Tamar Broadbent’s  Fringe cringe, binge and whinge

Tamar Broadbent recalls her most embarrassing Edinburgh experience; what she can't get enough of at the festival; and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously...

Fringe cringe

When I tried to do a feminist joke at a ‘Yo Mamma’-themed show, and very quickly realised it was NOT my crowd

Fringe binge

What’s better than wearing a scarf in August?! Some people love going to beaches in the summer, not me. I love shivering in my sensible shoes under a ghostly bridge, watching flyers disintegrate in big fat puddles of water.

And the venues! I can’t get enough of a backstage area where plug sockets sit beneath drippy mildew and periodically spark! Cheap pyrotechnics! Of course, there’s the occasional threat of death - but it keeps you on your toes…

Like the mice in your ludicrously-expensive digs! I’ll take mice roommates, yes please thanks - instead of going on and on about genuine grievances like ‘artist exploitation’ and ‘a festival run by the bars’ those mice just get on with their lives, eating through bin bags and frightening drama school graduates. Troopers! They’re the real heroes of this fringe!

Fringe whinge

I’m so sick of having the best arts festival in the world here in the UK. Every time I perform there, I get this feeling of being at the ‘beating heart of culture’ and ‘amongst magic’ and I turn into someone who SAYS those things. It’s the worst. Doing the festival makes me happy and I was born on a Wednesday and am meant to be ‘full of woe,’ so it’s thrown off my whole image.

Edinburgh gets the ‘best audiences in the world,’ which is bit uncomfortable in 2022 because it makes other audiences feel inferior - they’re all comparing themselves to Edinburgh on Instagram and getting low self-esteem. Not cool, fringe!

Edinburgh is a place that makes you feel like you’re in the right place at the right time. It’s somewhere you can lose yourself, dream, applaud, have almost transformational experiences, or get to that point of laughter where you think your ribs might crack, and all the while you’ve got the backdrop of this beautiful mountain… and all these cute coffee shops and wicked bars…

It’s a bit much, if I’m honest. Think Edinburgh needs to calm down. CALM DOWN!

…Maybe I need to calm down.

Uh oh… Too late, I’m already doing two shows. VERY extra of me.

• Tamar Broadbent Presents… Stacey Solo, a comedy detective show  is on at Underbelly Cowgate at 12.50pm until the 14th, and her stand-up show, Role Play, is at The Three Sisters at 4pm until the 11th.

Published: 7 Aug 2022