The hell and humanity of touting myself at Edinburgh: ‘I sidle up to strangers like a stray dog’

For all but the biggest names, handing out flyers in the street is still essential. That doesn’t make it any less awkward

The key to performing standup is to convince your audience that you don’t want their attention or approval as much as you obviously do. This task is made harder if, 30 minutes before the show, you accosted some of these people on the street, handed them a picture of your face and begged them to watch you.

This is my experience of flyering for my show at the Edinburgh festival fringe – and it’s the same for many acts here, barring the famous ones. Flyering can undermine your onstage mystique and annoy pedestrians, but it plays a big role at the festival. There are no restrictions on flyering in Edinburgh’s public areas, although flyposting is illegal.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kMJzZdf

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