Novelty Sells (Edinburgh Fringe blog #2)

Hold On To Your Butts

Novelty sells.

At the Fringe there are a few hundred shows every hour across every genre of performing arts - how does one attract a crowd?

One approach is to do something different.

Anecdotally, the most talked about sellout shows were wildly creative, innovative, and/or frankly weird. Here’s a few:

-A one man play by an Asian American playing Scarlett Johansson…and also playing Scarlett Johansson playing him (‘Chris Grace as Scarlett Johansson’)

-A shot for shot parody of Jurassic Park starring two actors and a Foley (sound effects) artist (‘Hold on to Your Butts’)

-An interactive show about a man attempting to eat a “dangerous” amount of cheese (‘Oh No that’s not your Cheese’)

-Not one, but TWO musicals about Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski collision trial (‘I Wish You Well: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski Trial Musical’ and ‘Gwyneth Goes Skiing’)

Audiences want something unique, and fresh that they hadn’t seen before. Generic musicals about love and stand-up shows about airports won’t cut it.

The same concept applies to the corporate world. Nobody wants to attend generic sales training. No company is craving a keynote speaker with a cliche message. No customer wants to buy a product with the same value proposition they’ve heard from 12 other companies.

Gwyneth Goes Skiing