Edinburgh Fringe performer chatting about one audience member turning up to her show – but all may not be as it seems.
The month-long arts festival in the Scottish capital is notorious for performers trudging up and down the Royal Mile, giving out flyers to anyone with a hand.
But Grier, who is running her one-woman show, Sunsets, took to X, formerly Twitter, with an emotional post after she performed it to one audience member – and sold out her show as a result.
‘There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one woman play, “Sunsets” at #edfringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…?’, she wrote in a post, alongside a selfie of her wiping away tears.
Famous comedians were quick to jump to Grier’s support, with Jason Manford posting a comforting video response.
He said sweetly: ‘It’s absolutely normal… for one person to rock up to your show, especially at the beginning of Edinburgh, and also for you to be a bit upset or annoyed or p***ed off about it. That’s totally fine as well.
‘I did Edinburgh in 2004-5 and I remember [the] first couple of shows, the first week I think, was just, it was such a slog and I was out in the rain and I was flyering and people weren’t coming.
‘I got total impostor syndrome. How much is this costing me? What am I doing here? Look at all these amazing people. How embarrassing that… nobody’s turned up but, you know what, you’re on the path and it’s just the start, that’s all.’
Meanwhile, Mock The Week host commented on the post, saying: ‘Tomorrow will be better and next week will be better…so just enjoy yourself, if you can.
‘We’ve ALL done it. Soon, you’ll dine out on this anecdote. More than once I had to buy my audience a drink, as a thank-you for being the only ones there.
‘Best thing though, it’s all stage time, and the show will get better every single time, ready for the big crowds later!’
But Metro.co.uk has been skulking the Royal Mile chatting to performers all about their Fringe experience.
According to one source, many people perform to one person in the audience during the course of the month – and they reckon everyone’s a bit annoyed at Grier for using this allegedly as a ‘PR stunt.’
‘We had our first one audience member last night. We had a lovely time, we just did it to her,’ the source said.
‘We didn’t cry about it on Twitter. Which apparently, the gossip is around the town is that that is a massive PR stunt anyway, and that was all prearranged and that’s how they’ve sold out.’
Last year Grier allegedly did the same.
The Edinburgh Fringe wraps up at the end of August, with its final week taking place now.
Last year the festival saw 3,334 shows flock to the city. Throughout the month, 2.2million tickets were issued. That’s 70,967 tickets sold per day. On average, there are only 21 tickets up for grabs per show on any one day.
According to The Guardian, just 24 hours after Grier’s tweet, she performed a sold-out show. But while some may see this as clever, it seems the feeling isn’t mutual among her fellow Edinburgh performers.
While Grier herself declined to comment on the whispers, Metro.co.uk understands that, despite reports of her run of shows selling out at the Fringe, for every performance.
