We're back after our holidays! Steve Gribbin and Paul Ricketts interview Peter Buckley Hill, performer and the main man behind PBH Free Fringe - which is now the biggest producer at the Edinburgh Festival. Plus Paul and Steve discuss the Edinburgh Fringe terms '50 minute hour' and '40 minute dip'. If you're interested in getting involved or finding out more about live promotion or performance, then this show irreverently pulls back the curtain on the world of professional comedy.
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[00:00:00] You can count the punters on one hand
[00:00:08] Rock not sweet, they were completely wrapped
[00:00:12] They were filled up to the gunnold
[00:00:14] They were chewing down the street
[00:00:16] They said you should have been your last week
[00:00:19] I swear, you should have been your last week
[00:00:23] Oh yeah, you should have been your last week I've got those lovely blood thinning tablets. I did have to reject yourself in the stomach for two weeks, which was like being a junkie. The craze. Yeah. There could be a little more junk there, but I won't do it. No, no it does. The nurse did say to me, what's the matter with you?
[00:01:40] Don't you like needles?
[00:01:42] To which I replied, which I replied, well who does?
[00:01:45] You have a bet there goes.
[00:01:46] Oh, I love that.
[00:01:47] I love them. you know if this if i even leave a tough to go since all white and the beard as well so this you can't you know it's no use getting british in two thousand feet ahead isn't it? well not for you no no. shall we introduce to you episode yes because eddenborough is impending in fact by the time you've
[00:03:00] seen this it might have even started so we Probably some other numbers instead of the last two zeros, but that order of magnitude. Now, I am not sure that this is still true.
[00:04:24] These COVID years, we are down to 5,500 we simply can't trace it in that level of detail. No. Then did indeed take place and we were the largest and it would be nice if we were the largest again because it would mean something, not necessarily to me but to the whole movement if you like.
[00:05:41] So what made you start this movement?
[00:05:45] Well, I... I know what happens in pods. I have seen 2001 and this... So we are and what happened was successful except on Fridays. What happened on Fridays? TFI Fridays.
[00:08:28] You are most of the audience. You know what than people pay for the demon's furkin ale. Oh yeah, because the furkin ale was very strong wasn't it? Because they brewed their own beer didn't they? And they were going to blue one especially for us.
[00:09:45] It was just a cake when they existed and just? It's edible, it's all good joke shops. And that sort of became a gimmick at the end of this show,
[00:11:02] so if you don't like it, you can stick your contribution in my arse. not fair, whether it's fair or not, that's what they've got to do. No bucket, no mum. I watched it a tour of South Africa many years ago and the promoter...
[00:12:24] After a part?
[00:12:25] No, as after a part. his fascist dictator Brackett's retired, which is something very few fascist dictators actually achieve. They have them hanging from one post, no, mostly, yes. I can't think of one who actually made it to Juan Perron, yes, he made it through the same time. Let's get apart from him. Well, you could say Pinochet made it, didn't he?
[00:13:42] He made it through to the next daughter Thatcher and
[00:13:45] then, et cetera.
[00:20:20] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ish comedy shows. There was also other people who tried to produce three comedy shows in Edinburgh. And you think some of them have gone wrong. Where did you think they went wrong? I don't think that's for me to say. But what was I going to say? This is quite that is not free, that is the opposite of free. If that were universally adopted, then the fringe will be even more expensive for performers. So this chain of non-. And where an alternative provider respects that change does the same sort of thing, then I have no wall. So I was thinking, the latest figures I could find was hundreds of millions, could be several, As they used to be as they used to be you know, they would welcome the extra custom. They have the spare space now everything Has to be monetized and you cannot blame them for that. It's their livelihood. It's their business And we are merely there for three and a half weeks
[00:20:25] Every year we are not as important to them as we sometimes might think
[00:21:47] Yeah that we shall not cover our costs because if we do not, then I guarantee them for my personal funds and I am not something that I'd be very, here, if it's spun off So that was a good sign. And indeed, I cannot fail to pay tribute to Luke, who is currently doing the CEO job, who's doing a hell of a lot of work, much more appeal to as well. What we need is a larger team of volunteers from among the performers who will actually
[00:25:45] do that which they volunteer for. Yes, the only thing I was going to say is because you do realise that of all the Edinburgh Fringe promoters, you're the only one that your name is on everything. It's named after you. None of the other ones have got this. mean, I do not trust the people who think they're the management of the fridge whatsoever. What ought to be a fridge has been sucked into what is not a fridge. And what of course happened last year is that you're the first full COVID recovery year
[00:28:25] that audiences collapsed across the board. admission crisis, but when the audiences are down globally, then so are ours. Could we survive as an independent entity? It's a moot point because the fringe will just carry on and shrink within itself unless audiences pick up. And we will be part of that process. Free admission
[00:30:45] just I don't know if they can't sort that out. I don't see how anyone's going to go. It also applies to audience because the audience have got to come there. Most of them go outside
[00:30:48] Edinburgh and the cost of accommodation you're right is ridiculous.
[00:30:52] Exactly what I was going to say. Yes, performers and audience alike, it's the same age pretty much.
[00:30:58] It cannot be sustained that way. Now, some've heard that as well. So people can't even afford to do that. But yes, I'm we had last two weeks with Peter Butler Hill and some comedians. I haven't written a one-man show this year.
[00:33:41] I have written some one-man shows in the past that I'm very pleased with, and I've got
[00:33:46] to the point. Oh, well, that was the very combative piece of Buckley Hill. Yes. On full talent there, wasn't it? It was hard to stop you once you turned your arms like, wow. Yes. And one
[00:35:00] of the most optimistic people about the future show by five minutes and I got a reprimand from the show manager Because the audiences won't be able to sit for an hour and watch it all. Yes. It's too much. And in fact, what do you think? That was 1999, so that's 20 years ago. And now, people's attention spans, if anything, it is probably minutes shorter, isn't it? The 40-minute dip is the second one the show. I wrote this song. It's a concocted load of bollocks. It's that thing because most of the shows, they were end of it. I'm not decrying it. Look, it's a hard thing to do with end of the shows is, and it's a lot of hard work,
[00:39:00] and I've done it yourself and you've done it.
[00:39:03] But it's this idea that it's all seen really, really good comedians, somebody like Mick Ferry, who I think is bauding on a genius. He's a very, very funny man and brilliant comedian, but get really patronisingly one and two-star
[00:40:21] reviews because he's not, he doesn't fit the template.
[00:40:24] Edinburgh critics will look at that, what much as the early comedy circuit was, there was a much more variety. I mean, there was a trend, by the way, people doing like maybe 35 to 40 minute shows now as well, back to back with somebody else or just trying to, you know, shake things up.