Making Creativity Pay

“ I used to tell people at primary school I was gonna be a film director when I grew up. I don’t know what happened in my childhood that made that happen but it was just a very strong determination and I think when I went to secondary school and people started sort of talking about their careers, I just had this feeling that, if I didn't try, I would always regret it."

Ashley Catherine Dick founder of film company Cinora.  We talk about how she got into filmmaking, how video and film differ and some of the things she’s created such as Cinora’s short film ‘The Boulder’ and the Glasgow version of Subway Takes called ‘Clockwork Orange Takes‘

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/cinorafilms/ 

Website:  

https://www.cinorafilms.com/ 

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@Cinorafilms 

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@cinorafilms 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

“  We've done a couple of boat cruises with Brian Blessed called Overboard with Brian Blessed, which was great fun 'cause people just love being in the room with him.

The first one we did on the Thames, we'd written this beautiful script about all of the facts about this, that and the other when we passed them on the river and he sort of had the piece of paper and went, what the fuck is this? And just literally threw it out the window and then just started telling stories for two hours.” Giles Gear founder of Giddy Aunt Comedy and founder of the Cheerful Earful Podcast festival which starts in the UK on the 12th October.

We talk about how the festival came about, the importance of building a community and also other parts of Giddy Aunt comedy including the fantastically named Golden Lobes which is a podcast awards evening which has representation from indie podcasters through to national giants.

We also talk about the range of live events Giddy Aunt has set up including Louis Theroux, Brian Blessed and many more. 

Festival Tickets: https://cheerfulearful.podlifeevents.com/ 

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/cheerfulearfulpodfest/ 

https://www.instagram.com/giddyauntcomedy/ 

Website:  

https://www.cheerfulearful.co.uk/ 

https://www.giddyauntcomedy.com/ 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

“ So it's full on promo, just trying to get the word out there. We are a non-for-profit festival. We don't get any funding, so it's pretty much just on myself and Jessica who's the director of the festival. getting out to all the cafes and putting the brochures out,... just kind of getting the city hyped up about the festival.” - Aimee Perry who is the Programmer for the Women In Comedy festival which starts in Manchester on the 2nd October

We talk about the work that goes in to organising and promoting a festival of this size, what the festival can offer performers and Aimee’s wider experience in comedy working previously at The Bill Murray and Gilded Balloon and her current role as Head Booker at the Frog & Bucket comedy club in Manchester.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenincomedyfestivaluk/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WomenInComedyFestivalManchesterUK 

Website: https://womenincomedy.uk/ 

Festival Tickets: https://wicf.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/⁠ 

This episodes guests are Comedian and Author Laura Lexx and Dr. Oliver Double, Reader in Comic and Popular Performance at the University of Kent.

We talk about their new YouTube show and podcast "The Comedy Bureau" described as "set in afictional-but-familiar academic department within UNI - The University of Niche Interests.This dusty, underfunded - yet somehow still operating - department is staffed by two real-lifecharacters from opposite ends of the comedy world: full-time performer Lexx, and renownedcomedy scholar Double, once dubbed by Stewart Lee as 'the Charles Darwin of alternativecomedy'."

We talk about dissecting comedy, how the show came about and the various areas around promoting a new show from Social Media clips through to YouTube thumbnails.

Links:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the.comedy.bureau Laura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexxlaura/

Oliver Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliver.double

Laura Website: https://lauralexx.co.uk/

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-comedy-bureau/id1836934156

Episode Image: Karla Gowlett https://www.instagram.com/karlagowlett/

“TikTok is great for testing out new ideas really quickly and seeing what sticks and having those seeds of an idea, but writing an hour is completely different.

So I'm able to build on those characters that I've tested out on TikTok but I've really enjoyed having a whole hour to carve out a whole story and weave in an arc and all of these kind of storytelling things.”

Comedian Zara Gladman about her Fringe show and also her Sketch show Good For Her which aired on BBC Scotland and is also available to watch on iPlayer.

We talk about turning characters developed on TikTok to ones that can be expanded both in a sketch show and also an hour long Edinburgh Fringe show, we discuss Zara’s use of social media to highlight the cost of putting on a Fringe show and also how the music of CMAT was a perfect fit to the end of Good For Her.

Good for Her on iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002fzvl/good-for-her 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zanyzaz 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@zaragladman 

Website: http://www.zaragladman.com/ 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

" I just wrote 40 pages, booked in a preview in October last year at the Bill Murray, knowing I didn't have an ending I was like, just do it, perform it, then chat to the audience. I even sold it as like, please don't come, to really thin out the people who were gonna go. So, I think we had like 30 people at the Bill Murray who were gathered, who were like the hardcore and wanted to see a play about a puffin."

Stuart is at the Edinburgh Fringe this year with a variety of shows ranging from a play to stand-up to saying never for an hour dressed as Michael Caine.  

We talk about the development of the shows, the difference between comedy in a play versus stand-up, his work directing others and creating shows with his production company Turtle Canyon.

Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on?search=true&text=stuart%20laws  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stuartlawscomedy/  

Website: https://www.stuartlaws.com/ 

Podcast/Tour Dates etc., https://linktr.ee/stuartlawscomedy 

Turtle Canyon Comedy: https://www.instagram.com/turtlecanyoncom 

Sketchburn: https://www.sketchburn.com/  

Stuart Laws: Is that Guy Still Going? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeOYMIEXu44 

The Debuts (Fringe Film): https://youtu.be/U013qgaOJU0

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

" I think it's important to be strategic going into the fringe and to have goals and to be very clear with yourself about what those goals are. But I think you need to phrase them in ways that can always come back to something you are in charge of.

So your goal can never be, I want to win an award, or I want to get a five star review because somebody else decides that. But you can, you know, move all those same things internally to be like, I want to make the kind of show where I have explored this thing, or I use this technique, or the audience has this sort of experience from it.

And then you just do that as well as you can really. " - Latest guest Comedian and Writer Joz Norris.

Joz is at the Edinburgh Fringe this year with his show You Wait.Time Passes. We discuss developing the show and how he sees his role as a director for a number of other performers.

We discuss creating work and getting it commissioned and how he used crowdfunding to create a pilot called The Happiness Chain.

We also talk about Eggbox, an occasional evening at Pleasance Theatre in London which mixes live script readings and short films as well as his weekly newsletter which covers a wide range of subjects around creativity and comedy. 

Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/joz-norris-you-wait-time-passes    

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joznorris  

Website: https://www.joznorris.co.uk/ 

Newsletter: https://joznorris.substack.com/ 

Eggbox: https://www.instagram.com/eggboxcomedynight/ 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

Social Media is another job, I don’t need another job.

Sikisa is at the Edinburgh Fringe this year with her show Serving Justice, we discuss her being called the hardest working comedian on the circuit, her wrestling podcast and combining all this with a job as an immigration lawyer.

We also talk about her taking part in Stuart Law’s film The Debuts that followed performers taking their debut shows to the Fringe.

We recorded this on board The Tattershall Castle home of Boat Show Comedy Club in London, so you may hear the odd creak or two.

Tickets:  https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/sikisa-serving-justice 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sikisacomedy/ 

Website:  https://www.sikisacomedy.com/ 

Wrestle Club UK Podcast: 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6xlQkt1TNsB40KrhT3gfd5?si=f314bfc9df96467e 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wrestleclub-uk-podcast/id1714805450 

Stuart Laws’ film The Debuts: https://youtu.be/U013qgaOJU0?si=_pdbUfrOich_Ej6R 

Boat Show Comedy Club: https://www.boatshowcomedy.co.uk/ 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

 When I first started introducing rap into comedy, I thought people would find it trickier to switch between the two, but they don't.

I think people get used to, okay, we've got this rap, and then it stops, and then you move into doing standup, and then you do standup for a while, and then a rap comes in and it's a nice device to have as a comedian in terms of pacing and energy and keeping an audience engaged. - This episode's guest Rap Comedian Amelia Hamilton.

Amelia is at the Edinburgh Fringe this year with her show Forget Me Not, we discuss the difference between a Rap Comedian and a Comedian Rapper, doing the right kind of flyering for the right audience as well as creating merch and putting together an album of her work.

Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/amelia-hamilton-forget-me-not 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/ameliahamiltoncomedy/ 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ameliahamiltoncomedy 

Website: https://ameliahamiltoncomedy.com/ 

Cover Art Design: https://www.instagram.com/walshjanelaura/ 

Cover Art Photo: https://www.instagram.com/bekor_/ 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 

Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/ 

It's a welcome return to the podcast for Comedian and Writer Kathleen Hughes, Kathleen previously appeared on the podcast in an episode with Jay Lafferty ahead of last year's fringe. 

This episode was recorded earlier this year ahead of Kathleen’s final few performances of her 2024 Fringe show Cryptid, we talk about her experience at last year’s Fringe, the creative and financial reasons for taking on a two-year show cycle with having a shorter work in progress run of her new show Twig at this years Fringe.

We talk about her further development of the humour mill which is a series of workshops and meetups that happen monthly in Edinburgh and Glasgow and also discuss why comedians love CMAT so much.

Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/kathleen-hughes-twig-wip  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenwho_/ 

The Humour Mill: https://www.instagram.com/humourmill/ 

The Day I Died Podcast: 

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4oYvbFbCwoKk5PWJK4SUfA?si=6b92bd4382724579 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gr/podcast/the-day-i-died/id1800712476 

Cover Art Photo:  https://www.instagram.com/daruleofthirds/ 

Find More about ‘Making Creativity Pay’

Website: https://podcasting.makingcreativitypay.com/episodes/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_the_Pod 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makingcreativitypay/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danjbarnett/ 
Making Creativity Pay Newsletter: https://makingcreativitypay.substack.com/