comedy feature

Making a stand

Tommy Sheppard on his venue's expansion and that Edinburgh Comedy Festival plan

The Stand is Edinburgh's year round comedy venue, so they know a thing or two about this comedy thing, that's for certain. This year they are running no less than four venues during the Fringe, meaning they are presenting their biggest Fringe programme to date. Which is just as well, because with some of comedy's biggest names and lots of local and new talent, they've a lot to fit in. ThreeWeeks caught up with co-founder and venue manager Tommy Sheppard to get the lowdown on all things The Stand.

TW: Tell us The Stand history. How did the club come about?

TS: The Stand was started by a group of Edinburgh based comedians and comedy fans back in 1995. At the time there was no regular club in town despite the city hosting (even then) the world's biggest stand-up gathering every August. We started on a Thursday night in September in the basement of a little pub off the Grassmarket; seven people came. Jane Mackay and myself were the main organisers and we applied tricks learned from our trades in press, marketing and campaigning to make the club a success.

The following year we found new premises to run on Friday nights as well and were able to start bringing performers in from all over the UK. Variety and value were our watchwords and we steadily built a loyal following. In 1996 we ran our first fringe programme with five shows a night in our two regular club venues. In 1997 I got made redundant and had the time, money and opportunity to try turning a hobby into a business. We formed a limited company to develop the club further, and began a search for our own permanent premises. We found them and then began a search for money, getting turned down by four banks before finally getting a loan. We opened here in York Place, in the renovated basement stores of Scottish Equitable in March 1998. The rest as they say, is history.

TW: You're running four venues during the Fringe this year, and have some of the biggest comedy names at the Festival. Did you ever imagine The Stand operation would be this big?

TS: Not back then. It's all sort of happened by accident, and we've always been keen on making things up as we go along. But the more we learned about the economics and politics of the Fringe in those early years, the more we were upset at the monstrous rip-off some venues and promoters engaged in. I've never understood how someone can claim to produce a show and yet transfer the entire financial risk onto the backs of the performer. Surely producing means taking the risk. We've always worked here by creating a budget with the performer which covers all the costs involved in putting on a Fringe show. If we get that back we split the surplus 80/20, if we don't, we pick up the tab. As a result no performer has ever lost money on a show here. That, and the general ethos of the club has meant loads of good comics want to play here.

TW: How do you select who performs at the venue during the Fringe?

TS: We're looking for original comedy, people doing different things, and we're keen to give them the space to do it - check out Kevin Gildea or Dave Longley for example. We also make a point of trying to showcase up and coming Scottish acts - like Graeme Thomas, Susan Calman or Teddy. Mostly we build up our programme from the people we work with all year round, with a bit of self-confessed bias towards Northern England and Ireland. And of course we have some people who return every year and are part of the furniture - like messrs Munnery, Zaltzman and Kitson. Our Best of Irish Comedy and Best of Scottish Comedy showcases do what they say on the tin, and we're keen on them partly because these package shows represent what we do best year round. We're also keen to collaborate with others. We've got a superb new sketch show this year - The Angry Puppy - which we are co-producing with the Comedy Unit.

TW: Why do you think some of comedy's biggest names like performing at The Stand?

TS: The Stand is either for people starting out who don’t want to break the bank doing a show on the Fringe, or for established comedians who have nothing left to prove – except, maybe, to themselves. I think people like our sense of scale – we are in essence a family business – albeit a dysfunctional one (family that is, not business). They know we’ll go out of our way to make the show work. They know we aim to treat people with respect, and that we don’t rip off punters or performers. They like – often support – our rantings against the commercialisation of the fringe. They like the fact we pay everyone, and don’t have ‘interns’ or ‘trainees’ working for nothing. They like our audiences too – which by and large are people who know and appreciate comedy.

TW: Despite having four spaces this year, you don't have the plethora of performance spaces of some of the bigger venues - therefore how do you balance the big names with the new and local talent when programming?

TS: Four is twice as many as we ever had before and we’re quietly shitting ourselves. It’s only happened, though, because a couple of really good rooms became available across the road from the main venue. We’re not interested in expanding for the sake of it. The main reason why we’ve taken on the extra room is simply demand from comics – and even this year we’ve had to turn away about half of the people who applied to do a Fringe show with us this year. Most of the time you just offer people the size of room you think will do them best, based on assumptions about what sort of box office they’ll do. Most of the time its common sense and it works. Sometimes you can get it wrong though. Last year Limmy sold out our small room before the Festival started – we thought he’d do well, but not quite that well.

TW: The Stand isn't part of the new 'Edinburgh Comedy Festival' programme. What do you think about the 'big four's' new comedy initiative?

TS: I think it's unnecessary, divisive and just plain wrong. I've nothing against individual venues getting together to market their shows jointly. But this is more than that. By using the word 'Edinburgh' in their title these four venues are trying to suggest either that their programmes are the comedy strand of the Fringe, or at least the shows that really matter. Neither is true, and both suggestions are not only an attempt at a major con on the punters, but a slap in the face to the many good comics who are appearing at other venues. If this initiative was successful in attracting big money sponsorship - which is after all, its raison d'être - do we really think this would be used to cut prices for the public or provide better financial deals for performers? I doubt it, more likely it would boost profits for the companies involved. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest and best known arts festival in the world. It's hardly an obscure brand. It's the fringe performers want to be part of; the fringe people come to Edinburgh for. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

TW: So, do you think the comedy strand of the Fringe is in good health?

TS: By and large yes. Although there are problems. Many good comedians simply cannot afford to ply their trade here because of the high costs involved. And high ticket prices mean that audiences are being dissuaded from taking risks and are instead opting for the people they've seen on telly. This isn't good, and it hinders the ability of the Fringe to be an artistic breeding ground supporting experiment and innovation. Thankfully, there seems to be less emphasis on competitions than there was, particularly since the re-focusing of the former Perrier award. But they still have the ability to corrupt the programme and promote the next inane game show host rather than the genuinely thoughtful humorists of the future.

TW: As Edinburgh's year-round comedy venue, are the Edinburgh and Scotland comedy scenes in good health?

TS: When we started there wasn’t anything. Now we run clubs every night of the week in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Jongleurs do their thing too, and although they’re not coming from the same place as us, they do introduce hundreds of people to stand-up every week. And there are always three or four other clubs which come and go. So yes, the scene is in fair health. And stand-up has become an increasingly popular entertainment option, as more and more people switch off the TV. It’s reasonably cheap too, and with the fears of economic downturn, it might survive the leaner times ahead better than many other objects of discretionary spending on leisure activity.

http://www.thestand.co.uk

published: July-2008

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