Richard Stott on the highs and lows of the Edinburgh Fringe

Richard Stott is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with Dear Lord… What A Sad Little Life, on at Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire at 8.45pm nightly. Here he shares what he can't get enough of at the festival, his most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously…

Edinburgh binge

I’d love to be the kind of wholesome person who could genuinely say ‘getting up Arthur’s Seat, away from the hustle and bustle, taking a trip to Leith and enjoying the beach’ but let’s face it that’s who I aspire to be one day, not who I am. 

In reality this is it: last year the Loft Bar at the Gilded Balloon had these giant bean bags on the terrace. I’d go there after my show and unwind on with a pint and a cigarette sometimes for hours, I wasn’t the only one either. There was a group of regular bean bags using comedians who were doing the same. We formed a sort of alliance where we’d chat through how things were going, run off to a gig and come back. 

People didn’t even need to ask where I was, they’d just come to the bean bags and if I wasn’t there another bean bag comedian would tell them where I’d gone.

Edinburgh cringe

Maybe I’m either lucky or lacking in self awareness because I can’t think of a lot… but here’s one: back in 2015 I used to manage a certain university theatre bar in a city that ends in the word ‘bridge’. 

I wasn’t a student there, I just lived and worked in the city briefly. Anyway, back in 2019 I was in a bar at the fringe that’s frequented by a lot of that university's alumni. I caught eyes with someone I recognised as one of the students I used to serve, he waved and I went over to say something like, ‘Hi fancy seeing you here!’

But before I could, he said ‘Hi could we get another two glasses for our table’. He’d gone right ahead and assumed I was working there… an insane assumption to make considering this was years later and we were in an entirely different city. I actually decided to get two glasses from the bar, placed them down on his table along with the flyer to my show which was by then adorned by some stars from some good reviews and walked off… he probably didn’t even look at it and used it to mop up some spilt beer.

Edinburgh whinge

Flyering. For many reasons but mostly because I’m so bad at it. If you observe me flyering what you’ll see is a broken man… approaching people with the forced smile of a waiter 11 hours into a shift at a restaurant then skulking off to a corner for a few minutes to recharge and do it all again. 

I know for some people it really works but I just hate the idea of having an audience that’s been persuaded in. I also think my work can be a hard sell, my shows are far from downbeat but to put the themes into a 30-second pitch it really can sound like I’m inviting people to a cult where we inevitably drink Kool-Aid… It’s just not what the hen parties want 

My show this year however has stepped away from my previous work, it’s more light and conversational in style so perhaps I’ll have more success with it..

Published: 10 Aug 2023