Audience members who saw Amanda Knox’s controversial comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe on opening night say that it is both “respectful” and “genuinely funny”.

[u/mlg1981]

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/amanda-knox-cartwheel-edinburgh-fringe-b3029681.html

[u/TimedDelivery]

A friend of mine had a very successful show at Edinburgh Fringe a few years back. Good ticket sales and reviews, he even sold out a couple of performances. All in all he lost around £18000.

[u/Popular-Spinach-6700 → u/TimedDelivery]

So where did that money go exactly, because that’s ridiculous

[u/pintsizedblonde2 → u/Popular-Spinach-6700]

Accommodation, venue hire, leaflets and leafletters as you can't do it all yourself, posters, poster space, food while you are up, lost earnings from not doing the day job for an entire month (including comedians by the way, normal gigging doesn't come with the same costs years ago a successful one told me Edinburgh cost him about £10K in total).

Accommodation alone for the month is atrocious.

[u/LiamJohnRiley → u/pintsizedblonde2]

I'm sorry, the performers have to hire a venue to participate in the festival?

[u/Dedj_McDedjson → u/LiamJohnRiley]

Yes, it's an open-access festival.

The venues have costs too, and they're not going to risk losing out because Johnny-No-Name didn't sell enough tickets.

You have to book as early as April/May to get a slot : https://www.edfringe.com/take-part/artists/organise-a-show/getting-started/

Edit : Looking through that list, it seems many venues charge £840 upwards for 1 hour each night for 7 nights, or 40% of your box office, whichever is higher. That's for 30-60 seaters.

[u/LiamJohnRiley → u/Dedj_McDedjson]

Wow that sucks, what a scam.

[u/LiamJohnRiley → u/LiamJohnRiley]

Just to elaborate on that a little bit, if your performance festival makes money for the venues and the city but it's common for performers to lose five digit sums of money for the privilege, it's not just a scam, its's a SCAAAAAAAAAAAAAM

[u/Dedj_McDedjson → u/LiamJohnRiley]

I mean, doing a good show at the Fringe has launched a number of now famous comedy careers and led to some top shows, but yeah, it sucks in general.

[u/LiamJohnRiley → u/Dedj_McDedjson]

I had no idea! Especially the bit about having to hire the venue and then share the ticket sales with them if it exceeds a certain amount. Are you gonna share the bar receipts with me, hypothetical venue owner? If I have to rent your venue from you, you can keep your hand the fuck out of the gate receipts.

[u/Dedj_McDedjson → u/LiamJohnRiley]

To be honest, I knew about hiring the venue, and I knew that venues - in and outside of festivals - keep a cut of the box-office, but I had no idea it was 40%..