Karen Koren - You Should've Been Here Last Week

[00:00:00] [MUSIC]

[00:00:10] Edinborough, Scotland's capital.

[00:00:16] It has a Parliament, it has a Palace,

[00:00:38] which, like the city, will be lovely when it's finished.

[00:00:42] It has a castle.

[00:00:45] And a real castle.

[00:00:47] It has a beach, it has a mountain,

[00:00:50] Arfa's seat.

[00:00:51] In the 20 occasions that I've come to this city,

[00:00:54] every time I make it a point, not to climb Arfa's seat.

[00:00:58] But this year was no different.

[00:01:02] And if you do make it to the top, it offers a fantastic view

[00:01:05] of the most expensive short-term accommodation in the UK.

[00:01:10] But most of all, Edinborough is a fliring festival.

[00:01:14] See, an obvious Edinburgh problem,

[00:01:18] a wet seat after a rain shower.

[00:01:22] How can you solve it quite easy?

[00:01:25] Take some flyers.

[00:01:27] [MUSIC]

[00:01:31] All them sorted.

[00:01:33] The Fringe is at the end of the comedy year,

[00:01:36] where comics come to get examined and graded out of five stars.

[00:01:41] Anything could be a show, Edinborough.

[00:01:43] And anyone can be and will be judged.

[00:01:48] Hello, and welcome to You Should've Been Here last week.

[00:01:51] The podcast by myself and fellow Korean poor,

[00:01:54] which is in which we interviewed the movers, the shakers,

[00:01:57] and the promoters and comedy business people

[00:02:02] behind all the shows and asked them for their point of view.

[00:02:06] Now, this week, we're interviewing one of the most established

[00:02:11] comedy promoters in Scotland, and also,

[00:02:15] the Dorianne of Edinburgh promoters,

[00:02:17] the woman behind the Gilded Balloon Comedy Club,

[00:02:20] and the one and only Karen.

[00:02:23] And in this interview, we cover such topics as,

[00:02:27] why is it so expensive to live at the Edinburgh Festival?

[00:02:31] What's the future of Scottish comedy and the Fringe in general?

[00:02:35] And, you know, what was it like in the bad old days of 1992?

[00:02:42] You know that sort of stuff, I don't, but...

[00:02:44] [LAUGHTER]

[00:02:46] I'm willing to hear it, willing to learn.

[00:02:49] Yes, so here she is, Karen Korem.

[00:02:52] Our guest today on the podcast, you shouldn't be here last week,

[00:02:54] is Karen Korem, one of the Emeralds Grees of the Edinburgh Festival,

[00:03:00] and one of the major promoters, I think, in the whole for the country.

[00:03:05] First of all, Karen, welcome to the podcast.

[00:03:08] We sort of start by asking every guest,

[00:03:10] and it's a quite a philosophical question.

[00:03:12] Why did you get into promoting comedy?

[00:03:16] Oh, my God, you want my bloody story?

[00:03:19] Yes. [LAUGHTER]

[00:03:24] Yes, well, let's start.

[00:03:26] No, I principally did it by accident because I wanted to have a laugh.

[00:03:32] I'd had quite a hard life in comparison to many people,

[00:03:38] but, you know, I hadn't found anything that I wanted to do.

[00:03:42] You know, I brought up a son on my own.

[00:03:46] And, you know, so most of the work I did was to bring him up.

[00:03:51] So I wanted to find something that I wanted to do,

[00:03:54] and I had friends who were involved in this new alternative comedy

[00:04:03] malarkey in the beginning of the '80s.

[00:04:05] And they were great.

[00:04:07] And they used to say to me, well, we need somewhere to perform in Edinburgh

[00:04:11] because, you know, at the Edinburgh Festival,

[00:04:13] because there's nowhere that, you know, there's not enough venues

[00:04:16] and bloody blocks in those days.

[00:04:18] And so I opened a venue, and that started, I mean, you know,

[00:04:25] it's obviously a lot more complicated than that.

[00:04:27] But at first, I did it part-time when I was still working

[00:04:30] at the Norwegian Consulate General.

[00:04:33] [LAUGHTER]

[00:04:35] That's a crack in the job here, isn't it?

[00:04:38] [LAUGHTER]

[00:04:40] I was, I would say to the Norwegian Consulate General.

[00:04:44] And it was a great job, but had no future, et cetera.

[00:04:49] And, you know, it was fine while I was bringing my son up.

[00:04:53] But, you know, I needed something for myself,

[00:04:55] and they persuaded me.

[00:04:57] And it started as a hobby, and I was just having a laugh

[00:05:00] and enjoying it in the first year or two.

[00:05:04] But then it became quite serious.

[00:05:06] And I started, I think, called Late in Live, which was the only

[00:05:11] late night venue at the festival where comics could come

[00:05:16] and relax and perform.

[00:05:19] And it would start, well, in those days,

[00:05:21] it was from midnight till 4.

[00:05:23] And then it developed into 1 till 5 in the morning.

[00:05:26] So it became a real, you know, a rite of passage

[00:05:31] for a comic to go through.

[00:05:32] I think you did it a few times.

[00:05:34] I did it many times.

[00:05:35] I actually did it with some amazing...

[00:05:37] You know what, the best lights I ever saw there was Jonny Vegas.

[00:05:41] And I think you were there where he was in the audience.

[00:05:44] Guy was in the audience.

[00:05:44] He said, "I love your shirt!"

[00:05:47] And the guy had to have a frilly shirt on.

[00:05:49] And now a big Jonny Vegas is, "Let's swap shirts!"

[00:05:52] And the guy said, "No, no, no.

[00:05:53] "You know what, the audience is like that?

[00:05:55] "Swap shirts, swap shirts!"

[00:05:57] So they swapped shirts.

[00:05:58] Jonny Vegas puts the shirt on.

[00:06:00] It doesn't fit him.

[00:06:01] Barely put it to the house.

[00:06:02] He goes, "I love this shirt!"

[00:06:04] And the buttons came off.

[00:06:05] And it turns out the shirt was about 200 quid.

[00:06:10] Oh, no.

[00:06:11] I think I was going mad.

[00:06:13] No, Jonny Vegas gave him the money.

[00:06:15] He gave him the money.

[00:06:16] I said, "I'm sorry about that."

[00:06:18] He got the money out of his pocket and gave it.

[00:06:20] It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[00:06:23] One of the things I loved about late in life was just studies.

[00:06:26] I mean, I can't remember that story.

[00:06:28] I probably was there.

[00:06:29] I mean, it's one of the things that I loved

[00:06:32] was just seeing things that you wouldn't see anywhere else.

[00:06:35] I mean, now there's so many late-night shows

[00:06:38] and all that kind of thing.

[00:06:40] But then it was really, really the first.

[00:06:43] And that's what started it all.

[00:06:46] I mean, it was...

[00:06:48] I think it was '87 I started late in life.

[00:06:51] And the standups were very male oriented and et cetera.

[00:06:59] And the aggression of the sort of late in life was...

[00:07:05] world renowned, but I wanted to try and support women,

[00:07:08] and I'm so glad that women have come through now.

[00:07:12] But it's taken a long time.

[00:07:13] I mean, in those days, it was maybe about a handful.

[00:07:17] You know, Joe Pandan, well, Jenny, Claire was probably around.

[00:07:21] But you know, Donovan Phil.

[00:07:25] Yeah.

[00:07:26] Well, I'm so thankful for being a handful and now...

[00:07:31] And the women also ended up having to work against the men

[00:07:36] and be as aggressive as the men.

[00:07:38] And now they've come into their own

[00:07:40] and they are themselves, you know, which is great.

[00:07:44] So you'll understand that my side of comedy

[00:07:47] is pushing the performer and caring about the performer.

[00:07:50] It's not about the money, otherwise.

[00:07:52] Yes.

[00:07:53] Yeah.

[00:07:54] And it's one of us is in it for the money, are we?

[00:07:56] Well, I do a lot of people that are in it for the money.

[00:07:59] I mean, there's any, many agents that have made

[00:08:03] their companies great through the Edinburgh Festival.

[00:08:09] That's true. I've got a big list of it.

[00:08:10] No, sorry.

[00:08:12] I'm not going to say that he knows.

[00:08:14] I mean, so go on to the practicalities of it.

[00:08:16] I mean, I know that you sort of said why you did it

[00:08:20] and how you went to about it.

[00:08:21] I mean, have you got any tips for people

[00:08:24] or for fellow promoters or people

[00:08:25] just thinking of starting out on that road?

[00:08:27] What are the do's and the don'ts?

[00:08:30] Yeah, I suppose I was just going to say

[00:08:32] the other thing that I did in '88 was I started

[00:08:35] So You Think Funny, which is a stand-up comedy competition.

[00:08:39] And it's still going after all these years.

[00:08:43] And the number and that competition

[00:08:46] gives new comedians because they've only been working

[00:08:49] for a year, give them that little leg up

[00:08:52] and that little confidence, you know.

[00:08:54] So we're very proud that it's managed to go for so long.

[00:09:01] I'm on the sixth heat today.

[00:09:06] No, the fifth. Oh my God.

[00:09:08] And we've got another two tonight and the next night

[00:09:11] and then the big final week on Thursday.

[00:09:14] So that's great.

[00:09:16] I mean, so far as...

[00:09:18] So what I have to do is with the judges,

[00:09:21] we have to go and speak to all the contestants

[00:09:24] after they've done their to try and advise them

[00:09:27] about how their performance went

[00:09:31] and what their future is.

[00:09:33] But, you know, because as far as stand-ups concerned,

[00:09:36] there's more than ever.

[00:09:38] We had over 500 applications this year.

[00:09:41] Wow, more than ever.

[00:09:43] So there is definitely an industry,

[00:09:46] you know, a future, going forward.

[00:09:50] But for them, it's about keeping on gigging

[00:09:53] and keeping on working and keeping on writing

[00:09:55] and being different, you know.

[00:09:57] As far as promoting is concerned, it's hard.

[00:10:01] I mean, now with social media, for example,

[00:10:03] TikTok has taken over and all these performers

[00:10:06] think they're going to be huge.

[00:10:07] Well, they are huge stars through TikTok,

[00:10:09] but all they've got is about five minutes of material

[00:10:13] and for them to go from that to the stage.

[00:10:15] You know, if you are friends with the TikTok

[00:10:20] and sensation, if you like,

[00:10:23] you can try promoting them and see how you get on.

[00:10:27] I think it's the same as the early days.

[00:10:32] I mean, the performer has got to be good

[00:10:34] and people have got to want to come and see them.

[00:10:37] So it's about where you promote,

[00:10:40] you know, that you go to a venue that actually attracts audiences.

[00:10:46] You know, if you go to a little village theatre,

[00:10:50] you know, it's not always that you can do it.

[00:10:53] But I mean, we have had all year round venues.

[00:10:57] I mean, we lost our small venue during COVID.

[00:11:00] So now we're going to,

[00:11:03] Students Who Wrote Do You Think – We Did June Again Mainly During the Year. It's great actually because the venues round Scotland, there's a huge appetite for people coming out. I've forgotten your question, you want me to give you tips. >> I'll just go to another question. What do you think, what your view on where comedy is going? You've already slightly touched on it with the Tik Tok thing. It just strikes me both.

[00:11:31] You said about them only having like two or three minutes on Tik Tok. It's that kind of thing that

[00:11:39] used to happen in the old days where someone was funny in a pub and all their mates would

[00:11:43] go, "You're really funny, you are. You should go on to it." And then of course, the leap

[00:11:47] from that and then you'd see where people had the metal to do it. And then you'd see

[00:11:52] people just went, "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's not funny." And there are instances of

[00:11:58] Tik Toky people being confronted with their eye board. It's a bit out of their comfort zone.

[00:12:05] >> Well, that's the whole thing. Saw you think, you're funny, for example. The people

[00:12:09] that go in for that is people that their mom and dad's in their best part have said,

[00:12:15] "Yeah, exactly what you're saying. You're really funny. You should go on stage." But

[00:12:20] without the best people that go into are people that are already talking to like teachers or

[00:12:29] doctors or lawyers. But if you're advice from your mom and dad, and friends is not always

[00:12:38] the right advice for going on stage. And our criteria for comedians is originality, "Well,

[00:12:46] be funny and be funny right away." And students are all well and good. So many people talk

[00:12:54] about their mental health and everything these days. And we've all had, in the past,

[00:13:03] it's the subjects they talk about that, and you hear so many comedians talking about the

[00:13:10] same subjects. And it's about originality and being different.

[00:13:13] >> That's very true. Anyone can be a promoter. Anyone. But they have to believe in the person

[00:13:22] they're promoting and encourage them and go to the right places. I don't understand TikTok.

[00:13:33] I don't even know what to press to see it.

[00:13:36] >> Unfortunately, I have to.

[00:13:38] >> Yeah. Everyone's doing it.

[00:13:42] >> It's got Scottish performer called Paul Black. And I think it was about four years

[00:13:49] ago. It was during COVID, or just towards the end of COVID. We could only do outdoor

[00:13:55] theater. And we did an outdoor theater during the festival. And he was a TikTok sensation.

[00:14:01] And literally, he had not gone on stage before. And he sold out within minutes. And we put

[00:14:08] out.

[00:14:09] And he did great because I was talking to him last night because we've put him on for seven

[00:14:15] nights at the Guild of Bloon. And he said that that time was the first time he'd gone

[00:14:21] on stage. And I watched his show last night. And it was really good. So obviously, there

[00:14:26] are people, but he kind of TikTok was not just one, they do loads and loads and loads

[00:14:34] of them. And he's a writer and he's got a stand up, but he's getting to be a stand

[00:14:40] up.

[00:14:41] >> Yeah.

[00:14:42] >> I mean, I was impressed. But it's like people going into Love Island or doing reality

[00:14:49] TV. They're not all going to win. It's all going to be stars. But that wanting fame is

[00:14:58] not dying at all, is it?

[00:15:00] >> No, but it's wanting a certain type. It's wanting any type of fame. I mean, I always

[00:15:06] get a bit too fast when people say that I want to be a television presenter just first

[00:15:12] and foremost. I thought, well, don't you actually love what are you doing? And for certain people,

[00:15:17] it's a means to an end, which is quite sad. I think you've got to love it. And I still

[00:15:23] get as much pleasure from doing it and watching it. Every show that I go to, I get there early

[00:15:28] so I can see the rest of the people on the bill, because I still love comedy. And it's

[00:15:33] the best art form in the world, I think.

[00:15:35] >> That is absolutely brilliant. And you don't get bored with them all talking about

[00:15:39] the same subjects.

[00:15:40] >> [LAUGH]

[00:15:41] >> Well, that is that. I'll tell you, that is an art form in itself, is curating a stand

[00:15:48] up show, called Curating My Daughter, Katie is now my partner in the business. And she,

[00:15:56] of course, knows all the younger ones. And I only know the old ones. But I still do all

[00:16:04] the programming, but as far as teaching, like late in life, she does late in life, and she

[00:16:10] did a brilliant thing. Because as I said, it used to be one, two, five, and it was late,

[00:16:16] and it was live. So it was comedy for about two hours, and then it was a live band. And

[00:16:22] that's how we did it. But now, times of change and Katie would say to me, people, they're

[00:16:27] too busy on their phones or they're drunk. They can't sustain that listening or watching

[00:16:34] comedy at that late at night. So she moved it till half past 11, which I was upset about.

[00:16:41] But, you know, I said okay, and she made all the Covenpiers women. And I thought that has

[00:16:48] changed that we are full every night just now. Men are there. It's not I'm not a woman

[00:16:56] or a great, you know, but but the Medicare, the women compare the, you know, they, they

[00:17:03] fool around a bit and everything. But the aggression isn't as there, you know, they're

[00:17:07] not as I mean, yes, they get heckled as well. But they have, they make a much nicer atmosphere

[00:17:14] in the room. And the day of the 90s and, you know, Ross Noble and, and, you know, this

[00:17:24] is what happens to me. I can't remember any of them. Oh, I do remember you all. But it's

[00:17:29] in my head. It's all right. We're the same. But you've already answered that question.

[00:17:36] And I mean, I think that, you know, given the social media thing is probably going to

[00:17:40] be the future. But also I don't think, you know, we talked about the Johnny Vegas moments.

[00:17:45] Live, live comedy will never die. I don't think. Oh, no, absolutely. I completely agree

[00:17:50] with you. And like performance in any art form, what, what upsets me about what's going

[00:17:58] on just now is that I mean, I sit up in the balcony and watch people going in and sitting

[00:18:05] and watching comedy and half of them look at their phones halfway through, or, or, you

[00:18:10] know, they, they cannot put the phones away. And I want people to just be, if you go to

[00:18:18] a comedy show and you forget about the time and it just goes like that, you know, it is

[00:18:24] that's what it's about. And it's about going on a journey, whether it's story, I mean,

[00:18:29] you know how, how live comedy has developed over the years and you've seen it. How it

[00:18:37] was all very political and everything back in the 80s. And then people like Ross Noble

[00:18:44] and Phil Kay and all these people they sort of made it a wee bit more flowery and, you

[00:18:50] know, imaginative and it opened the doors for so many different people. And as you say,

[00:18:57] it is in a brilliant art form. It's just that theater still has a little bit of, of,

[00:19:05] I mean, there you go, Mark Thomas is just one of fringe, you know, and there is a snow

[00:19:13] that, you know, that theater, you know, photo village. How do you see the future of the

[00:19:18] fringe itself? How much it actually costs performers to, to be up there specifically

[00:19:25] accommodation as well, which is, you know, it's incredible, huge expense. How do you

[00:19:30] see the future of the fringe in the next, say, 10 years?

[00:19:33] Well, how long is a piece of string?

[00:19:35] I mean, not long.

[00:19:37] Put it this way. I've survived with the Gilda Bloon 38 years and it's not been easy, financially

[00:19:48] absolutely not, because I'm Mr Spail, I'm not, I'm not the pleasant and I'm not assembly

[00:19:53] and I'm certainly not underbelly. And it is getting absolutely more and more difficult,

[00:20:01] not just for the artists coming up, but also for us, because we pay proper wages. We don't,

[00:20:10] we don't do volunteers, don't volunteer, the people paid. And, and also, all the suppliers

[00:20:19] have all gone up. So the future is a huge question, Mark. The fringe society themselves

[00:20:29] have now become quite an entity. You know, they, they are there as they're not our figureheads,

[00:20:38] they they should be there to sell tickets and promote our shows. And they are now a big

[00:20:45] brand, you know, right? Yeah, we are, we are the curators, but we are not the ones that

[00:20:53] can actually get any public funding. We did, luckily get funding during COVID to survive.

[00:21:03] That funding obviously is over now. So it's about how we can continue to survive. I think

[00:21:10] that certainly the Council in Edinburgh and the local, the government, Scottish government

[00:21:17] know that the festivals in Edinburgh, and there's about 12 of them, are very important

[00:21:25] to the local economy. And therefore, they know that they have to support us in health.

[00:21:32] So I actually think today, in today's day, I would say the future is very bright, because

[00:21:39] Edinburgh is absolutely full of people. It is so busy. I've never seen it so busy since

[00:21:46] 2019. Wow. That's good. Yes. And that makes it very positive. And if it's like that,

[00:21:54] surely, the government and everything will make sure that none of the smaller venues will

[00:22:01] die. But, you know, we have to see, I mean,

[00:22:05] Will We Live on a Knife Edge Every Day Katie and I you know and it's terrible to say because we have budget and everything I don't sit there crossing things every day but I kind of do you know but it's about because there's so much the commercialization of the Edinburgh Fringe came in the Nautés after my terrible fire in the cow gate yes yeah and

[00:22:34] you know I moved up to TV and it became and with the big four you know and they

[00:22:41] they are businessmen that come into Edinburgh and you know make their money and go away again

[00:22:47] Katie and I live and work in Edinburgh and love it and we love what we do and we absolutely

[00:22:54] love promoting comedy and we will continue to do it but we might be doing it in a smaller

[00:22:59] scale than it's not hilarious and it's not hilarious it's absolutely wonderful but Katie

[00:23:07] had a baby four weeks ago so I am but I have now regressed ten years and I am up at that

[00:23:15] venue all the time oh God yeah Katie has done such a good she she is the future of the

[00:23:22] Guild of Blune and she she's doing such a great job and we will continue to promote

[00:23:30] and support comedians going forward great I think that's a great place to wrap up I'd

[00:23:36] like to say thanks very much Karen you said about it flying by it's just flown it's been

[00:23:41] very very interesting well thank you very much Karen that was you should have been here

[00:23:46] last week thank you very much cheers all right I so that was Karen Corinne very interested

[00:23:53] interview funny enough you'll notice that I wasn't on it but I did listen to it because

[00:23:58] I was in Edinburgh actually at the fringe and was staying in a student hotel where I

[00:24:04] had enough internet to actually record it but not to be part of it particularly terrible

[00:24:11] place for internet even phone signal I mean it is a very hilly city like Rome shit broadband

[00:24:19] to go with the shit app apparently yeah which isn't working properly apparently and it's

[00:24:24] telling people that their shows are not available to book when they actually are available to

[00:24:29] book you could say that the app has got a sense of taste and yeah the app is just saying

[00:24:38] well do you really wanna watch that so what was it like did you enjoy Edinburgh? Do you

[00:24:42] enjoy the festival? I was supposed to go up and meet and talk to lots of other promoters

[00:24:48] but basically I just got drunk and did lots of gigs one amazing thing about Edinburgh

[00:24:56] is that you pretty much lose weight and you think well how does this happen and the reason

[00:25:03] you do this is the walking because now I know because of the elevation my phone that tracks

[00:25:12] my steps I was doing up to 30,000 steps a day wow and the elevation was saying you've

[00:25:18] gone up 40 flights of stairs now I haven't I just walked up one road that's the other

[00:25:23] thing we've got some fantastic pubs yeah you know and it's only night quid a pint during

[00:25:29] the festival isn't it so I mean that's the thing the food is terrible and you think

[00:25:34] you know how could I survive on seven pints a day and two batter sausages but somehow

[00:25:39] but you can't you do well the comedy lexicon word of the day is Edinburgh Act to what

[00:25:49] the duck be referring to an act that only really is considered to be good when doing

[00:25:55] an Edinburgh show so they can do 50 minutes 50 minute hours but they can't seem to do

[00:26:02] 20 minutes or even 15 minutes or 10 minutes it has to be the long format narrative show

[00:26:09] which is what they're good at and there's certain people who I think that's totally reasonable

[00:26:16] because when they do Edinburgh shows they touch subjects that you can't really appear

[00:26:20] with in a 20 minute set and they do it really well but other acts here we I think

[00:26:25] well no the Edinburgh acts are a bit finder and the audiences are a bit kinder and basically

[00:26:31] you're just as bad as when you do 20 minutes but it's longer and it's all about you and

[00:26:37] people accept that he did and they wouldn't accept that in other places we've talked about

[00:26:42] this many times before about the and the snobbery involved in the Edinburgh festival and the

[00:26:47] idea that and Edinburgh you're not a proper comedian with capital letters until you've

[00:26:54] worked on the Edinburgh festival and if you don't do the Edinburgh festival you're not

[00:26:57] considered to be a real comedian by certain people and the and they there's always there's

[00:27:03] a big divide isn't it because certain Edinburgh acts look down their noses at people and

[00:27:09] they're living from comedy and we've both been trapped in dressiness with people just

[00:27:14] going oh I can't play this audience it's not my kind of audience I think in what what

[00:27:19] human beings in Edinburgh of course you've got a show with a poster and a flyer and a

[00:27:25] submission yeah into a programme that you paid hundreds of pounds for and that sure

[00:27:31] mean that you get an audience that wants to see you and that show but of course we know

[00:27:36] that's not always the case that anyone might turn up yeah it could be raining yeah sudden

[00:27:43] downpour everyone runs into your show you think I've cracked it yeah I mean the same

[00:27:50] thing happened to me in 2017 I had a flyer doing my and flyer ring and it was just for

[00:27:56] one day and he was really good but he was only he was only about 17 or 18 and my show

[00:28:02] was about trains and railway and you know it was quite a political show about the real

[00:28:06] things we got like you they were all posh rugby playing they all wore their colours up and

[00:28:13] I sold out packs but it was fucking awful show yeah because they didn't want to be there

[00:28:18] he persuaded them to go and this does they just didn't want to listen you know and all

[00:28:23] look at it was like the back and I thought oh god and I wish he hadn't brought them in

[00:28:30] but you know it does happen it does happen my partner this happened in well last week

[00:28:36] that someone went up to her and said would you like to see some fantastic comedy I can

[00:28:42] tell by your eyes that you're a fan as he took the fly her and I said you're not going

[00:28:49] to go to that show are you because that was the slimiest bit of fly her in I've ever seen

[00:28:55] and she goes well she said what he's quite a nice chap I thought so she went and I said

[00:29:02] look I'm not going you know you go and tell me what it was like and she came back and it

[00:29:08] was apparently there's a bloke who was claiming to be autistic even though he admitted halfway

[00:29:15] through that it was a self diagnosis there's two women in the audience just my partner

[00:29:20] and another woman who obviously had lovely eyes a one point you go to what do you think

[00:29:26] about feminism and well one woman started saying well I think and then he just went shut

[00:29:31] up oh breathe no jokes in it it was just that's funny a 50 minute rant about this man's

[00:29:45] life shows get sold as comedy and a lot of the times they're nowhere near that they're

[00:29:52] former therapy aren't they yeah but going back to the term interact I don't want to you

[00:30:00] know come across as to Anthony this is what you touched on it it's that thing of you know

[00:30:06] I don't like snobbering comedy you know I could people just go comedy is as this and

[00:30:12] they define it as this you know I only like surreal whimsy that's it and all of the comedy

[00:30:17] is shit yeah and I just think it's self defeating isn't it it's like it's stupid you know there

[00:30:23] should be ways for the two types of comedy to co-exist without them sort of looking down

[00:30:30] on what they consider to be you know the drones of the circuits even within the circuit there's

[00:30:36] lots of different styles but every time anyone fights through a particular style of say well

[00:30:41] it's that's proper comedy I tend to go know it isn't is he you can't say that it's just

[00:30:47] not for you you think that's proper comedy doesn't mean it has to be for everybody else

[00:30:52] I mean and there's also that whole thing we've all done that where you've got bits that

[00:30:57] are in a longer show for Edinburgh you think when you go back on the circuit you think

[00:31:00] oh this has been stunking it I'm going to do I'm going to do the end of it and then I

[00:31:05] just received with talking to me or even worse when people then do

[00:31:14] go back to the circuit and go while I was in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago and the

[00:31:18] audience do not care they don't reach the end of this particular episode and I've always

[00:31:29] got to remember to say all these different things that at the end of the show one of

[00:31:33] course which is thank you for listening or watching hope you enjoyed it and if you have

[00:31:39] then definitely click on a like and if you've got any comments and suggestions of people

[00:31:46] you'd like us to interview or subjects you'd like us to discuss put that in the comments

[00:31:51] and if you're listening to this in a podcast that tell other people about it is anything

[00:31:57] else I should be saying at the end tell your friends about it yeah your friends are great

[00:32:01] and choose closer relatives anybody just random people yeah just tell the strangers yeah as

[00:32:09] you community to work just go you should have been here last week you say that to people

[00:32:14] this trade was packed last week so yeah that's good enough wait to finish it that's the

[00:32:24] be the end of our Edinburgh series and we'll be talking to just general purpose promoters

[00:32:29] in the next one and we'll see you then woo hoo.

[00:32:51] this show is part of pedomedy the podcast comedy network we're the best kept secret

[00:32:58] on a cast why not laugh at what else we've got check out pedomedy.com now

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