Edinburgh Festivals Diary: No Scots on Edinburgh Comedy Awards shortlist

It has now been a decade since we’ve had a Scottish winner of the “Oscars of comedy” - or indeed, nominee - since Richard Gadd scooped the Best Show award in 2016 for Monkey See, Monkey Do.

As comedy producer Katy Palmer of Brass Tacks points out to me, statistically, Scottish comedians should be punching above their weight. The world’s biggest arts festival is in Edinburgh every year, giving comedians a unique chance to hone their skills from a young age. Yet, rarely do any appear.

Comedy awards big bosses Nica Burns and Emma Brünjes insist that Scottish comedy is on the up - and that there are some young comedians who may well appear on the shortlist in the coming years. However, it is hard to look past the status quo.

I do not believe there is any conscious bias in the comedy awards judging panel, not at all.

However, the London focus of some members of the judging panel will inevitably give London comedians a boost, they’re only human.

I’m absolutely certain it is the same with any awards in any sector from the comedy awards to the Institute of Measurement and Control (yes, it actually exists, my dad once went to their annual awards dinner) or the National Hedge Laying Association.

And, in any awards, if an entry appears from someone with a lot of noise behind them, they are inevitably more likely to be noticed.

Going back to the comedy awards, Katy points out that Scottish comedians are less likely to plough what little resources they do have into PR campaigns. One bonus of not being based in London is they do not need to do so as badly as comedians coming from further afield as they already have local audiences to fill their venues.

Should they hire expensive marketing teams anyway, specifically to target the awards? Maybe. But it’s a depressing thought.

Protecting mental health is important - for everyone except people you don’t like

Mental health is important, trumpet so many Fringe performers, including Tiffany Gold (aka Katy Murphy), who apparently speaks about the subject in her show (No) Refunds.

Yet, her empathy for the human condition did not appear to apply to Scotsman reviewer Sally Stott, who, immediately singled out as the “Scotsman reviewer who is in tonight”, was offered a “noose with which to hang [herself]” shortly after she sat down in the show.

A member of the audience was then asked to draw a picture of the “Scotsman reviewer”, which they did, portraying her as a “fat, bald man” (I know Sally and that’s not accurate, by the way). The picture was then bought for £31 by a man who had laughed uproariously at the “noose” suggestion.

Sally, quite rightly, gave the show one star: there is nothing funny about this.

I’ve spoken at length in this diary - and in many news stories this summer - about the hate which has pervaded the Fringe this year. We have seen people attacked for being gay, trans, not white, speaking with a different accent. This is abhorrent.

Now, more people - my colleagues - are being attacked and bullied for no reason other than the job they do. Sally is not a faceless reviewer, she, like the performers whose stories of hate attacks I have written about over the past month, is a human being: a particularly lovely, bubbly human being whom I will be having a drink with on Friday night at the end of a long festival.

Suggesting that anyone - ANYONE - should kill themselves, should be immediate grounds for removal from the Fringe. The festival might be a beacon of free speech, but, as Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester insists, the organisation’s “red line” is if “something is illegal or not”. Inciting self harm is a crime - whether it being said in a context of a comedy festival would meet the threshold is debatable, but even as a joke, it is at the very least hugely distasteful.

Gilded Balloon, which hosts (No) Refunds at its Patter House venue, has been contacted for comment.