'It's intoxicating.' Behind the scenes at long-running Edinburgh Fringe topical sketch show NewsRevue
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Why return? I ask myself that every year. Having signed a one-year contract with the late, great founder of NewsRevue, Professor Michael Hodd, back in 2001 I found myself saying: “I’ll just stay one more year.” The answer eventually became simple. Why on earth would I not return, when this show gives so much to so many?
NewsRevue provides a unique launchpad to emerging writer-performers who cut their teeth on the show in a room above a Little Venice pub in London. I sometimes wonder if all the great comedy artists who have trodden the boards of the Canal Café Theatre (Eddie Izzard, The League of Gentlemen, Miranda Hart) leave the essence of their comic genius hanging in the air to imbue newcomers via some sort of comedy osmosis.
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Hide AdPutting a brand-new show together in eight days, every six weeks, with an entirely new cast and creative team is frankly nuts. It’s also intoxicating. NewsRevue, like the news, never gets old (in theory). That’s easier said than done. But one of the reasons for its success is the very fact that it allows for so many different voices.
It is a show that attempts to bring together people from similar and different backgrounds of all ages mocking common “enemies” so that everyone has a good old laugh. We have to move with the times. What was deemed to be funny ten years ago may no longer be appropriate or funny today. We are always checking to make sure we punch up and find clever, leftfield angles to news stories.
We also try to limit the amount of swear words as that can sometimes equate to lazy writing. I usually give the note that we mustn’t have more than one C-word, and no more than 3 F-words in the show.


Of course, rules are made to be broken and on one occasion we were hired to perform at a very posh 50th birthday party which ended with our version of Seasons of Love, from Rent, which ended with the four cast members holding up banners emblazoned with “C***” with everyone singing seemingly ad infinitum, but in perfect harmony: “We are all c***s!” It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever witnessed as the room watched on in complete silence. And then out of nowhere the audience exploded in rapturous applause, and we were booked to do another gig.
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Hide AdSelling a show like NewsRevue every year has its particular challenges. We are blessed that we receive so many advance sales as we are so well known and loved by many at the Fringe. What really makes the difference is the tickets we sell once the show has opened. That’s the real test as people are buying on the strength of the current show, not our reputation. It’s a lot of pressure to keep the standard up. That’s why we do three weeks of previews in London before coming up to Edinburgh.
Our first night of previews was Thursday 4 July, the day of the general election. Our opening medley is from the musical Wicked and it wasn’t hard to predict who was going to win but we had everyone on standby on the Friday to do rewrites if Labour didn’t get in. It is this ability to pivot and flex at the drop of a hat that has helped us stand the test of time.
NewsRevue alumni often text me as soon as someone in the public eye passes away so we can be the first to react. That’s a bit weird and morbid but it comes with the territory. We’ve noticed over the years that so much breaking news happens on a Thursday, which is always the day we have a new first night. The Brexit referendum, Boris Johnson’s resignation and even the Queen’s death all fell on a Thursday. So at NewsRevue HQ, we lovingly refer to this day of the week as: “It’s another sh*t yourself Thursday!”
NewsRevue, Underbelly George Square, 7.30pm, until 26 August
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