sister heckling my dad at his show when we were about six and four. He went: ‘You think you can do better? Go on then' and we both got up and stormed it. Never work with kids, especially not your own.
Lily Lovett Lovett Lovett, I'm Lovin' It Like That, Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 20:00

I saw Stewart Lee describe vomitting into Jesus's mouth for most of his show and it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen live.
Chris Martin, Laughing Horse @ The Pear Tree, 14:45

Stumbling upon an 18-year-old Jack Whitehall doing five minutes in a basement bar.
James Bone: Townies Laughing Horse @ Espionage,22:00

I was about six years old and I begged my Dad to stop and watch every single street performer, because I thought they were all geniuses before I realised they were all just pulling the same tired old tricks. I had a similar realisation with stand-up some years later.
Joe Sutherland: Model/Actress, Pleasance Courtyard, 22:45

Paul Sinha's snoring.
Markus Birdman's Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea, Laughing Horse @ Bar50, 15:30

A lady throwing up in someone else's handbag during one of my 1.30am shows
Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows, Assembly George Square Gardens, 21:00

Sharing a venue with a burlesque group who were all super-hot, semi-naked girls wearing horse masks. Strange dreams that year.
Ben Van Der Velde: Sidekick, Laughing Horse @ Espionage, 20:45

Watching a topless heckler drink a pint of their own piss in front of 150 people
Damien Slash: Demographic, Just The Tonic @ The Caves, 21:20

Published: 2 Aug 2017

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