Comedy, Mark Fisher

How to make your Edinburgh Fringe show a success

Author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide Mark Fisher dispenses good advice

A couple of years ago, I was commissioned by Methuen Drama to write The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, a 280-page manual published earlier this year and described by Lyn Gardner of the Guardian as "a wonderfully practical but also inspirational book…

Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms to reopen in time for Fringe 2012

18-month refit and staff changes at George Street venue

Say what you like about modern-day dress sense, but when Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms returns to life, today’s fashionistas will have some stiff competition. Yes, they’ll be excited about the opening ceilidh in July and the high-profile Fringe line-up…

Peter Michael Marino discusses Desperately Seeking the Exit

The writer/performer who’s hoping to turn a stage disaster into a Fringe success

It’s a classic case of triumphing in the face of disaster. In 2007, Peter Michael Marino’s adaptation of the Madonna movie Desperately Seeking Susan, opened in London’s West End and, after devastating reviews, crawled through 13 days before closing…

Rock ‘n’ droll star: Jon Holmes

Mark Fisher meets the radio presenter and comic satirist

You can’t get the pop stars these days. In the glorious 1970s, it was every musician’s duty to live a life of hedonistic excess, but then we hit a sidetrack on the otherwise straight and narrow road to Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse, and our…

Man for all seasons - Phil Nichol at the Fringe

Mark Fisher finds Phil Nichol mining two rich seams of comedy at this year’s Fringe

One is a Restoration farce typically performed by seasoned rep actors on grand proscenium-arch stages. The other is a scabrous heist comedy in which a middle-management executive is kidnapped in a Fife factory.

Ready for take off

He may have branched out in recent times, but Alistair McGowan is returning to his first love.

There can’t be many people for whom the Wimbledon panto is a life-changing event. Not even the gaggle of Gareth Gates fans waiting outside the stage door for an autograph from their very own Prince Charming would go that far. But for Alistair McGowan…

Daniel Kitson - The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church

A comic known for his bitter-sweet monologues prepares to die

The Fringe has a template for restless comedians with an urge to do serious drama. Find a popular play, call your stand-up pals and throw the show on with a no-frills budget. This year, Bruce Morton and Phil Nichol are doing just that with a revival of…

When worlds collide

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

A collaboration between artists and comedians suggests that aliens want to know about supermarkets, science and the Welsh. Mark Fisher hears the spin on The Golden record We were banking on the aliens having hi-tech record players. That way, they’d be…

Girl and Dean

These days everyone wants to use the Fringe as a springboard to fame and fortune. Sketch comedy double act Girl and Dean (aka Jess Ransom and Sarah Dean) may well have their future sorted as they’ll surely be the only Fringe act to be playing the UK…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Chris Addison

MISSION CONTROL

When you look back across the shows Chris Addison has brought to the Edinburgh Fringe over the past decade it’s hard to imagine there might be a unifying idea. What link could there possibly be between Atomicity, a show about the fabric of the universe…