The Campaign For Terrence Oblong - Peter Buckley Hill and the Free Fringe

Peter Buckley Hill was an aspiring comedian who decided to become an international star by hiring a venue at the Edinburgh Festival. His act mixed parody and silly songs about aardvarks, corny jokes and ridiculous props. He would go on to perform themed shows, including a show deconstructing the song ‘my old man’s a dustman’ and a 50-minute routine based around the ‘my dog’s got no nose’ joke.

At his first year at the fringe in 1994, Peter spent £1,000s running a show for the 23-day run of the Festival, having to pay for a venue, accommodation, fliers, festival fees and numerous other expenses.  At the end of his run, he was sent a statement from the festival Box Office, his sales for the festival totalled the princely sum of £98.50. This was before the Box Office deducted their admin fee. 

This was, Peter realised, a universal problem for aspiring comedians. Not only did the vast majority of acts make a loss, the high cost of venues meant high ticket prices, which meant small audiences. The average attendance for shows at the festival was six people, which for a comedy is deathly, no matter how funny the joke it’s not the same if there is nobody there to laugh at it.

By chance, the following year Peter was able to obtain free use of a pub in central Edinburgh, the Footlights and Firkin. This allowed Peter to introduce an innovation that would change the fringe forever.  He didn’t charge an admission fee.  If the audience like the show, they put a voluntary donation in a bucket at the end, but the audience were free to pay what they wanted.

In addition to his own show, he put on a nightly show, Peter Buckley Hill and Some Comedians, in which Peter would MC three or four other acts on a mixed bill. The mixed bill show was already a common feature on the fringe, it gave acts the opportunity to be seen by wider audiences. The novelty was the absence of a charge.

Prior to PBH the fringe festival had been run like the theatre and arts festival it grew out of, meaning centrally administered ticket sales and venues charging for the provision of a ‘stage’. Artists were also paying for things they didn’t need, PA equipment and lighting rigs.  But the festival had changed, since the ‘alternative comedy’ boom of the mid 1980s, comedy had become the dominant art form at the festival, yet the central fringe organisers didn’t reflect this, they were still focused on theatre. The free fringe model was perfect for the new spirit of standup, no central bureaucracy, just a bucket and the hopes and dreams of the wannabe famous comics. It was a new economic model, the venue made money from increased drinks sales, the performer goes away several thousand pounds less broke, and visitors get to see far more shows than they could ever have imagined previously, meaning more chance of seeing the break-through act before anyone else, and more chance of seeing a truly dreadful act you can still laugh about decades later.

Fortunately, a lot of people seemed to like this model. Over the next few years, Peter discovered other pubs, cafés and venues that were willing to let performers have free use of the venue. Thus a one-off venue and two ‘free’ shows, slowly became the ‘free fringe’.  More and more performers go in touch and the fringe grew and grew. By 2006 Peter would take to carrying a handwritten cardboard sign attached to a broom handle (broom still attached) bearing the legend ‘69 shows for the price of none’. 

As the free fringe grew, more and more upcoming acts would join team PBH, Robin Ince, Cariad Lloyd, Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster, John Otway, Attila the Stockbroker. Some would win awards, Josie Long was the first free fringer to win Best Newcomer, John Kearns the first to win the Perrier. For many, however, it would simply be a cheaper way to have an Edinburgh show, whether as a step on the showbiz career ladder, or just a glorified hobby.

PBH’s free fringe spread from comedy to music, spoken word and theatre, including children’s shows, cabaret, burlesque and even the performing flatulist Mr Methane, an artiste in the art of ‘controlled anal voicing’.  As the Free Fringe spread, the Free Fringe started another innovation, their own separate fringe brochure, the Wee Blue Book which listed all of their events and venues.  This meant that in the spirit of communal interest, acts could give out free fringe books instead of (or as well as) fliers for their own show, thus reaching a wider audience.

Rather than charge performers for the admin and advertising costs, fundraising events were held in the off season (i.e. the other 49 weeks of the year) to pay for admin fees and the Wee Blue Book, with the likes of the late Sean Lock, Dave Gorman, Tony Law and Lucy Porter offering their services.

The free fringe concept was copied by other organisations, including Laughing Horse. From a minority of one, the free fringe has spread to become a mainstream part of the festival. By 2018 the PBH Free Fringe alone had over 600 shows and 10,000 performances.  By the time of this year’s festival in August, over a fifth of shows will be free admission.

It’s fair to say that the Free Fringe has totally transformed Edinburgh and is the most dynamic thing to happen to the festival since the beginning of the Fringe. The free fringe movement has dramatically increased the number of performance places and the number of acts. By removing costs of booking fees and venue hire, acts can charge less, attracting bigger audiences, getting bigger laughs. Audiences can attend more shows for the same cost.

PBH retired from managing the free fringe in 2016. It was, in the words of PBH himself, “A lot of aardvark and no bloody money”. Other comedians took over the work, however, and the free fringe is still going today.

Mrs Oblong and myself have enjoyed Free Fringe shows ever since we first went to the festival in the early 2000s, and Peter Buckley Hill and some comedians was always our favourite way to see new acts. The Wee Blue Book was often our bible for the course of our visit, as unlike the main fringe guide, it was laid out in time order, meaning you could cram in as many gigs as your finances and sanity would endure.  

Our love of comedy thus encouraged by the spirit of the free fringe, Mrs Oblong decided to take the plunge last year and become a stand-up comedian (as opposed to the sit-down, scribble on a page comedy route taken by Mr Oblong). Last year she was one of ‘some comedians’ alongside PBH. This year, Mrs Oblong is taking a show to the festival for the first time and, yes you guessed it, she has been allocated a venue through the PBH Free Fringe. She even has her own page in the Blue Book. World fame awaits.