There’s a certain fascination and mystique around the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that wafts around the entertainment community of Los Angeles. It exists as an other-worldly, distant idea, almost to the point of mythology, but more akin to urban legend because hardly anybody here has any REAL idea of the truth of what it is.
I attended theatre conservatory in Los Angeles in 2009, and I’ve been in and around the live comedy scene of LA for well over a decade now. I’ve always known about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I’d heard it mentioned in circles of theatre people and heard stories of its scale and renown. But until applying to the festival myself, I had only a basic understanding of what it is and what it means.
Out here in the belly of the film and TV beast, we romanticise the Edinburgh Fringe, like Hollywood loves to do with anything European. We play scenes of it in our heads like foreign fantasy films and old fables. For us, completion of a festival run is not so much a rite of passage as an elusive badge of honour.
When I tell people I’m taking a show to Edinburgh for the Fringe, I’m almost exclusively met with dropped jaws and a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs” and “wows”. It’s like I’ve just proclaimed that I’ve been given a key to the magical Kingdoms of Narnia or something. And when I meet other Los Angelenos who have also been given this magic key, it feels like I’ve met a fellow unicorn, and we stand tall at the gates of this honourable and glorious endeavour together, horns upright and gleaming.
Gathering intel about the festival also feels like a treasure hunt. Sure, the Fringe Society has a wealth of helpful information available to us, but the more informal tidbits, tips and tricks of the trade – these are only passed down through what feels like a sacred oral tradition. Pitfalls, dangers, obstacles, and monsters. Secrets, spells, best practices and cheap, tasty food spots. I had coffee with no less than 12 Fringe veterans from several different countries and unearthed new gems in every conversation, gems that no Google search could produce.
Assembling my team and readying my Qlab and packing my suitcases feels like gearing up for battle. I strap my portable nebulizer to my hip and tuck my brand-new raincoat in my backpack, remembering that layers are the key to weathering the Edinburgh weather.
As a first-time Fringe performer, leading up to the festival I’ve been soaking up the connotation that even being accepted into the festival earns you here in LA. Out here, you take any validation and recognition you can get. And as the weeks of preparation draw to a close, I’m anticipating either some sort of wake-up call or some corroboration of the fairytale we’re all telling each other.
Do You Accept These Charges?, Pleasance Courtyard, 30 Jul-24 Aug (not 12), 3.10pm