Fred MacAulay: 25 Years on the Fringe

MacAulay may be recognised as a seasoned pro now but he still recalls many of his early years with a definite fondness. “The first one I was out here, I was still part of the Funny Farm with myself, Bruce Morton, Stu Who and Parrot in 1989. Then 1990 I was with them again, and then '91 and '92 I did half a show and then my first full one hour show was in 1993.” Forced to consider a favourite period he decides, "I think my favourite years were the early ones, '93-'96, those four years I did one man shows at the Gilded Balloon and that's what kinda sets you up for your career." Looking back on such a lengthy career has brought up plenty to consider for this landmark new show though, as he tells me, “When I was putting the show together I was thinking what I could do was go and harvest from my favourite bits. The nearer it got the more I was coming up with newer stuff so there's a lot from this year... but there's still some old classics, I did one that I hadn't done for about 15 years the other night and it went down a storm.”

As a long time performer he understands the festival atmosphere as well as anyone and has watched it grow considerably in his time as he explains, “It's unrecognisable; the marketing, the advertising, the posters... the sheer quantity of shows. When you look at some of the venues, people who used to play a big room which 20/25 years ago was maybe 250 seats now people are playing 1000 seaters. It's longer as well, you're only a couple of performances short of doing four weeks now, it was always just about three weeks in those days.” Far from being judgemental of this expansion though, Fred is happy that the Fringe is still thriving: “People have often said throughout my 25 years that they think stand-up is dying but I think it's still here.”

As an elder statesman of the world's biggest arts festival it only seems right to ask what advice he can offer first timers diving into the madness of a Fringe run? “I think, as much as you can, enjoy it and try and remember why you're on stage... it's comedy and it should be fun. A lot of people get awfully hung-up and worried about their show and all the rest of it. Don't come up here to win any prizes or get nominated or anything like that, just go out do a good show and the word of mouth will soon spread.”

He still follows that advice himself after all these years too. “I would never give up stand-up” he proclaims decidedly, before adding “some people get into stand-up because they want to be in the movies or be in TV, I got into stand-up because it's what I love to do. The good thing is for me that even after 25 years I still get as much enjoyment from going out on stage and doing new material as I did on the first day.” Even after so long he tells me that he still has ambitions to fulfil too; “I've done a wee bit of stand-up over in the States the last few years... so next year I'd quite like to go over and do some more gigs there, and then the big thing would be to see if I could actually get a gig that paid me money in America. That'd be nice, so far I've had ten dollars and a hat.” 

So there's no chance of another 25 years then? “No. I wouldn't want to. I think you'd be irrelevant to the Fringe. I'm 56, and I think even 60 might be pushing it.” But even after 25 on the trot, there's no answer for sure about 2014 as he diplomatically says “I don't know what I'll do next year, but I think if you ask any stand-up in August if they're coming back next year 98% of them will say they don't know.” We think it's a pretty safe bet that he'll be stopping by for number 26.