FESTIVAL STATISTICS
Acts & Figures It’s almost at a close, so it’s time to cast an analytical eye back over the Festival. Here are the hits and misses, celebrity appearances, unexpected highlights and overarching trends that made August 2010 unique
FESTIVAL 2010 BY NUMBERS
2 Shows featuring a real dog (Montezuma in the International
Festival, and Piff the Magic Dragon: Piff- tacular 2 – Get Rich or Die Trying on the Fringe).
10 2010 Man Booker Prize longlisted authors booked to appear at the
Book Festival (from a total of 13).
16 The average age of the performers in School of Comedy at Pleasance
Courtyard.
17 Productions or adaptations of Shakespeare plays on the Fringe.
23 Musical steps to climb in Martin Creed’s Down Over Up exhibition
at the Fruitmarket Gallery.
29.99 Rumoured price in pounds paid for Richard
Hammond’s underpants, as detailed in Ant Dewson’s show, I Bought Richard Hammond’s Underpants on eBay, at Just the Tonic @ The Caves.
40 Cast and crew members in Reel- To-Real, marketed as the biggest
show on the Fringe.
77 Age of stand-up comic Lynn Ruth Miller, star of Granny’s
Gone Wild at Laughing Horse @ Espionage.
79 Separate characters played by one person, Joe Bone, across his
two Fringe shows, Bane and Bane 2.
259 Separate Fringe venues in 2010.
300 Musicians and singers due to be on stage for the EIF’s biggest show, Mahler’s Symphony No 8, on Sat 4 Sep.
478 Miles cycled by Circus Trick Tease performer Mr Plonk to
get to Edinburgh this year, setting off from London’s South Bank.
2,453 Total number of shows on the 2010 Festival
Fringe.
100,000 Approximate number of
fireworks that will be set off at the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert on Sun 5 Sep.
HOW WE SPENT OUR TIME IN AUGUST
■ Sleeping ■ Drinking
■ Eating falafel wraps
10% 19%
5%
■ Avoiding flyerers 15.99%
■ Reading flyers
■ Watching shows ■ Having to walk incredibly slowly behind wide-eyed American tourists
■ Debating whether Jim Jefferies is funny, offensive, both or neither ■ Waiting hopefully in the returns queue outside sold-out Traverse shows
■ Watching the YouTube back-catalogue of Bo Burnham
0.01% 25%
18%
2% 4%
1%
2% 4% 1%
18% 25%
10%
19% 5%
15.99%
0.01%
PAPPY’S FESTIVAL TRENDS Taking a break from their usual sketch silliness, comedy threesome Pappy’s have turned their minds to analysing the Edinburgh trends of 2010. This year Roads, Twitter and other sketch troupes have caught their attention
TOM PARRY: Roads
I’ve noticed that there’s a great many perilous road crossings this year; perhaps more than usual. That one on the corner of North Bridge and Princes Street, you know that one? It’s a free for all, it really is. And what about at the bottom of the hill where the Pleasance meets Holyrood Road? There’s an erratic traffic light system at work if ever I saw one. And don’t get me started on the fact that there’s no pedestrian crossing directly outside the Pleasance Courtyard. I mean, think about it, you’ve just seen a great show and you’ve been handed a flyer that is not only the original flyer but also has a separate new bit of flyer stapled to it with all stars and reviews on. Of course you’re going to want to look at it. Or you’ll be tweeting about the LOLs you’ve just had in the show. Then suddenly, whammo, you’re straight into a road. I know there are lots of other exciting things going on in
Edinburgh this year, but it’s still the little things in life, such as the ritual of stopping, looking both ways and listening before we cross the road, that remain the most important.
BEN CLARK: Sketch Comedy I’d say there are a lot more sketch shows at this year’s Festival than in previous years. They also seem to be of a higher quality (certainly from the ones I’ve seen). Comedy in general is very popular at the moment, and more and more stand-ups are getting TV exposure, so it’s nice to see that in places like Edinburgh sketch comedy is not getting overlooked.
@MATTHEWCROSBY: Twitter
Of course Twitter was around during last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, but it was yet to reach its tipping point. Now, the uses for Twitter have evolved; no longer is it simply a medium by which millions of people can tell tens of people that they’ve just had a hot chocolate. It’s used in business and commerce, as a news aggregator, as a form of entertainment or as a social networking site for socially notworking people. As for uses in the Fringe, Twitter provides a direct link between audience and performer. This obviously can be both a wonderful and utterly depressing thing. It’s great to come offstage to a flurry of tweets from gushing nerds (even though, from that sentence it might not sound like it), but equally, it’s infuriating that an audience member can send you a direct message to inform you how shit they thought you were. As if their lack of laughter wasn’t enough, they have to fire a 140 character smackdown after the event.
■ Pappy’s: All Business, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 7.20pm, £12–£14 (£10.50–£12.50).
12 THE LIST 26 Aug–9 Sep 2010