This is it. The last instalment of the series, and if you’ve read all five so far, congratulations, you’re ‘Brass Tacks Comedy do it yourself’ certified* (*that’s obviously not a real thing).

This one’s less of a to-do list and more of a “here’s what’s actually coming” guide. Because the truth is you can budget perfectly, write a brilliant hour, promote it well, get your tech sorted, and still walk into August completely unprepared for what it does to you.

WHAT TO ACTUALLY EXPECT

You’ve probably heard the horror stories. The Fringe breakdowns. People crying in stairwells. And if you’ve never done a full run before, you might be thinking “it’s an hour a day, how bad can it really be?”

Pretty bad, if I’m honest. Not because the show itself is hard, but because of everything around it. The more you make the most of the Fringe, the socialising, the extra shows, the flyering, the interviews, the drinking, the more you get from it and the more you enjoy it AND the more it takes out of you.

Here’s the bit that might help: almost every act I know or have worked with has had at least one moment, usually once before the Fringe and once during, where they were completely convinced their show was the worst thing to ever happen to comedy and they had no business being within ten feet of a microphone. It happens to basically everyone. You’ll be amazed how quickly you bounce back from it, even when it feels enormous at 2am.

REVIEWS

Let’s talk about reviews, because they’re basically inevitable at this point and they will get under your skin no matter how much you prepare. Getting reviews that you don’t agree with is annoying, getting three star reviews is annoying, not getting any reviews is annoying. It’s all annoying, so mentally prep for that.

Three stars is good. Genuinely. It’s literally more than half marks. 2.5 would be bang average, so 3 is a perfectly solid review. But here’s what will actually happen: you’ll get a lovely three-star review, and there will be one slightly shitty line buried in it, and that line is the one you’ll think about at 3am for a week.

That’s not a personal failing. You’re not the first act to take a throwaway remark in an otherwise decent review far too much to heart, and you won’t be the last. It’s just one of those things to expect, so when it happens, you’ll at least recognise it for what it is.

YOUR VENUE TEAMS

Get to know your venue team. Usual caveat: I know far less about how this works on the free fringe than at the “Big Four”, so take this as a prompt to find out what applies to you, not gospel.

At the bigger venues, there are entire teams whose job is making sure your show goes well, press, marketing, programming, technical. They’re dealing with hundreds of shows, so a friendly hello genuinely stands out. It can feel a bit schmoozy, going and introducing yourself, maybe with snacks. It isn’t. It’s basically expected.

Here’s why it matters practically: a journalist will sometimes turn up at a venue with an hour to kill and ask the team who’s worth seeing. If you’ve popped in a few days earlier, said hello, been nice, maybe brought biscuits, you’re the one who comes to mind. Or there’s a space in the social calendar for that venue. No matter how objective the venue teams try to be, it’s always going to be easier to shout about the person who’s really sound who’s got to know everyone, than someone no one has met.

SLASHES (OR SPLASHES, OR STICKERS, DEPENDING WHO YOU ASK)

Nobody agrees on what to call these, but if you’ve got outdoor advertising or A3 posters up at your venue, you’ll want to print off any coverage and stick it onto them as the run goes on.

Start a running list now, even before you’ve got anything to put on it. “As featured in” if a publication includes you on a list. “Heard on” if you’ve guested on a podcast people might recognise. And once reviews start coming in, pull a strong quote, grab the publication’s logo, and get the star rating ready to print.

Don’t print anything until you’re actually there, you won’t have reviews yet. But have the list building so that once the Fringe starts, you’re not scrambling to put it together from scratch on day one. You can get these printed at the Fringe Society building or a local print shop once you’re up and running, just know it’s something that needs a bit of ongoing admin through August, so the more groundwork now, the less tiring it is later.

VENUE BARS AND WATCHING SHOWS

There’s a huge amount of socialising at the Fringe, and it’s honestly one of my favourite parts. All the funniest, most talented people in the country in one place for a month, it’s basically summer camp. Performing your show well is the priority, obviously, but you may as well enjoy the rest of it too, whether that’s networking or just having a good time.

Get your bar passes sorted. Your own venue pass gets you into that venue’s artist bar automatically: an Assembly pass gets you into Club Bar, for instance. It does not get you into the Pleasance’s Brooks Bar, or the Pleasance’s shows for that matter, those are entirely separate. If you want access elsewhere, you can ask, and venues will often grant a bar pass to acts from other venues, but it’s worth emailing ahead between now and August rather than turning up cold in week one. You can always ask in person if you haven’t managed to sort it in advance, but emailing first gives you a much better chance.

For what it’s worth, artist bars get a reputation for being a bit wanky. Maybe. But for me the appeal is mostly a shorter bar queue and a decent chance of an actual seat, which during the Fringe is its own small miracle.

Your venue pass also gets you into other shows at that venue for free, again, only that venue. Make the most of it. Go and see shows similar to yours for inspiration. Go and see things you’d never normally choose, circus, clowning, two guys and a voice actor doing an interpretive Jurassic Park. The Fringe is wonderfully strange and it’s worth letting it be strange at you, not just ticking off the stand-up you already love (although obviously also go and see the stand-up you already love).

THE COME DOWN

One honest note for the end of the run: when the Fringe finishes, a lot of acts hit a genuinely flat week. You’re exhausted, but also everyone scatters and the whole month-long magic just stops overnight. It’s a real thing. Just know it’s coming, and that it passes.

REVISIT YOUR GOALS

And finally, the most important thing I can tell you: go back to that goal-setting article from February and actually revisit it.

It is never too late to get clear on what success looks like for you this August. Everyone wants to sell out the whole run, add extra shows, get five stars across the board and an award nomination on top. Statistically, that’s not happening for you, no offence, it’s not happening for almost anyone. What might actually happen is selling out one Saturday night, or getting three decent reviews written, or just getting through the run having genuinely enjoyed it.

Write that down now, while your head’s still clear. Because a week into August, once you’re knee-deep in comparing yourself to your mates, your peers and your idols, it’s nearly impossible to remember what you actually wanted out of this in the first place.

THAT’S THE SERIES

That’s six months of this, goals and budgets, writing the show, promoting it, press, tech, and now this. If you want to go back through any of it: there’s still the editable budget download (genuinely, it’s never too late to budget), the promo planner checklist, the tech rehearsal checklist, and Ayo’s press release as a real example to work from. Have a dig back through if any of it’s useful again now you’re closer to the Fringe than you were in February.

If there’s anything this series has missed, let us know. Genuinely. We’ll either answer directly or on socials or we’ll create more articles and more downloads.

See you out there!