This year’s event follows the success of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, one of the most talked-about TV dramas of 2024, which was also picked from the Fringe.
Stand-up comedy is basically blues without the music,” says comic Reginald D Hunter, referring to the trend of artists oversharing in order to gain attention.
“There’s this push to commoditize every aspect of yourself, but you got to keep a little bit of it.”
Hunter thinks newer comedians are looking for more than just television deals.
When I first started, everyone wanted to be in a sitcom or have their own television show. Now they’ll have their own podcast.”
Andrew Maxwell has been performing at the Fringe for 30 years, but he has also embraced the trend in the past year.
He now co-hosts the Eejits of the World podcast on YouTube with Canadian stand-up comedian Glenn Wool.
“It’s a different media landscape now, you can become globally famous from one TikTok,” he points out.
While there are now “many ways of leaping the barrier to success” for newer acts, Maxwell believes a spell at the fringe is still useful in “making you a whole lot better at your craft and what you do.”
