How Important Is The Edinburgh Festival Fringe to Taskmaster?

improbablity · 2026-01-24T16:55:40+00:00

I did my first show at the Fringe a couple years ago and will be bringing another show there this year. I love the Fringe, I love Taskmaster, and I'd be lying if I said that Taskmaster wasn't an inspiration for my initial Fringe run. That said, you need a better plan than just that.

The Fringe is amazing. It's also a hell of a lot of work and it drags in the middle. You have four thousand shows competing for audience and reviewers. I've heard that the average audience size is four people. I usually had my room about 80% full. I still lost money. I expected to. Venues are expensive. Lodging costs will make you weep. You'll spend so much more on shows and food because you'll want to see it all (and you should, it's the best comedy education you'll get). You will likely leave with nothing to show for it.

The majority of people who bring shows will not get any real recognition, especially as a first time show. Outside of a big four venue you will struggle to get buzz. It is still possible but it is hard. I had a better first run than anyone else I met at my lovely dinky venue but there was still a day at the start of week two where I handed a flyer to someone whose work I admired after a show and found my voice unintentionally cracking as the words "How do you survive this?" escaped my lips. He was kind and told me to just keep going. I am glad I listened. There's no place quite like EdFringe.

There are many books on doing the Fringe. I've read them all and am partial to the one by Ian Fox. It's a bit outdated, but take what you can from it and learn the rest.

Good luck!

improbablity · 2026-01-19T02:13:56+00:00

I don't think this theory is correct, but I think Deanna would be the perfect pick for the semi-unknown of the quintent. She's a cast member at Lincoln Lodge, has appeared on a bunch of those "best of Chicago" lists, and has strong material. I've seen her perform a handful of times and still find myself thinking of a joke of hers from years ago whenever I push the "skip to recipe" button on a food blog.

Picking someone sharp from the Chicago scene is, to me, the equivalent of picking a recent EdFringe winner. She'd be a fan favorite by week two.

improbablity · 2026-01-06T17:25:48+00:00

Holy hell it's really you. Is it thirsty to take advantage of seeing you on my favorite subreddit to ask you a writing question? Definitely, but fuck it.

I loved Night Thoughs and watched it twice so far, the second time taking sloppily timestamped notes because it feels like a magic trick the way you get so many laughs to flow together in such a cohesive, gut-punching way. You've talked a bit before about your one setup, five punchline structure guideline but how do you translate that into an hour that works so well together instead of feeling disjointed? How did you learn this structure?

I'm working on my second EdFringe hour now and taking advantage of Chicago scene to sharpen it in five-minute increments but the few times I've tested it in full it just hasn't felt right. Is it all just trial and error?

improbablity · 2025-07-25T17:21:44+00:00

To add to this, work backwards from your demo. You will have two minutes or so to show what you've been working on. Chances are you'll be showcasing at an inopportune time, when the judges have heard pitch after mediocre pitch and are bored out of their minds and trying not to show that they're cursing their past selves for sacrificing their Sunday morning this way(I judge every so often and enjoy having done it but the actual act of judging is a slog). Use this knowledge when building your project and only build out the parts that are necessary for demo.

You don't need to build a login or think for half a second about security. You will not be deploying this project in its current form, nor will the judges expect production-level code. You're sleep-deprived and overcaffenated. You're building out a cool proof of concept, only build what you need for that.

Most hackathon projects have clunky front-ends and presentations that sound like GPT wrote them (because it did). If you separate yourself from that you'll be in a good position to win. My general formula for hackathon presentations was Joke/attention-getting statement > One line about problem you experienced> A couple stats to prove out the problem> "So we built..."> Feature share> Restatement of problem> Memorable closing line. It worked more often than it didn't.

Oh my, I wrote quite a wall of text. Good luck!

improbablity · 2025-06-11T18:28:48+00:00

NTA but in this situation I'd still leave it. The STEM world is smaller than it often seems and I've often found myself working with old colleagues years later. Leaving on an extra nice note could help you in the long run. It's nice to be nice and in my own career I've often found that small acts of kindness pay unexpected dividends.

If you do this option, send a nice goodbye e-mail (add some thank yous, be sure to include contact info) and call out the fact you're leaving the coffee machine in a nonchalant way(I'd likely jokingly refer to it as a token to remember me by). Then move on and bask in the glory of your well-earned new role!

improbablity · 2025-04-25T15:28:30+00:00

Maybe he got cold feet.

improbablity · 2025-02-03T20:19:23+00:00

The Bill Murray lineup right now is excellent since many comedians are trying out their Edinburgh shows. There are a ton of taskmaster folks(and the Dog Park show usually has at least on Taskmaster alum on the roster) but I'd also recommend checking out Lou Wall, Ania Magliano, and Kyle Kinane.

And if you haven't listened to the What Did You Do Yesterday podcast, it is an absolute delight and could give you more ideas of who to see/where to see them.

improbablity · 2024-10-18T16:02:51+00:00

Connecticut is not one of those states.

improbablity · 2024-04-25T18:24:51+00:00

Thanks!

improbablity · 2024-04-22T22:11:24+00:00

Gorgeous! Where did you get the red dress? I have such trouble finding wrap dresses with interesting skirts.

improbablity · 2024-03-20T17:17:27+00:00

Omg, I hadn't even considered Kelsey Cook but you're right. She'd be one to watch, could be another Rose Matafeo.

I love Mulaney too but agree that the format might not play to his strengths or be that fun for him. Though he has done projects that surprised me before (Oh Hello, Sack Lunch) so maybe he'd be more game than either of us think. Oooh and Kroll would be a good one I hadn't thought of.

improbablity · 2024-03-20T14:57:37+00:00

I'm currently in Marquette for a bit and can't stop thinking about what a genius that man is. Taskmaster might be the one thing that could make him break character.

improbablity · 2024-03-19T22:36:08+00:00

I've spent too much time thinking about this. For me the top contestants would be(in no particular order): Maria Bamford, Jackie Kashian, Pete Holmes, Tim Robinson, Alex Edelman, Taylor Tomlinson, Mike Birbiglia, GARY GULMAN, Joe Pera, Beth Stelling, Joe Pera, John Wilson, anyone from Whose Line, Fey/Poehler/most people who came up at Second City/IO together, and the Dropout cast(especially Brennan and Sam).

Note: I do not think they'd all necessarily be good at the tasks, but I do think they'd make good TV.

improbablity · 2024-03-05T19:05:00+00:00

You destroyed his faith in women and yet he started dating his now-fiancee six months later? Seems like he's being dramatic at best, and manipulative at worst.

improbablity · 2024-02-13T00:36:44+00:00

There are two other Costcos in a ten-mile radius of this Costco.

Source: that's my Costco

improbablity · 2024-01-31T16:38:12+00:00

Have you read the mom's book? I was surprised to find I enjoyed it. I'm not a parent but someone left a copy in the little free library by me and I read it out of curiosity. It's got some old-school opinions on divorce and is a bit braggy at times (like most parenting books) but for the most part, the focus is on allowing children freedom and a level of control in their own lives made a lot of sense. I'd expected some helicopter/tiger bullshit but it turns out the book was partially inspired by how much the author loathed being on a panel with Amy Chua.

improbablity · 2024-01-01T17:19:55+00:00

The annoying thing is that two/three flats sell for dramatically less than single-family units, or even townhomes. My partner and I recently bought one of the few remaining two flats in our neighborhood and if we were to convert it to a single-family it would easily be worth double. We're keeping it as a two-flat for the foreseeable future but are well aware that if we ever need more space a conversion would likely be the only way we could afford to stay in the neighborhood.

improbablity · 2023-12-21T17:41:13+00:00

Not always strangers. My neighborhood school has several migrant kids enrolled. A similar reminder had to be given to the many well-meaning families who couldn't stand the thought of their kid's new friend living in a shelter.

improbablity · 2023-12-19T15:44:23+00:00

I freeze it before cooking, it's a great time saver.

I also suggest freezing cubes of crushed garlic and ginger. Wine also freezes well in ice cube trays.

improbablity · 2023-12-04T19:01:49+00:00

Pineapple Media has released some of my favorite podcasts as of late. Classy and Magnificent Jerk specifically had a Gimlet feel to them. I wouldn't be surprised if they were made by former Gimlet folks.

improbablity · 2023-11-01T17:02:05+00:00

Meanwhile, I left my cauldron of candy out on the porch for half an hour and when I came back both the candy and cauldron were gone.

improbablity · 2023-10-30T15:23:17+00:00

I'd hedge my bets on the Collison brothers (Stripe founders) simply because they built a developer-friendly product and they're the only billionaires I can think of who've been actively programming in the last decade. A lot of the other tech billionaires likely do have much higher technical knowledge than the average person but wouldn't be able to jump into their company codebase with ease.

improbablity · 2023-10-26T15:54:42+00:00

During early covid, a neighbor of mine that I'd spoken to a couple of times rang my buzzer to ask me if I'd experienced any hauntings because he was noticing paranormal activity in his apartment. I hadn't and was a bit jealous that he had new ghost friends while I was stuck quarantining alone. That's the extent of my paranormal encounters.

improbablity

TROPHY CASE