Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. comedian Jenny Tian is doing two shows almost every day this month, but doesn’t expect to make a cent. Instead, she’s paid around $6000 for the pleasure of performing and is slowly recouping costs by perfecting her “bucket speech” – in which she asks people to throw money in a bucket after performing in a Scottish pub.
This is the reality for the hundreds of Aussie performers who have made the pilgrimage to Edinburgh Fringe Festival this month. In fact, Tian is one of the lucky ones: despite this being her first time at the festival, she’s drawing decent crowds thanks to her strong social media following. And her costs are far lower than the $10,000 or more others often have to front up.
“The rumoured expectation is you always have at least one mental breakdown during this thing, if not more,” Tian says, speaking from her accommodation with six other comedians and one shower. “[But still] it feels like such a privilege to be here”. After all, the Fringe is the biggest performing arts festival in the world.
It’s launched the careers of some of entertainment’s biggest names like Phoebe Waller-Bridge ( Fleabag ), Noel Fielding ( The Mighty Boosh ) and Richard Gadd ( Baby Reindeer ) – and Australian comedians are historically well-respected, taking out three of the past seven main comedy awards. One of those shows, Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette , went on to become an Emmy-award-winning global Ne.