With growing noise about the extortionate costs of the Edinburgh Fringe for artists, The Stand - Edinburgh’s best full-time, year-round comedy club – is listening. Founded on the basis of a fair deal for artists and committed to that promise ever since, The Stand’s first announcement of Edinburgh Fringe shows in 2023 comes with the news that their deal has been revised to drop venue hire costs and not increase ticket prices.
The Stand’s Managing Director, Mike Jones, says: “We’re delighted to get our first Fringe 2023 shows on sale and pleased to bring back our venues at Stand 3 and 4. The Stand is about a fair deal for performers, fair prices for audiences and fair work for our staff. This year we’ve decided to drop venue hire costs for acts to make it more affordable to come to the Fringe and have not increased our ticket prices. We’re excited to announce these first shows and will be getting more shows on sale over the next few months”
The first batch of shows features returning big names as well as new acts to the club’s Fringe roster. These are on-sale from thestand.co.uk right now and from edfringe.com on Thursday February 16th.
Perhaps the most notable return to The Fringe is homegrown favourite Danny Bhoy, as well as Canadian comedian JJ Whitehead. Whitehead credits the club as being the very place where his career began.
Returning from sell-out runs in 2022 are: ; Jo Caulfield in Stand 3, whose audiences helped raise almost £6,000 in bucket collections for Macmillan in 2022; Gareth Waugh who last year announced that he was to become a father (Fast-forward six months and his newest show ‘Wouldni Be Me’ is set to tackle the adjustment into having his first child); Marjolein Robertson, whose sell-out popularity sees her graduating from the 40-seater Stand 2 room to the legendary main club, the 140-capacity ‘Stand 1’; and many others including Geordie comedian Gavin Webster; Vladimir McTavish; and Ada Campe.
Last year, The Stand did their regular takeover of 96 George Street as The Stand’s New Town Theatre. The club also boasted Stand 2, where Robin Grainger made headlines following a fortuitous one-person gig. He returns with a new show all about it: An Audient with Robin Grainger. On top of these rooms, this year sees the return of The Stand 3 and 4, signifying the return to a full-scale programme.
The now legendary Best of Scottish Comedy and Best of Irish Comedy shows also return and will feature guests from their programme as well as from across the Fringe programme.
Migrating over to The Stand after having spent last year’s Fringe at other venues are: Regular Stand weekend show host and face of The Stand’s renowned Hogmanay Specials, Billy Kirkwood with his show, ‘Show Me Your Tattoo’; Spontaneous Potter, the improvised Harry Potter player comedy supergroup made up of Will Nameeh (of MC Hammersmith fame), Stu Murphy (one half of Fringe legends Stu & Garry) & other major players in the scene; and James Nokise (as heard on the BBC’s You’re Dead to Me).
The Stand are always looking to bring you something different: Fresh from kicking the big C in the face is Bee Babylon who makes her Fringe debut with the brilliantly-named ‘Cancer Culture; After a sold-out European tour, Austrian-American-Slovenian comedian Philip Kostelecky brings us ‘Daddy’s Home’.
These shows are on sale from The Stand right now, from edfringe.com from 5pm on Thursday February 16th, and more will be added to both websites on Thursday March 30th.
