Great Edinburgh Festival publicity stunts
The Malcolm Hardee Awards are set to return to Edinburgh this August, once again seeking out comic originality. One of the three awards handed out each year is for 'Cunning Stunt'. Below we list out three of our personal favourite publicity stunts that have won this award...
The topic of awards sponsorship has been in the news this year. Back in 2009 it was too, as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards were having to go ahead without financial backing. Schaffer bagged the Hardees prize after he managed to trick several publications into thinking that he had become the new sponsor in a deal worth £99, suggesting the Perrier Awards were now going to become the "Lewies".
Ferns created 2,000 fake paper copies of the Broadway Baby paper and included in them a 6-out-of-5 star review of his own show. The review said: "This is without doubt the best comedy show I have ever seen, or am likely to see in the rest of my life... A phenomenal show. Better than life itself." He then snuck a second edition on to newsstands which claimed that he had been nominated for both the Main Prize and the Best Newcomer at that year's Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
A clever flying technique won the 2014 Cunning Stunt title. It was very effective. Christian Talbot employed his 12-year-old daughter Kate to go up to people on Cowgate, look sad, and ask them: "Have you seen my daddy?" When the strangers said that hadn't, Kate would give out a flyer for his show and tell them that they should see him.
You can see a list of all the previous winners via the Malcolm Hardee website