Dramaturgy gets Slayed

Bob Slayer needs no introduction to Fringe comedy fans. For a revolutionary - his approach to Edinburgh's economic golden goose is equal parts anarchic and honest - he is a surprisingly nice man. Turns out he knows about dramaturgy, too. 

The FringeGKV: What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Bob Slayer: Fat Jockey... well I used to be a Jockey... and then I ate the horse... I just started with that. 

There is quite a magical story to all of this but I've rarely talked about it on stage before as people tended to just stare at the fifteen stone man in disbelief. However recently I realised that if I stopped caring and explaining, well then it can also work just as well as a beautiful fiction. I'm happy for people to leave with this impression as they will also believe that I have a marvelous imagination.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?Work? Comedy is what I do instead of that! I've now been several years clean from actually working, but I just keep taking it one day at a time! 

Why Edinburgh? Well the Fringe is simply the most fun place to do anything... As Roy Wood famously sang in his hit song: "I wish it could be Fringe time everyday!". 

Which is why this year I am performing on our own Double Decker Bus mobile venue. After the Fringe the BlundaBus will continue the party around the UK and Ireland, going to anywhere where audiences want us to go (and everywhere that they don't!)

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
They can expect to feel warm, fuzzy, thoroughly entertained and possibly learn a little as well. One woman in Leicester cried, but that could have just been wind?

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I had to google that word, it sounds like a nasty virus. Oddly this is the opposite of Shingles which sounds rather like a nice game. 

The show starts at the beginning and then hilariously middles towards the dramatic ending. There may or may not be a series of sub plots involving my dad, mashed potato and bin bags? Horses gallop throughout the narrative. I believe it to be a work of high art. But then again I also believe in Santa...

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
When I was 11 all i wanted to be when I grew up was Dave Allen. So I cut my finger off...

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
Mostly I go out and about, I act on impulses and I have adventures. This then provides plenty to talk about: after a recent Glasgow gig a few of us went to a club... 

It was near empty and despite our little group more than doubling their numbers the self important DJ turned his nose up at requests. But we were having fun drinking shots. A little later DJ put on Limping Biscuit or some other twaddle and went off to the toilet... 

So I popped on stage... stopped the track and loudly declared:
That is quite enough of that shite... We were 'politely' asked to leave! The only difference with Fat Jockey is that these adventures happened a long time ago. Maybe 5 stone ago in fact?

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
I steal all my ideas off other people. Mostly when they are sleeping but also I have a freewheeling late night storytelling show where we sit in the round and share, it is now called Never Mind The BusStops, this is where ideas often develop.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
I think you have enabled me to demonstrate my understanding of dramaturgy perfectly. Thank you. See you at the fringe.

Blundabus @ Edfringe

“What’s a BlundaBus?” I hear you ask…

It’s a subversive double-decker of creativity and joy!

Via Leicester, Livestock Festival, York… The BlundaBus is a bar, venue and an all-encompassing experience that can pop up at festivals, breweries, your house – Anywhere it’s invited and Everywhere it’s not!

Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus (Venue 212)
Parked next to Potterrow Underpass on South College St. EH8 9AA (When it’s not spreading good-natured havoc throughout Edinburgh). 

The BlundaBus line-up includes:
Phil Kay, Stompy The Half Naked Chef, Lady Carol, Josh Ladgrove, Honky Bonk Beatles, Russell Hicks, Cammy & Robin Sinclair, Grace The Child, clowns, story tellers and weirdos... BlundaBus driver Bob Slayer will also present his eagerly awaited “Fat Jockey” show, a comical look back at his unexpected past.
Why wouldn’t you want to be on board?

HEROES MISSION
We are a promoter of ‘paid’ shows with a strong distinction - instead of a model whereby the industry middlemen have the first take on ticket income, we make sure the acts see the lion’s share… Acts seem to like this very much indeed! And happy acts mean happy punters! 

We call our model Pay What You Want:
– Buy a ticket in advance to guarantee entry OR Pay What You Want at the venue…



The Fringe is undergoing a positive revolution, and the Heroes are its mischievous pacesetters! 

We’ve stood up against many injustices that put acts into debt: Pay to Play, the marketing arms race, the excess of middlemen. We simply want better deals for acts across the Fringe.

Recently, the Edinburgh Comedy Festival cartel has crumbled and Independent acts thrived, enjoying considerable a success that is unrelated to the size of their budget. 

As more performers challenge the deals they are offered big venues are forced to increasingly accept this change. So let’s put aside any talk of division. We are ready to spread big dollops of creative love through the heart of the Fringe!

“We don't want to rule the Fringe – we’re very happy as the merry pranksters on the edge.” - Bob Slayer



HEROES HISTORY
Award-winning trickster Bob Slayer is now in his 8th year as a performer and his 5th year as an irreverent Fringe promoter. He first set up a venue to answer one simple question:
“What would happen if performers were able to focus on creative freedom over competitive marketing?”

Answer: Artists are free to be themselves, they can keep the lion’s share of ticket income and deliver original shows to happy punters. This all leads to amazing word-of-mouth success and organic growth.


“Large marketing budgets cannot create the word of mouth success that we’ve enjoyed…” Bob Slayer


At Fringe 2013 and 2014, Bob’s independently operated pop-up bookshop venue introduced a model whereby punters could choose to either pre-pay for full price tickets or attend the show and “Pay What You Want” upon exit. No one was left empty-handed. Everyone felt warm and fuzzy.



“At the heart of the Fringe is a beauty that money cannot buy…” Bob Slayer

Heroes Awards to date include:

Alienated Top Five

Ah, alienation. Once upon a time it was the Marxist explanation for why capitalism could exploit the proletariat. Now, it's a handy catch-all to describe the human condition. While I can't claim to have a complete understanding of the concept, I probably live it, so picking out five works that express the anxiety of contemporary existence ought to be a breeze.


Making the list even easier is The Stranger, an old school monologue straight from the pages of Camus' existentialist classic. Guilherme Leme is alone under the spotlight, telling the story directly and with the polished aplomb of an actor who has been a fixture on Brazilian TV throughout his career. There's no surprise twists - the hero wanders through his life, kills an Arab, gets tried, becomes a symbol of monstrosity for the local community, especially for his atheism - but Leme holds the attention and builds the sense of utter meaninglessness through his measured, nuanced delivery.


If The Stranger offers any respite from Camus' bleak vision of a reality uninhabited by the divine or even compassion, it is through Leme's style. A mixture of a bed-time story for Gaulois smoking adults and a Film Noir detective voice-over, his presence, and talent argue that meaning can exist in the sheer joy of experiencing another human revealing truths. So - perhaps the last word there goes not to alienation but art's ability to reconcile.

Summerhall, 3-25 September


A more explicitly political version of alienation is arriving at Dance Base later this week. Last time they came to the Fringe, Sanpapie got in a van, loaded it with food, and drove from Italy to Edinburgh. This time, they come fully prepared, starring an ex-footballer and ready to respond to the frustrations of living in contemporary Europe.

I am Son takes its cues from a poem that references the revolutionary generation of 1968, trying to understand what it means to be, and how our history defines our legacy. "Let's say it is a a show on the West by young Italian schizophrenics," say Marco di Stafano and Lara Guidetti (co-director and choreographer).

Seeing themselves as Western European rather than merely Italian, Sanpapie fit beautifully into the grand tradition of experimental live art and dance theatre: "the absolute masters are Pina Bausch , Marina Abramovic, Sasha Waltz, Wim Vandekeybus, Constance Macras," says Guidetti. The two art forms themselves that evolved from the twentieth century's struggle to cope with its own idiocy, shattering the traditional alienation between word and movement, idea and image to encourage an immersive, immediate engagement.

Dance Base, 16- 25 August


If setting up a bunch of shows called "the alternative Fringe" and declaring war on the big venues is any guide, Bob Slayer's pretty alienated. In person, he comes across as balanced and charismatic and his actual show sounds as if it incorporates self-deprecating wit, improvisation and a philosophical challenge to traditional concepts of stand up. Slayer would probably laugh at any pretentious attempt by me to define his work, and since one show featured his aunt wiping his bum, he'll probably be happier if I shut up.

Slayer used to be a tour manager, and his career started on stage started as the guy who would get pelted by fans of the Bloodhound Gang when they had a mid-gig fag break. His approach - half abrasive, half generous - will probably alienate some members of the audience. He's in.

The Hive, 3 -27 August


Although Marxism has managed to pretend that it is the only socialist path, there has always been a counter tradition that comes from the UK, and eschews the revolutionary for a more democratic critique of existing power structures: that what the Labour Party used to be. The world's first two handed version of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists comes from a novel squarely in this strand: a team of house painters are joined by social justice enthusiast Owen, and hilarity ensues.



Hilarity in the sense of Owen's attempts to inject a social consciousness into his fellow workers, that is. Written by a bloke who has done loads of Coronation Street episodes, this version of The RTP is plugged into the warmth and wit of northern working class theatre, and comes just at that time when the Coalition Government is doing its best to - hang on, what are they up to? I mean, I see the things they do, but I can't see any logic or sense in it.

Like many of the works in this political quarter, it emphasises not the big ideas but the daily reality of working class life. While there is an argument that political theatre is best aimed at contemporary wrongs, The RTP is more than nostalgia: it is a reminder of where this nation has been, and how we got past the excesses of industrial capitalism.


Assembly George Square, 1 -27 August


Finally, I need to give some love to the Creative Martyrs. Fringe veterans, Glasgow legends, a pair of misfits who flutter between cabaret and esoteric Eastern European mime, a pleasure to watch and the inspiration for many an uncomfortable post-show conversation. This year they are going their greatest hits, which will include songs about babies being bred for the purpose of being a bank of spare parts, warnings about the secret agenda behind supermarket loyalty cards, chuckles at the end of the world and the fun parts of war that people so often forget in their rush to condemn those hard working business men in arms manufacture.

Oh, it's a comedy show. After a fashion.

Voodoo Room, 1 -27 August



But who can feel alienated in the Edinburgh sunshine? Who can feel lonely in a crowd on the Royal Mile? When every show is full, and stars are being found on every street corner? Who, I ask you, who?

It's all part of the smiling capitalists' trap, man. Say yes to alienation.

Subcity on the Fringe, part 1

A brief downtime for the Vile Blog this week - two days of the Fringe, and not a word written. Apart from my role facilitating some coverage for the Skinny, I have been locked up in a studio, at the back of the charming Summerhall venue, making radio. The usual Vile nonsense has been mixed up and made cool by the presence of my co-hosts, Greg and Niall, and we can now reveal the results of our hard work.

Episode one is now rocking the airwaves, with a storming combination of the manic, yet sweet, Bob Slayer. Tune in to hear Bob take the Fringe to task, describe intimate acts that he has performed live on stage, reminisce about his days as a tour manager for the Bloodhound Gang and champion Phil Kay, master of the apparently neurotic comedy assault.

Faced with the challenge of following Bob, we invited the Balkan Elvis and Virginia Gay to perform live. Hear the birth of rock'n'roll filtered through an Eastern European childhood (via Australia), some mild flirting with Ms Gay (who reinvents, live in the studio, Disney kitsch as a call for LBGTQ marriage), and the desperate attempts of Vile to raise a smile.