Ten years ago, while I was a trainee solicitor, my flatmate (now something big in IT) and I decided that we would participate in the Edinburgh festival. We lived in Tollcross in Edinburgh in a top floor flat.
We placed an advert in the Evening News advertising our show, “The Flat” – and billed it as an opportunity to watch real Edinburgh in action. Scheduled to begin every evening at 8 pm for an hour a select audience of 3 was to be asked to pay £5 each to come in to the flat and watch myself and my flatmate sit on the couch watching television, talking about topical issues or conveyancing disputes, or eating Swiss white chocolate ice cream from Mr Boni’s ice cream emporium.
We waited. We prepared witty ad libs. We even videotaped programmes we hated in order to watch them as live and rant about them if anyone arrived.
No-one came.
However, I like to think that something of our idea lives on in today’s television.
I loved living in Edinburgh – I left when I was about 20, but I still miss it.
I worked in the Festival Fringe club as a barmaid two or three years …
That’s fantastic!
Nowadays I suspect you’d get a few takers.
VG. I almost think I remember hearing about that..
To make it really work you’d have to stump up £300 to get into the Fringe brochure.
It reminds me of when we formed the Cambridge Adjectival Society for people whose lives depended on the words opaque, mordant, condign and gerundive – but no one joined!
> To make it really work you’d have to stump up £300 to get into the Fringe brochure.
As trainees on our pittance of thruppence a week it was bad enough getting the ad in the Evening News!
> It reminds me of when we formed the Cambridge Adjectival Society for people whose lives depended on the words opaque, mordant, condign and gerundive – but no one joined!
LOL
Love it!
I’ve had a similar idea. Of course someone has already done it. Can’t believe none came. Maybe you should try it again and advertise it as Live Big Brother. It would certainly be more entertaining than many fringe shows I’ve seen.