EVERY year throughout August, millions of people from all corners of the world swarm to Scotland’s capital city for the truly behemothic Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Numbered among the over 30,000 participating acts this summer are a handful of artists, comedians and actors who have made the trip over from Jersey.
Jersey-born actor and writer Rosie Gicquel said that this was the first year she had made the journey over to Edinburgh in any capacity.
She is performing in Clary, a comedic play that centres around two young women navigating the chaotic vicissitudes of their early 20s.
Written by her co-star Tamsin Everitt, the show spans a single weekend and looks to throw a spotlight on the absurdities of girlhood and “growing up”.
“The show is going well so far and has been received really well by the audiences we’ve had,” Ms Gicquel said. “We’ve done eight performances of Clary so far and have 19 left.
“It has definitely been a test of our stamina, especially as we are flyering before every performance to try and bring in a bit more of an audience.”
She added that the festival was now in full swing after a quiet start: “It is so busy, it definitely is a competition to get your flyers out, [and] there is definitely a lot of walking involved too.
“We’ve been averaging about 16,000 steps a day without trying, and with Edinburgh hills, it can be rather tiring.”
She joked that she had even drafted her mum and dad, who flew over to the Fringe from Jersey, into doing a quick shift handing out flyers for the show.
“They were surprisingly good at it and they also saw Clary three times,” she said.
Alternative comedian Christian Jegard is another Islander also making the pilgrimage to the festival for the first time; performing his acclaimed Mr Showbusiness show as part of the “Best in Class” showcase, which supports working-class comics.
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I’m glad I’m here,” Mr Jegard said. “It’s been going great, audiences have been lovely, feedback glowing.”
The Jersey-born stand-up, who has already brought his show to Jersey – performing it at the Arts Centre in April – said he has had to adjust his material for new audiences.
“Obviously, I can’t make jokes about Jersey up here,” he laughed. “My 15 minutes of material about Fantastic Tropical Gardens flies under the radar, so I’ve been adapting my stuff to fit the room each night.”
While clearly enjoying his time in Scotland, Mr Jegard did point out that, in its current form, the Fringe risks “pricing out huge swathes of the performing population”.
“The biggest problem it seems is that the cost of putting on a show here is so vast,” he said. “I’m here because of the showcase and because of an artist grant from ArtHouse Jersey – otherwise there is no way I could do this myself.”
Another alt-comic from Jersey at this year’s Fringe is Wayne Stewart, who is performing his avant-garde show, titled ASURA: An Enlightenment Experiment.
The Brechtian piece sees Mr Stewart engaging with audience members about life, philosophy, and enlightenment without the conventional adornments of theatre or stand-up comedy.
“It’s just me in a space with the lights on,” he explained. “No music, no big lighting disguising me, just me in the space talking to people, and it is very comfortable.
“The show is pretty layered. The idea was to attempt to reach enlightenment through the use of AI by creating a spiritual guru AI bot.
“But the more I came to understand the ideas and philosophies of enlightenment, I got drawn further away from the technology side of things – and it brought me closer to wanting to create something that was more of an anti-performance, as it were.”
The comedian said that his show was also partly informed by how acts at the Fringe tend to measure their success.
“[The show] is about making peace with what I learnt from last year, which is that the Fringe festival doesn’t owe you anything.
“People come to this festival with so many expectations, and people believe that because they’ve put so much time, effort, hard work, and love into their craft, that they are owed something.
“So, in some ways, I’m playing around with those ideas now: I’m not going out this year with a view to try and be liked and garner as many five-star reviews as I can, I’m just honouring the craft and doing something that I love, really.”
