Tips for the top

Transferring your Edinburgh success to TV and radio is not easy but industry experts tell Liz Thomas how you could help your show become the next big thing in broadcasting

It’s that time of year again when the comedy world makes its annual pilgrimage north of the border and the likes of the Assembly Rooms and the Pleasance become a revolving door of past masters and future stars.

You can’t help but love the unholy, frenetic jumble, which over the years has brought to the fore talent such as Jack Dee, the League of Gentlemen and Laura Solon. But if you’re heading up there with a show and think the streets of the festival are paved with gold, it’s probably time to think again.

Talkback Thames’ Ash Atalla, who produced The Office, says: “You need to go up there with a firm grasp of reality. Even the people who win the Perrier are still very new and inexperienced. The instant star thing is a bit of a myth - it can take years.”

For Atalla it is all about finding good writers, so it doesn’t necessarily matter if you are not the polished package. “A well written show, for me, is more impressive than a good stage performance. There are more good actors around than there are writers, I would still be interested if it was a brilliantly written show but the performance was less than perfect,” he explains. “It is nice to see promise - a glint of some potential - in somebody, but it is really offputting if you meet someone who thinks they are ready for it all. It usually isn’t true and it makes me wonder how and if that person can really develop.”

Edinburgh can be an ideal showcase for what you are capable of and is the one place where all sorts of talent can shine. But it is important to listen to responses about your production even if they aren’t what you were hoping to hear.

Radio 4 commissioning editor Caroline Raphael says: “I’m looking for performers who use language well, not necessarily well spoken but have an intelligent point of view. Be distinctive and have something attractive to say - a view of life that is interesting.”

Of course when she is watching acts she is also looking for something that could work well for the Radio 4 audience but that doesn’t necessarily mean gearing your production to the tastes of one potential commissioner. The watch word here is potential. Describing last year’s Perrier Award winner Solon as a competent writer and a consummate actress, Raphael warns that not everyone has the skills to be able to deliver and pen their own shows.

She adds: “Sometimes I want to line up writers and performers and form a sort of swap shop. You have to be realistic. It might be that it is better that you write things for other people or that you perform other people’s material.”

Raphael also says that investing in a good director can make all the difference to a production and to prospects of being noticed but warns for many it doesn’t all happen in one year. She adds: “I’m going back this year to see some of the shows that I thought had potential last year - to see how things have developed. If the final goal is a six part series on radio that is a lot of material, which most people won’t have. It takes time and it is not my job to over-encourage.”

BBC television comedy supremo Cheryl Taylor, who used to head the genre at independent production house Hat Trick, says that while Edinburgh may be the place where comic talent first shines through, pointing to the projects such as Garth Marenghi and League of Gentlemen as examples, there are small things that can help you down the path to commercial success or at least help keep the audience interested.

Taylor says: “Don’t exceed your allotted time slot. People have a built in radar for things like that and often the audience will be worried about getting to their next show on time and won’t concentrate on the grand finale of your act. Another small thing is coming up with a great title for your show.”

She adds that, with so many to choose from, productions with funny and intriguing titles tend to do better than bland or over complex ones. “Mark Watson always does well on this front,” she laughs. “This year his show is called I’m Worried That I’m Starting To Hate Almost Everyone In The World.”

Fremantle’s head of acquisitions and development Shane Murphy, who is spearheading the company’s move to invest in upcoming talent, wickedly offers up a checklist. “Try not to mumble. Don’t rely solely on profanity for the laughs because it looks cheap. Oh, and make sure your flies are done up.”

Channel 5 and Paramount Comedy’s commissioning editor in the genre Graham Smith adds that even an interesting or eye-catching poster can make the difference in getting audiences in.

Smith’s view is that the material is vital and that it is better to highlight a short burst of your best work, rather than drag it out with stuff that everyone has seen before. He insists: “Only do a full show in Edinburgh if you have that amount of material. It might be better to split slots with another act so that you only to do ten or 20 minutes of fresh, funny original stuff and the rest of the slot goes elsewhere. That way at least your best bits are remembered. I am looking for people who down the line could be good comic performers - but who are individual and distinct.”