Dive into the heart of Edinburgh's vibrant festival scene with arts and cultural correspondent Jane Bradley. This insightful overview explores the key happenings and cultural highlights emerging from the renowned Edinburgh Festivals.
Discover the trends and artistic innovations shaping this year's events. From groundbreaking performances to thought-provoking exhibitions, gain a comprehensive understanding of the festival's impact on the cultural landscape.
Explore the diverse range of artistic expressions and the unique atmosphere that defines the Edinburgh Festivals. This report provides a valuable glimpse into one of the world's most celebrated cultural events.
#EdinburghFestivals #CulturalEvents #ArtsAndCulture #FestivalHighlights
Discover the trends and artistic innovations shaping this year's events. From groundbreaking performances to thought-provoking exhibitions, gain a comprehensive understanding of the festival's impact on the cultural landscape.
Explore the diverse range of artistic expressions and the unique atmosphere that defines the Edinburgh Festivals. This report provides a valuable glimpse into one of the world's most celebrated cultural events.
#EdinburghFestivals #CulturalEvents #ArtsAndCulture #FestivalHighlights
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CreativityTranscript
00:00I'm Jane Bradley arts and culture correspondent at the Scotsman and I'm here at the book festival
00:07today where I'm bringing you the latest edition of our video show from across the Edinburgh
00:11festivals I'm going to be speaking later to Gilded Balloon directors Karen and Katie Coren and also
00:17to Jenny Niven who is the director of the book festival as well as other acts and interviews
00:22and shows that are happening across the fringe I'm here on day 10 of the book festival with
00:27director Jenny Niven who is going to tell me about how it's all going it's busy today as it has been
00:33every day it has been mobbed every day it's been really great and we've had great audiences we've
00:39had full houses and we've obviously had loads of sunshine which has just shown the whole new site
00:44off to its best advantage yeah because this is the second year in the Futures Institute so it is yeah
00:49it's a little bit different this year few tweaks yeah small things we've changed the entrance so
00:53that it's more kind of friendly and directed right onto Middle Meadow Walk so I think we're definitely
00:58seeing more of the fringe audiences and people coming up from the meadows and just coming in
01:02for a bit of a look around which is great and ideal so I think that's helped and also just closing off
01:08that side gives you that kind of garden held sort of feeling that once you're here you're on a
01:13festival site which is great it's making a big difference yeah and there's more sort of food trucks
01:17and things like that yeah and more activities to do we're standing just right in front of our repair
01:22sheds where for the last 10 days we've had all kinds of like pop-up activities on how to repair
01:28your bike and how to learn to stitch things and how to repair your creative soul if that's what you
01:33need but a really wide range of things that people can just come and get involved in which is really
01:37helping to bring people in as well yeah and that's the theme of this year repair yeah yeah so you've had
01:43a lot of events sort of surrounding that that kind of idea and that to that topic yeah we have we
01:47started right at the beginning we had some fantastic events with Robert McFarlane about nature and about
01:52how we repaired a relationship with nature and then as I say we've taken it right through to really
01:56practical things so we did actually have a bike repair man here yesterday which was excellent
02:01brilliant and what have been the most popular shows what have you had sort of people queuing at the
02:06box office desperate for returns for where we just did two nights both last night and Saturday night of
02:11Hamish Hawke's life in a scotch sitting room and it was absolutely phenomenal it was so great
02:16and the spiegel tent was packed and we had tons of people on waiting lists and stuff for that and it
02:21did not disappoint I'm so excited about whether we can develop that or keep doing something with that
02:26in the future because it's really it was really terrific a really unusual piece and actually we're
02:32also going to be releasing an album of the new work so it's Ivor Cutler's original songs
02:39with Hamish Hawke's take on them and also some new songs that he's written based on that
02:45based on Ivor Cutler and based on his own childhood and it was just magical
02:49and we are going to release an album of those songs a bit later in the year
02:53yeah sounds really good and you've had a lot of demand for your front list including
02:57Nicola Sturgeon obviously
02:58yes and we've got I think a full house today for Ali McCoyst as well so that's brilliant and it's
03:05really nice to see lots of new audience like lots of new ticket buyers to to that one which is fab
03:11and that's kicking off just in the 10 minutes or so so yeah every day there's something new
03:16and the other front list ones that have been great were yesterday we had Lindsay Hillsum and
03:20Edward Wong talking about being journalists in the age of Trump and talking about geopolitics and
03:26what and given that Lindsay specializes in or among other things um conflict zones but she's
03:32been in Ukraine a lot and given that there was the big Trump Putin summit just on Friday it was so
03:37brilliant to be able to hear from her so closely after that event to put it into context and
03:42we had a full house thousand people out in a Sunday sunny Sunday afternoon for that as well
03:46so the range is amazing yeah and speaking of the range obviously going from that to uh Sam Heughan at
03:52the weekend yes yes we will talk about selling out that was literally minutes that one so yeah it's
04:00going to be a different audience again yeah great well thank you so much for joining us and uh yeah
04:05congratulations on what seems to be a fantastic successful festival thank you Jane hello my name
04:10is Verity and this is my one woman comedy single youth it is a coming of age comedy about a woman
04:17growing up in the climate crisis it's about a mother and daughter relationship friendship it's about
04:22working a dead-end job that you hate when you have to take out the recycling it's silly it's funny
04:26it's light-hearted and it's for everyone who wants to do the right thing by the planet but just finds it
04:32really too difficult and we're on every day at the Pleasant Courtyard Bunker 3 at 12.50 and we would
04:40absolutely love to see you there thank you I'm here with Karen and Katie Corrin directors of the
04:45Gilded Balloon at their new venue the Gilded Saloon which is just across from Bristow Square thank you
04:50for joining us thank you for having us thank you for having us so it is 40 years this year since you
04:55started Gilded Balloon Karen can you just tell us a little bit about that 40 years yes 40 years it's
05:03um I mean I think it's quite a long time now that I look back on it and then sometimes it just feels
05:09like yesterday yeah it was the early days in the 80s I loved comedy and it was a new up-and-coming
05:19genre and uh I was asked to to help friends uh do a venue in Edinburgh and so it started very small
05:28and it grew so quickly and all not only that it it became a genre that everybody wanted to go and see
05:36so we were the first or I the Gilded Balloon was the first to have mainly comedy a bit of theater during
05:43the day and then we would we would put on um stand-up comedy at late at night and we started a show
05:50called late and live and that started everybody coming so everybody who was at other venues they
05:55would come down there and enjoy it and congregate and congregate and yeah and and that that sort of
06:02camaraderie that they had in those days you know it started the whole movement of of uh great comedy and
06:09and and this the 90s became you know when it all really took off and um then of course I I not me
06:18personally the Gilded Balloon burnt down in 2002 and uh yeah it was we were in the started in the
06:26cowgate and um we moved we had moved actually the year before up to TV where we're sitting over from at
06:34the moment and uh luckily because otherwise I think Gilded Balloon wouldn't have of survived um so we we
06:43moved to TV and that became our main hub so we've been there since 2001 and the cowgate was no more
06:51although there are venues down there that are still going but not like it was in those days you know
06:57it was great and it the the whole festival just changed over you know really starting in the
07:07noughties you know and I'm so happy to see that you know we helped a lot of good women you know in the
07:13early days it was about what half a dozen stand-up women you know comics and uh I started a show called
07:23So You Think You're Funny which um is a competition for newcomers and lot and it was to find comics you
07:30know yeah uh and uh that really worked you know it was great and um so lots of comedians came out of
07:37there and then we started doing theater children's shows and now we're doing round about 200 shows a day
07:43uh and uh all juniors and my gorgeous lovely daughter joined us 10 years ago thank god I thought I was going
07:55to be doing this for the rest of my life well I am actually gonna do it for the rest of my life but with
08:00Katie in the helm at the helm yeah we're doing it together now which we both enjoy believe it or not
08:07which is very impressive it's a good relationship absolutely and you've obviously had not had uh TV at this
08:16year because it's been it's been under renovation still um and you have had shows at Appleton Tower
08:21how's that been a sort of change of the type of venue very different kinds of venues yeah it's been
08:25amazing actually we um we're excited about Appleton being offered that um because we basically the only
08:32reason that we were offered it was because uh TV it ran over the uh redevelopment ran over um so we
08:38were supposed to be displaced for only one year and it ended up being two festivals and we just couldn't
08:43do another festival of the size that we were last year the numbers don't stack up so being offered
08:48Appleton was really exciting there's big theaters in there there though so there's two 300 theaters and then
08:54three 350 to 190 and then 190 big rooms um so programming was that that was fairly challenging
09:03because it's an unproven space like you know we are that we we could we had the vision we knew what
09:09it was going to look like but explaining that to artists is difficult you know they want to go to
09:13something that's been tried and tested obviously but we're really delighted that people came on board
09:18with us that we've had a really great program there and the theater spaces are beautiful comfortable
09:23air-conditioned that and lovely and the other thing that is wonderful about it is the people
09:28who come really love it yeah and the performers have said oh this is a great venue yeah they've
09:33really really wait till we go back into into deviate we'll see how that goes i met one performer who
09:39told me that he was uh he was pitching his show based on the fact he had air conditioning he was
09:42like yeah yeah it's been necessary this year yeah i know the weather's been incredible this year yeah it's wild yeah yeah
09:49yeah yeah and you've obviously had some special programming for the 40th anniversary specifically
09:52so just talk a little bit about that yeah well it was hard uh initially how we were going to do it
09:59because we would have had a i mean on our 30th anniversary we had a big gala at the playhouse and
10:05it's very hard to get all these well-known figures to come up and do one show you know and i thought how
10:11can we do it that we have something going throughout the festival that people will enjoy and they are
10:18you know looking back in time a bit yeah so my my biggest um ambition was to get smack the pony back
10:24together again and dune mckeehan had done she she had done shows at the gilded balloon right from the
10:30beginning and i knew her and you know the her body of friends you know the very much she was in in you
10:38know and she was doing stand-up and in the clubs and everything back in those days and so i've done
10:43all her shows that she's done at the fringe and i said to her what do you think and sally phillips
10:48also came up the year before and said oh she'd like to do something yeah and then fiona allen was here
10:54last year uh doing a stand-up show so it was time you know it was time for them to to get back together
11:01and chat and and kirsty wark who is um amazing yeah i asked her if she would interview them and she
11:09was actually delighted so that started the whole ball rolling and then i got jenny eclair i spoke to
11:15joe brand and she wasn't able to come unfortunately but you know she sent us video footage and stuff and
11:21everybody that we've talked to had sent memories and everything you know and uh we had who else did we
11:28have you've got bill oh bill sorry sorry bill um uh yeah you're you've got a playhouse that to fill
11:39no bill's going to come back because he started at the guild of balloon and he's bill bailey sorry
11:44bill bailey's coming back um he uh started his first ever show at the guild of balloon and we've
11:51been friends ever since and so he's going to um be interviewed by marie black who's our newest
11:58um person who came mary black um being the politician who's now politics isn't for me was
12:05her show that she did last year and she's doing a work in progress this year and i said would you like
12:10to try interviewing you know because she's she's looking at what she's going to do in the future and
12:15yeah you know looking at her career what it's going to be and i thought it'd be good to help her
12:21so she's interviewing she's interviewing bill yeah which is going to be on the last day yeah lunchtime
12:27last morning it's a nice sort of finishing yeah moment hopefully and just finally when you started
12:34out 40 years ago did you think you'd be sitting here in 40 years having this conversation well one
12:39of the things i said at the beginning of this was five years in i thought i can't do this anymore i just
12:45can't and i honestly don't know i mean i think it might have been my daughter that encouraged me
12:51like a wee girl come on mom um i just i just thought well this is something that i'm doing
12:58for the first time in my life and you know you've got to keep doing it and since then no i haven't
13:03regretted a bit um you know we have our ups and downs but you know i'm really really glad that i've kept
13:09going and i will keep going there we go absolutely oh great thank you so much for speaking to us today
13:16not at all thank you you meant to do yours sorry thank you hi i'm key renewing my show is best cult
13:25ever at 540 appleton tower it's about being an ex-mormon's rad wife i just left the warmest church
13:31three years ago and everyone asked me questions so i made a whole show about it hi i'm prayer i'm a
13:35stand-up comedian at edinburgh fringe doing my show experimental which is a work in progress all
13:40about science and dating honestly i wanted to combine chemistry and stand up together because
13:47i wasn't actually great at chemistry and i still wanted to be part of the community and still part
13:51of the science world so i was like i'll just be the comedian that all the scientists laugh at then i
13:56think people without a background in some would definitely still enjoy the show i mean i've not made it
14:00too high level um some jokes are a bit still for the for the scientists really you know you've got
14:06to have those ones in there and but i can you know provide nonsense people with some pre-reading for the
14:11show if they want so the show i'm doing at the moment is a work in progress so i'm trying to figure
14:16out like how to get an hour for my for my debut show and the show right now is a lot about like
14:24science obviously and then dating and that's a reoccurring theme the dating
14:28sense but i don't know i didn't i it's quite an exciting time because i don't know where i want
14:31to take the show and if it's if i want to keep it a dating theme or if when i debut i want to make
14:36it more science theme but um yeah i guess that's a reoccurring theme is the dating aspects and not a
14:43fan of my exes though they don't yeah my exes aren't a fan of the fact that that keeps coming up
14:48the fridge i think this year has been going well i mean people have showed up and it's really nice
14:52i think in the audiences i've gotten have been very stem and science focused which i always love
15:00because the people in the room are doing such fascinating things like i literally had a laser
15:06phd physicist in the other day um like all these marine biologists which i feel like at normal stand
15:14up gigs would just be like the craziest thing ever and then there's like three in my audience at once
15:19that i is just uncomprehendable um yeah but i think it's going well i think it's very it's been
15:25very useful i think it's been very useful for my to put towards my debut hour and i think i've learned
15:31lots of things every day i've tried to change three things about the show so the next day i can sort of
15:36figure out what was working and what wasn't working um and hopefully uh it becomes like a solid show that
15:41has a start middle and end and all these things and all the structure to it um that i can take to my
15:47debut hour my favorite things about performing in edinburgh i think one of my favorite things is
15:52the fact that my best friend is in the room in the same room as me just at the show after me so
15:58she's called alex mason she's her show is called how to lose a guy in 45 minutes and that just happened
16:02by chance we didn't apply for that to happen that just happened by chance and that's been so fun
16:06because after every gig she's there like setting up her room and that's been so much fun and then other
16:11things i've loved performing about in edinburgh is i think just how much the crowds are so
16:19on a whim if that makes it like i think the crowds are really spontaneous here
16:23and i think they yeah just so much more up for it than if you're sort of just performing in london
16:30or elsewhere like i think like so many people will just walk into the shows while they get flied
16:34walking to a show and then it's it's they're very on a whim the venue is uh carbon which is a restaurant
16:41on cowgate and there's three karaoke booths upstairs it's very edinburgh fringe festival um and i'm in
16:48room three and then the show is at 5 35 uh every day except tuesdays and yeah it's 45 minutes so it's
16:57a work in progress it's just a bit of fun really just come along i'm here and welcome to doing great
17:02program edmund who show penguin the imaginator you is on um every day this week i mean every day uh
17:10giving people in an apple to enter all right up in 12 24th of august and half past night
17:15anything so yeah tell me a little bit about what it's you doing ridiculous and uh
17:23a mental secret life yes so i call myself a psychological idealist but i am fundamentally
17:29a participant so as a hypnotist i get the pleasure of connecting with your subconscious night and taking
17:37your amazing fun personality and times in it by 400 up on stage and as a mentalist i get the pleasure of
17:45influence in your course and can you show how does that work do you get all these numbers up
17:51and you like to explain and you think so it's happening so the show would really like to get
17:55enough to do is just because we're going to have an hour short we're going to do a slight introduction
18:00to the mind treated and mentally but it's mainly hypnosis so what happens with the show is i can only
18:07introduce what hypnosis is and what it is not because a lot of people believe what hypnosis is making
18:13your thought is actually taking back and when you start worrying about clients that would be funny
18:19about you're going to make some podcasts and that was a great thing and yeah there's the super
18:23you to work in them which i really really have the ability to do and it creates a burner
18:31that's great so we designed this thing i'm going to try to read my mind but we're not going to
18:35hypnotize me because i can do what interviews do with that for me and that might not be the best thing
18:39yeah so one of your hypnosis feels like eight hours of uninterrupted sleep so on a brief discussion
18:45you decided that you'll have a busy day ahead so being relaxed i always say it's like being at
18:49spa late so probably not the best thing however we will introduce you to something to show you just
18:55how easy it is to influence thoughts which arts and companies that will be up to us now i don't see
19:01how it works for you so let's warm up our breaks very quickly so give me a thumbs up
19:05thumbs down follow this quickly thumbs up open palm okay open palm thumbs up okay please give
19:11your chin your chin's here okay so in your show you do a mix of hypnosis and mentalism so can you just
19:19tell us a little bit about what that is and how it works in your show club yes so as a hypnosis i get
19:24the pleasure of connecting with your subconscious mind and taking your amazing fun personality and
19:29timesing it by 400 percent upload stage as a mentalist i get the pleasure of influencing your
19:35thoughts would you like to try something i just said i would but i think you decided you're going to
19:40try and do it as a mentalist and not hypnotism because i've got a busy day ahead but i'm going to
19:45interview this actually yes yes so as a positive from hypnosis when you experience hypnosis because
19:52you're so physically and mentally relaxed it's whatever almost good like eight hours of uninterrupted sleep so
19:59you do have a busy day so we'll not have you chilled out all day because you need to focus and concentrate
20:04however what we will do is try and influence you'll have a bit of your boss in your mind if you're up for
20:08that okay i want you to imagine we have numbers from zero all the way to 100 i'd like you to pick any
20:14number you want do that now right hello yep i'm not mind you though right 83 okay wouldn't you like to change
20:22your mind no no are you sure i'm going to give you one last option to change your mind because to
20:28start with you had a 100 chance but now the fact that i've mentioned there's a 50 50 chance you're
20:33thinking am i trying to influence you to try and change your number i wouldn't believe me obviously
20:38being mind you don't mentally so am i trying to influence you but simply influence you you're going
20:42to try and influence me so i can influence you would you like to change your mind however if you don't
20:46change your mind you'll tell you you will be wrong no i'm not changing my mind what i did tell you
20:53take out my phone i had to roll into it oh yeah it was mine
21:02yes we've gone to my notes we have your list and go into celebrities for me
21:08okay so we have a list of 100 different celebrities all of my votes and if you do me a favor can you tell me
21:13who's the number 83 michael john michael john now if you say another random one
21:2062 62 so if you'd pick 62 who would it be teddy swift teddy swift but you're happy that there's
21:27100 different celebrities 100 different numbers you've got in yeah however before we started the
21:32interview today i handed you a bit of paper now that paper actually has a prediction on it would you like
21:38to bed first thing no no i have not seen this bit of paper before i just have to say that you could
21:47it can't be put my pocket but i've not seen what's on it one three make it up john mind you so much
21:56thank you so much that was absolutely brilliant and you're on as you said at the guilt lane until
22:1021st yes and actually we've just had our highest weekend with oasis being in town so if oasis this
22:17interview thank you so much because we had a mega sell weekend so hopefully we're now on a positive run
22:23right up until the 20th award if i can't wait yep half past five apples until i'm guilty coming
22:28heaven imaginator you thank you so much friend thank you so much have a good day uh so one thing
22:34that masters of choreography does really really well um and loves to do is just fuse all different
22:39genres of dance together into one show um so for this phrase the bar show it's you know rock ballet
22:45commercial um contemporary a bit of break dancing uh everything um and it gives us dance as an
22:52opportunity to kind of explore all genres of dance and bring it to um you know people all around the
22:57world which we love to do and there's something for everyone in there to enjoy it's also really
23:01special to be here in at the leith theater um which is you know an iconic rock venue that's hosted
23:07uh rock icons like acdc um and is really known for celebrating you know different music and genres and
23:14different styles of dance so how perfect for our show that we can come here and check it out today
23:22so
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