Making Creativity Pay

"Flyering is like a one-on-one direct intense experience of rejection, constant little micro bits of rejection and that can really suck"

This episode is with Laura Thurlow whose show "A Preoccupation with Romantic Love" is on between 19-27th August as part of the Free Fringe.

She discusses flyering, the importance of the Free Fringe, the impact of Social Media and lots more.

Details:

"Always have your flyers on you...you gotta be flyering all the time here" - Latest Fringe episode is with Lisa Verlo talking about her show Hollywoodn't which details her experiences of Hollywood in the 80s.

We talk about flyering, Social Media and impact of time of day of her show drives the whole flow of a day when you're at Edinburgh.

Any Digital Marketing or promotion can be incredibly cost-effective or a time sink depending on how well you do it.  In this episode I talk to Charlotte and Ellie of Award-Winning Digital Marketing Agency Wagada Digital about how individuals and businesses can make the most of digital Marketing.

Areas we cover include:

Paid vs. Organic Social Media

Picking the right Social Media to match both your personality and where you potential fans/customers are

Digital PR

SEO

AI and developments in Marketing and Design

Wagada’s own ‘ChinWag’ Podcast which discusses in more detail a lot of the areas we cover.

Finally the Fringe can start - The Champ is in Town!

This episode was with Damien St John half of the Sports Podcast Awards 2023 Nominated Podcast - Wrestling with The Champ

We talk about moving from an audio podcast to real life performances, comedy writing and developing characters as well as how to do a good bucket speech at the Free Fringe and the advantage of being able to flyer in character.

The show is at 17:00 on 5th-11th August at Burrito ‘n’ Shake

Eleanor Birdsall-Smith is our latest guest on the podcast. She is the Producer of ‘Cowboys and Lesbians’ which is on at the Pleasance 10 Dome from 2-27th August.

We talk about venue selection, coming to the Fringe for the first time, having a more considered flyering approach and the importance of social media in trying to promote the play to a young audience.

Tickets:

“At no point in the last six months have I been relaxed. At no point has there been a lull where I haven't thought, oh, I should be doing something”.

This episode we hear from Mikey Fleming co-writer of ‘Best Man’, the focus on getting things right, an aversion to flyering and lots more and we also hear from the cast of Attendants on their thoughts about the Fringe.

Lisa's show 'Too Big for Her Britches' is on now at the Edinburgh Fringe: "A hilarious and heart-breaking dark comedy driven by 20 characters and 11 original songs, in which the heroine, Luna, endeavours to disentangle herself from bad decisions and an overbearing, narcissistic mother." We spoke about what she's looking forward to about performing at the Fringe and thoughts around promoting and marketing the show from flyering to social media.

“It’s easy to drop your guard in the ethical soup that is the Fringe” - 

In this episode we talk to Miriam Attwood of Storytelling PR.

Storytelling PR team provide publicity, consultancy and advocacy for culture and activism related artists.

We talk about what having an activism and representation focused PR company means, Miriam’s extensive experience of the Edinburgh Fringe including running PR for Summerhall one of the venues at Edinburgh, and some thoughts on what those without PR representation can do to get themselves noticed. 

Links:

Twitter

3 Years in the making: Bibi Lucille and Anastasia Bunce about the show Meat Cute that’s playing at the Edinburgh Fringe this August.

We talk about the development to get to this stage, some dubious methods of marketing the show and plans for promotion over the month.

We talk flyers, Instagram, Daily promotion and lots more.

Links:

"Not everyone leaves London in August" - Although there's lots of noise made about the Edinburgh Fringe, London also has a major festival of its own with over 300 different acts performing from 31st July to the 27th August in Camden and beyond.

In this episode we’ll be speaking to Zena and Michelle founders of the Camden Fringe. We talk about how the Camden Fringe came about, how it differs to the Edinburgh Fringe and have loads of advice for anyone looking to put on a show at a festival.

We’ll also be talking about their Camden Fringe podcast which is a great resource where they speak to performers and others in the industry about all areas from Marketing, PR and tips on writing a show.

Links

Ahead of Podcast Show London on 24th/25th May, we’re running a series of short daily podcasts with a variety of people in the podcast industry.

This episode is with Becky Lamb-Pritchard - Head of Marketing at Distorted

We talk about what Becky’s looking forward to most at the Podcast Show, the rise of video podcasting, its importance in podcast discovery and discuss how Distorted’s AI created podcast ‘Synthetic Stories’ was put together and what it could mean for content creation.

Ahead of Podcast Show London on 24th/25th May, we’re running a series of short daily podcasts with a variety of people in the podcast industry.

This episode is with Mark Asquith - Co-Founder of Podcast Hosting service Captivate

We talk about what he’s looking forward to most at the Podcast Show, why he sees Anchor (now Spotify for Podcasters) as not necessarily a bad thing for the podcast industry and about his talk at the Podcast Show on how branding can help with the growth of your podcast.

Ahead of Podcast Show London on 24th/25th May, we’re running a series of short daily podcasts with a variety of people in the podcast industry.

Today’s episode is with Megan Hayward - Podcast Producer at editaudio

We talk about what encouraged Megan to pursue a career in podcasting, her work as a podcast producer and how she finds working as part of a team that’s based on both sides of the Atlantic.

We also discuss the impact of AI in podcast production and what talks she’s looking forward to seeing at the Podcast Show.

This episode is with Comedy producer Gina Lyons - this was a great chat encompassing the varied aspects of Gina’s career to date, from getting in to the industry via a reality TV show (Get Me A Producer), working with a huge range of comedians on live shows including Kate Barron and Adam Rowe and scripted series across all areas from Network TV to Online (In My Skin/Breeders/Dreaming Whilst Black).

We talk about working with writers developing ideas at various stages of the process from creation to getting the final version on screen, advice for anyone who wants to work in scripted comedy.

This episode is with Sean Adams, Founder of Music Website and Label Drowned in Sound. We talk about the relaunch of Drowned in Sound as a music label, what a label can offer an artist that they wouldn’t get with a DIY approach, the importance of Social Media in promoting artists and matching the right channels for the artist and their audience.

We also talk about the newly launched Drowned In Sound podcast where Sean talks to artists and experts in a range of fields from TikTok to AI and lots more from his extensive experience in the Music Industry.

Our guest is Dr Hayleigh Bosher - Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel University.

We discuss how musicians can educate themselves around copyright and getting paid when their music is used, the #BrokenRecord campaign for better pay for performers and composers, along with some examples of copyright such as Louis Theroux and Jiggle Jiggle and David Guetta creating an AI Eminem.

We also talk about her podcast 'Whose Song is it Anyway' the first two seasons which were co-hosted with Jules O’Riordan (Entertainment Lawyer and artist known as Judge Jules) which has included guests such as Imogen Heap, Crispin Hunt and Kevin Brennan MP talk about a wide range of music related areas such as performers rights, sampling, working with other artists, blockchain in music and lots more. 

In this episode I speak to 3 performers about their experiences at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe.

We discuss a wide range of areas around performing at the Fringe such as:

• Length of run - is doing the whole month some heroic effort that is in itself part of the attraction of doing a run in Edinburgh
• Pricing - Pay what you want vs. ticketed, does having a minimum price set by the venue
• Promotion - Where do Twitter/TikTok fit in compared to traditional flyering and building an audience through word of mouth
• The mental impact of doing the same show in the same place for a month and constantly monitoring ticket sales
• The change in the Fringe over time and if the rising costs of putting on a show will discourage them from a 2023 appearance

My Guests are:

In this episode Cerys Bradley talks about their show 'Sportsperson' which is on daily at the Edinburgh Fringe during August.  Cerys talks about selecting a venue, pricing and large amounts of flyering as well as recommend shows to see at the Fringe. 

The Edinburgh Fringe is the perfect example of where Art and Commerce mix, it's a reflection of real life from the idealists who just want to make things better to those who see it as a great opportunity to make a few quid (usually everyone apart from the performers themselves).

Our guest on this episode is Stu Goldsmith, host of the Comedian's Comedian podcast.  Stu has been going to the Fringe for the last 28 years, even when it was cancelled during the pandemic!

I talk to Stu about his experiences at the Fringe, putting a work in progress together and the challenges of putting bums on seats when there are thousands of other acts in the same city.

Making creativity pay is a podcast discussing how those in creative industries look to monetise their work, not to sell out their craft but to be able to afford to keep going.

In this episode I spoke to Comedian and Podcaster Stuart Goldsmith.  We discuss how he got started in podcasting almost a decade ago, his thoughts on different business models such as donations, subscriptions and advertisements as well as being a 'solopreneur' and how his comedy and podcast selves interact.