SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins this weekend, of course in Scotland, and this year's program features more than 3,500 shows - comedy, dance, drag, circus, cabaret and more - for around 50,000 performances over the next three weeks. How do critics begin to cover it? We welcome Kate Copstick, who's been a comedy critic for the local newspaper, The Scotsman, for more than 25 years. She joins us from Edinburgh. Thanks so much for being with us.
KATE COPSTICK: Oh, it's an absolute pleasure. It gets me off the streets, Scott.
SIMON: (Laughter) Well, good. Glad we could be a part of that. How do you decide what to see, what to review?
COPSTICK: Well, as soon as the Fringe brochure - which this year is the size of a house brick - comes out, what I do is I just go through it. Oh, you make a first pass, and you kind of tick off things that sound interesting on the basis - and call me judgmental, but I am a critic - that if a performer can't write a 50-word bit of blurb to entice you to see his or her or their show, then they're not really that much more likely to be able to write a good show.
SIMON: You see, I'm told, three or four performances daily.
COPSTICK: Yes, about four because I do think it is only fair to see as many as possible. And I personally try to see as many shows in free venues, in pay-what-you-want venues. Performers who are really treating this like a fringe and not an industry showcase.
SIMON: Of course, I have to ask. So many names became famed coming out of the Edinburgh Festival. I mean, in no particular order, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Robin Williams, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson. Who or what do you remember seeing that especially stays with you over the years?
COPSTICK: Probably I'm not the best person to ask because the shows I remember are not necessarily performers who ended up with massive television acclaim. I mean, I love shows by comics who are unapologetically themselves. And that's becoming harder and harder to find because so many comics come here to become famous. There used to be a truism that was, you came to Edinburgh to get drunk, to get laid and to get famous. And now...
SIMON: (Laughter) Oh, my.
COPSTICK: And if you could manage all three, then you were on a winner.
SIMON: Over the years, has Edinburgh gone from being a fringe festival to a launching pad?
COPSTICK: It's worse than that, so much worse than that, Scott. It's gone from a fringe festival through a launching pad to it's just an industry fair. And, you know, when it started, the big thing they went on about was open access. And now the sheer cost involved - it is frightening. And the only places that are still truly old-school fringe are the free fringes and the free festivals.
SIMON: What are you going to see this weekend, do you think? Can you tell us?
COPSTICK: Well, I've just seen a comic called Simon Munnery. Genius. Extremely strange, but genius. And because I don't go to any of the expensive shows, I don't see any of the big names. And I'm very happy that way. But I think that no one that the wider world would have heard of, but maybe, by the time I've seen them, been wildly impressed and written a glowing many-starred review, the wider world will hear about them.
SIMON: Kate Copstick, comedy critic for The Scotsman. Thank you so much for being with us.
COPSTICK: Pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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