Comedian Alexis Dubus has made the news in Australia following a Facebook post in which he criticised the current Adelaide Fringe Festival.
In his lengthy post he complained about a number of things at the world’s second biggest Fringe Festival after Edinburgh, which runs until March 14. Among his concerns was the lack of ticket sales, writing ”9 shows in and my total sales across my entire run are still 50% of my OPENING NIGHT sales in Perth.” This was for a show that had had positive reviews from critics, members of the public and fellow comedians.
Dubus, who is best known for playing polo-necked Gallic grump Marcel Lucont but who is doing a new show here entitled Alexis Dubus Versus The World, went on to say that the spirit of the Adelaide Fringe had gone since he first appeared there in 2009: “Having visited Adelaide before, I was blown away by how much this sleepy town got behind the weird and the wonderful offerings that Fringe threw at them. Seven years on and those people seem to have vanished." At the time of writing he had only sold 20 tickets in advance for his three weekend shows: “It’s a bit of a kick in the dick, to say the least.”
He pointed out that he was not alone in having ticket sales issues. Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Brendon Burns was also having difficulties, as was highly-rated comic Shirley Gnome, who had pulled shows due to low turnouts.
Dubus added that the Festival had “allowed greed and complacency to dictate its direction.” He was not specific in naming and shaming but he did say that audiences were “choosing soulless, mass-produced bollocks over thoughtful, innovative works in quirky spaces is what has now turned the Fringe into what it was initially rallying against.” It did not help, he continued, that big venues had, he claimed, been giving away free tickets, making fans reluctant to pay for other smaller shows.
He thanked the Fringe office for their hard work, but concluded that in a small city like this the festival had outgrown itself. He would not be coming back.
His Facebook post has received numerous shares and considerable support from people who have commented and agreed with him and has made the news in Australia. Some fellow acts complained about “noise bleed” from other venues spoiling shows.
This year's Adelaide Fringe has also received criticism because of critics reviewing shows who are not regular comedy critics. At the start of the Festival Lawrence Mooney received a three star review in the Advertiser from Isabella Flower who is not a regular comedy critic and he tweeted in response: “Your review is a piece of shit, your journalism is worse…”
Some have suggested that this does not bode well for the Edinburgh Fringe and that maybe when Festivals get too big this is what inevitably happens to them.
