Inter:Mission

I am indeed that Emily Cawse, Deputy Editor of Inter:Mission Bristol. Described by my own cruel hand as a wannabe slacker with a crippling addiction to doing and a direct descendent of the real Monty Python. I got involved with I:M because I'm passionate about culture, but I giggle too much in serious exhibitions and art-house cinema.

You can read my articles for I:M on their website, of course, along with all the other excellent reviews, features, listings and blogs about the Bristol cultural scene.

(I've decided to post all my work for I:M on this blog after it's been up on the site for about a week. Not that I imagine my opinions are drawing massive crowds, but it does seem like a conflict of interests to split my miniscule readership between two different sites. If you read both, I will love you forever.)

The Free Fringe

Every performer dreams of spending August at the Edinburgh Festival – but a Fringe show costs more than the average actor or comedian can afford. Venue hire, accommodation, registration, travel, box office fees, promotional material, production costs and fast food between performances add up to thousands of pounds, which small companies have to find for themselves. The resulting high ticket prices mean that the cost of a trip to the festival is going up for audiences as well. Fosters Comedy Award winner Russell Kane charged a massive £17.50 for a one-hour show this year. Surely this isn’t the true spirit of the Fringe? Should artistic and cultural exchange cost so much? Isn’t there another way?

All these questions occurred to me as I stood on a rain-soaked Royal Mile, with only one solitary, foreign-looking fiver in my pocket, that would probably only buy me one drink in Edinburgh’s ridiculously-priced bars. Surely there must be a way to experience all the festival has to offer without maxing out my already-stretched budget? I stumbled down a side street, and discovered that the Fringe has sprouted another fringe of its own.

The Free Fringe began in 1996 on the principle that it would not charge performers to hire venue space, and the performers would not charge an entry fee (audiences are simply asked for donations at the end). This idea grew from the founding show, Peter Buckley Hill and Some Comedians, to this year’s 325 shows in 29 different venues. That’s not even counting the 340 shows at the rival Laughing Horse Free Festival, or the Forest Fringe, or countless other performances in off-the-radar venues. The simple concept of free venues and free entry has become a strong model for Edinburgh productions.

By reducing the costs of producing a show, performers are given the opportunity to experiment and develop, without getting into a debt that could drown their post-Edinburgh future. Free entry attracts audiences who have been priced out of the mainstream festival. More importantly, it encourages people to try something new, a show they perhaps wouldn’t have bought a ticket for. New, inexperienced, unknown or niche free performers rarely have an empty seat, while paid shows struggle to fill theirs.

And at the end of the night, my crumpled fiver ends up in the bucket of a free sketch show I genuinely enjoyed, going directly to the talented student cast, and then, I imagine, straight into the bar’s till in exchange for a well-deserved but over-priced pint.

(Originally published in Epigram, issue 240, 10/10/11)

School Report: Can't Stick At Anything

Yes, yes, I know I haven't posted to this blog since April. I am also aware that I only posted four articles before my unplanned hiatus. But, as with any good school report, I do have my excuses.

In May, I was forced to return to my 'day job' of full-time student. Although full-time is just a technicality for a 6-hour-a-week English student, when you're writing thousands of words for your assessment, writing an article is hardly ideal downtime.

In June I have no excuse. I was having fun. So sue me.

In July, I was lucky enough to visit New York for the first time. I won't make you jealous, but it was a dream come true.

In August, I was performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of university improvised comedy troupe, Bristol Improv. I won't apologise for not writing anything, it was the hardest I've ever worked. We tried every tactic we could think of to coerce people into our show, but in the end we were suprisingly successful. Obviously, success in Edinburgh terms means you don't perform to an empty room every night, but luckily for us we were far from that. It goes without saying that the shall we say 'apres-ski' of the Festival was all part of it as well...

In September I had to earn some money, and I haven't yet reached the point where anybody is prepared to pay me for my writing. (Although I did do some work experience at Hair Ideas at the beginning of the summer, and they gave me a lovely bag of hair goodies when I left, which I was more than happy to accept.)

And now we reach October. I am now part of the exciting new online magazine, Inter:Mission, for which I will be writing features and reviews. Check it out, I hope you like it - I love it, and I can say that, as I had almost nothing to do with its set up.

Thanks for reading my inane witterings, if you indeed do. I always appreciate your time and attention because, let's face it, there are things like this on the Internet. (Yeah, I still find that funny. What of it?)

Emily (@emilyin140)