Aim

I’m delighted to be selling tickets to the AJ Bell Fringe on Friday digital cabaret, in support of the Fringe artist and venue recovery fund

Join me for a 60-minute digital cabaret show on Friday 28 August at 9pm. The show will feature nine different acts and will go out live at 9pm BST, with tickets costing just £9 each (£1 less than the cost of the average Fringe ticket).

100% of the money raised by ticket sales on my project will go straight to the Fringe’s artist and venue recovery fund, helping artists who are struggling as a result of COVID-19 return to the festival in 2021. 

Whats my show all about?

Award-winning, critically acclaimed, socially conscious clown, Helen Duff started performing comedy in 2014 when her first solo show, Vanity Bites Back, won a Fringe First nomination at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was subsequently selected for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and Perth Fringe World. A clown cookery show about anorexia, it won a Pick of the Festival Award at VAULT Festival before completing a 5 star rated tour of regional theatres across the UK. The same year, Helen was also a semi-finalist in the So You Think You're Funny Awards and a finalist in the Amused Moose New Act Awards 2017.

Subsequent shows, Come With Me, When The Going Gets Duff and How Deep is Your Duff have been discussing female sexuality, with the latter having recently been released as a special on Next Up.

As an actor Helen has starred in a number of sketches for BBC Three, Ch4, the recent Holmes And Watson reboot with Will Ferrell and John C Reilly and The Mash Report for BBC Two, appearing as relationship advisor Trudy.

Who’s joining me on Friday 28 August?

The full line up for the next show on 28 August is Briefs, Le Gateau Chocolat, Stiff & Kitsch, Michael Odewale, Megan Shandley, Kid X, Farr Out, Craig Hill, Alfie Ordinary... and your host for the evening Courtney Act.

AJ Bell Fringe on Friday

This new digital show will showcase the festival across a range of genres, including comedy, cabaret, theatre and music. The show has been made possible thanks to the generous support of online investment platform AJ Bell, and is produced and curated by Lucky Cat & Michael Fraser, alongside production company Inner Ear.

Fringe artist and venue recovery fund

The creative industries have been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, with the Fringe community alone facing estimated losses of over £21 million. 

The opportunities derived from presenting work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can be enormous; many artists book onward touring, build collaborative partnerships, find a new agent, get bookings for stage, screen, and film work. Many engage with a loyal and adventurous fanbase, earning income to support their year-round activities, or taking the chance to try out new work and ideas on audiences who are actively looking for something new. 

The impact of these lost opportunities will stretch way beyond 2020, with artists looking at a long recovery for their work to be seen on stage again, with the worry that many will be forced to leave the sector to earn a living elsewhere, with the impact far reaching.

All the money we raise from this project page will go to the central artist and venue recovery fund to support our return to the Fringe in 2021. 

This project closed unsuccessfully on 8th September 2020