The Whole Story
Lots of folk are of the opinion that the best opportunity to watch stand up comedy in Scotland's capital is during the Fringe each summer. I'm in the minority who disagree with that reasoning. Enjoy the fringe if you get the chance, but remember it's not the whole story.
Sometimes the warm up comedians elsewhere would be better.
What are the reasons that folk provide to back up their argument that the best chance to experience stand-up in Scotland's capital is during the Festival? 1 argument is the quantity of gigs which are on. Instead of the normal few stand-up performances, there are hundreds in the Festival. But my argument is that abundance doesn't necessarily mean quality.
Over the years I have attended tons of stand up comedy events at the Festival, and a large proportion of these have been dreadful.
I have walked out of a number of performances after being there for nearly 30 mins without ever getting the urge to smile, far less laugh. Simply because a standup show is part of the Festival does not mean it's likely to be entertaining. I go to tons of stand-up performances in all seasons, and in my opinion there are much less really dreadful performances on the rest of the year.
Once in a while you can grab cut-price comedy tickets in the Edinburgh Fringe due to the fact that there are many buy-one-get-one-free promotions happening. All this actually means is that when you get a 2-for-1 deal, it means you pay the same amount to watch a performance as it does at any other time of the year, due to the fact that during the Festival all the ticket prices increase two times. I'll take stand up night in my local comedy club any day.
One prime reason which people give for attending the Fringe is that you can see the big-name comedians, plus can see the next big things in stand-up before anyone else.
My personal experience differs.
The best known stand-ups' performances usually sell out prior to the time when you have even been informed they're happening, so you are no more able to watch them perform as opposed to the rest of the year. In addition the argument that you can get to catch the rising stars being discovered: to be fair, I guess it is possible, however you are more likely to watch somebody who has ten minutes of pretty entertaining material, and forty minutes of unfunny nonsense. Nevertheless, they got a superb write-up due to the fact that the reviewer merely had time to watch the first ten minutes.