Magic, mime and a whole lot of eating cheese: in praise of the ‘spesh acts’ that are thriving on the Fringe

Long before the time when comedy clubs became “alternative”, alongside the singers and comedians there would always be magicians, ventriloquists, acrobats, impressionists, and even more esoteric performers such as animal acts or contortionists. These specialists tended to be cursed with the “spesh act” tag, which meant they'd be stuck in the middle of club bills for ever, never to reach headline status.

Magician James Phelan | Contributed

The sneer on the face of a comic when they said “he’s just a spesh act” always struck me as irritating, given that the “spesh” acts are the ones with actual skills.

Edinburgh has run the gamut of special over the years, from the Jim Rose Circus to Cirque du Soleil, and so much of it starts with the buskers that throng the streets in August. You should appreciate them.

It takes a lot to attract and hold an audience on a street, to carve your own theatre out of a busy public place – but jugglers, acrobats and even mimes do it with every performance. Starting on the street puts iron in the soul of any performer.

Kiwi Sam Wills – better known as Tape Face – has a diploma in New Circus, a love of vaudeville, and a passion for freak shows. Tape Face, who looks like Claudia Winkleman being held hostage, offers a clever twist on modern mime. By its very nature, is wordless comedy more universal, I wonder. It comes with its own demands, he says. “Ideas are what are being communicated and for that you need clarity. If your idea isn’t clear to an audience then it’s easy for it to be misinterpreted.”

Sam Wills aka Tape Face | Contributed

Wills came via shock comedy and vaudeville influenced circus, and first entranced the Fringe in 2010. He immediately began collecting awards and carving out a prestigious career trajectory for new age spesh acts from Fringe to mainstream. Does he worry that he might have set up the same TV and big management expectations for spesh acts on the Fringe that the stand ups developed ?

“We all stand on the shoulders of gods,” he says “But to map your career on others is pointless as you only have your own path in reality.”

Bit by bit – and helped by exposure from shows like Britain’s Got Talent - the spesh acts have begun to reclaim their 21st century “specialist” status. Increasingly magic, in many forms, is coming to the Fringe. Fancy 1 Hour of Insane Magic, the Great Baldini (with Baldwin his magical dog) in Family Magic, or audience participation, nudity and strobe lighting in Adults Only Magic ? All are here for you.

The PBH Free Fringe alone offers 42 different magic shows: magic with bubbles or balloons, strait-jackets or Rubik's Cubes, illusions, (alleged) mind reading, hypnosis, revenge, fleas and professional grumpiness. And all for free. It is a place where a little magical acorn can grow into a great magical oak of a show.

“My worry with magic is its sometimes crusty reputation,” says magician James Phelan. “It's always been like that.” But after his initial producer went bust he began a magical Edinburgh rise on PBH's Free Fringe. To the outside observer, given that this year he is playing the McEwan Hall, it might seem that he has had the fairytale. But even pre-Prince Cinderella never worked as hard as Phelan. It has all been self-funded and self-produced.

“From 30-40 seats a day in 2019 to 500-600 a day in 2024 is huge,” he says. “That said though, it’s not been easy. It's come from focusing on the audience. But really you don't feel the 'fairytale'. I've made every small decision, every little strategy, everything happening to push and carry me forward. I handle it all in-house because it's how I work best, I think.”

Magician James Phelan puts his success down to 'focusing on the audience' | Contributed

This year the show is a huge production. Whilst it's funded itself – paid for entirely from its own ticket sales, no outside money or investment, promoter or producer – the show this year has cost six figures. That said, this has built from three years ago where it cost literally nothing. “I paid £1000 for a room in a flat and that was it. All the flyering costs were paid for from the takings from the show bucket.” Inspiration for everyone who thinks that magic is that they need a producer and a PR. Magic aside, Fringe “specialisms” have grown yearly, and more.

In 2000 the Fringe was treated to the debut of Puppetry of the Penis, and if you missed this stunning display of Aussie manipulation of manly parts, I feel genuinely sorry for you. We have not really seen its like since their swansong in 2017. Since 2009 A Young Man Dressed As A Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man Sits On A Rocking Chair for 56 Minutes And Then Leaves has pushed the boundaries of performance into realms of surreality.

And talking of surreal, back down on PBH Free Fringe, closing his venue each night in the smallest of hours, to say nothing of taking enormous risks with his health and personal well-being just for your entertainment, Mark Dean Quinn will sit on stage, eating his way through as many kilos of cheese as he can in the time allotted. “Mainly Gouda,” he says. “Low in lactose. We don't talk about the Stilton show. Even the audience was sworn to secrecy.”

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Potentially redefining special in a different way, back with us is the amazing 10,000 Digits of Pi which is an attempt to remember and recite exactly what it says in the title. With forfeits for failures.

Everyone should try a “spesh” show, whether it is gin tasting, being turned into a puppet by Nina Conti or belting out one song to the tune of another. And if you really want to walk on the wild side of this year's Fringe … there are a lot of accordion shows around.

Tape Face: 20, Pleasance Courtyard, 7.30pm, until 10 August

1 Hour of Insane Magic, Orchard at Gilded Balloon, 5.45pm, until 24 August

Family Magic, Theatre3 at theSpace, 3.10pm, until 16 August

Adults Only Magic Show, Studio Three at Assembly George Square, 9.25pm, until 24 August

James Phelan – The Man Who Was Magic, McEwan Hall at Underbelly, 5.30pm, until 13 August

Mark Dean Quinn: Oh No There’s No More Cheese (But Then There’s Lots of Cheese?), PBH’s Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth, 1.50am, until 24 August

10,000 Digits of Pi, PBH’s Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth, 1.30pm, until 25 August

Nina Conti: Whose Face is it Anyway?, McEwan Hall at Underbelly, 7.20pm, until 15 August

READ MORE: When ventriloquist Nina Conti put on a monkey suit the result was romance and a road movie