Maybe it was those pesky reviewers to blame all along.
Maybe we just ran out of words to describe funny and clutched at narrative as a way to keep ourselves feeling smart and relevant.
Maybe it makes us look more impressive if we can see the ‘meta’ and the ‘pain’ and the ‘bravery’ and the ‘coming to terms’ in a show.
Maybe if PRs and Editors and Promoters weren’t so keen on an easy hook to sell a show or garner readers through a catchy headline.
And maybe if Big Business Boys did not insist that the Comedy section of the brochure is the only place to be because the Comedy Section sells, shows could settle where they fit.
Maybe if we hadn’t littered the review pages of every publication at The Fringe with ecstatic reviews for tragic shows, while dismissing others as “just funny”, then poor comics in search of affirmation would not feel obliged to open a vein onstage and bad comics would not get the opportunity to mask their shortcomings with emotional blackmail.
But we, the reviewers, created that environment.
Maybe if we hadn’t made such a fuss about narrative line and breadth of vision and 40 minute lulls we would not be dealing with all of this desperate self obsession in the Comedy section now.
Maybe if we hadn’t had such a thirst for the ‘personal’.
Maybe a month in Edinburgh, laughing all the time, is too much for us and we crave a nicely describable weep.
Maybe if The Scotsman hadn’t started the bloody star system in 1996 it would all be a lot easier because everyone would not be star chasing, and never, ever happy with what they get.
I am constantly being told by comics and PRs that I am “giving them nothing to work with” with a three star review. The younger and newer reviewers give more stars, I am told, leading to “star inflation” and so I must take that into account and increase my stars too.
No one reads reviews, I am told. They just look at the number of stars. Wherever they come from.
Maybe we should follow the lead of the much loved Machyllneth Comedy Festival who, I am told, allow no reviewers.
Whatever we do, it cannot go on like this
And maybe the whole imposition of the hour long show is another huge mistake by people who are not themselves the comedians. The venues and some of the big prizes push one hour slots on the comics and time and time again the quality fades after forty minutes. Maybe someone could have considered that the ‘forty minute lull’ is just a sign that this should be the finish.
There is no good reason for pushing performers to fill an hour when that is not how they work. Put Usain Bolt in a marathon and he would start to look average around the three quarter way mark.
I don’t know what the solution is.
But we should not go on like this.
Maybe.
