Comedians add to crisis club's woes

Danny James, Gary Delaney, Martin Bigpig and Kevin Hayes all claim to be owed money by Mr McAleer for gigs at his comedy club, which closed in June.

Mr McAleer is also being pursued through the courts by two Edinburgh tradesmen who claim they were not paid for renovation work on the venue.

The legal threat is just the latest in a series of disasters to dog Cowgate Central, which has four Fringe venues where it was planned to have year-round community events staged.

The venue was originally to have been "the biggest on the Fringe" and there were plans to use the site of the Old Town fire on Cowgate to create a huge new city-centre venue.

But the plans came to nothing, and the theatre has lost several key members of staff over the last few months.

Comedy director Corry Craig, who had been with the venture from the beginning, left in June, and it has emerged that the musical director, Richard McCarthy, quit in May.

Paul Wagner, the original artistic director, left in March after an acrimonious split with Mr McAleer. Of the original core staff, only director of programming Angela Pfenninger remains.

Earlier this month, joiner Kim Tebble and builder Ken Smillie both lodged claims against Mr McAleer, saying he owed them money for renovation work. Both men worked on the building in March and claim they have not been paid in full for materials and labour.

The latest spate of legal actions has led to fresh concern about the way Cowgate Central is being run.

During the Fringe, theatre groups from South Africa, America and Zimbabwe will be performing at the venue, at the back of the Faith nightclub.

But old comedy hands warned that the Cowgate Comedy Club experience showed that performers and staff at the venue should ensure they have sound financial contracts.

Jon Briley, director of the GSOH Comedy agency, said Mr McAleer, a painter who owns two internet cafes, appeared to have little experience of running a venue.

Mr Briley, who represents Mr James and Mr Delaney, said they - along with Mr Bigpig and Mr Hayes - intended to file claims with the small-claims court this week unless Mr McAleer paid them cancellation fees of several hundred pounds.

All four comics were booked to play at the ill-fated Cowgate Comedy Club, which closed after less than a month.

Mr McAleer was forced to shut up shop after failing to obtain a drinks licence.

He tried to run a bar using an "honesty box", but said punters were taking advantage of the system.

Mr Briley claimed the comics had offered to accept half-payment of their fees "as a gesture of goodwill", but said Mr McAleer refused to pay.

He said: "Danny James was booked as compere. He did one of them and then all the others were cancelled. Mr McAleer said he wasn’t going to pay him because he didn’t think he was funny. I’ve never heard anything like it. It’s a ridiculous thing to say."

Steve Bennett of Chortle, the comedy website, said news of difficulties at the venue had been circulating on industry message boards for months and that people booked into the venue were nervous.

Asked about the latest allegations of mismanagement, Mr McAleer said the legal matters were being dealt with and he had no further comment.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the late-night comedy club advertised at the venue had now been cancelled.

The cancellation comes just weeks after artists were stranded by the collapse of another new Fringe venue.

The Wigwam Theatre withdrew from the festival after admitting that it was not in a position to fulfil its festival programme without going under.

The company, whose programme originally promised 350 shows over 25 days at the Fringe, with 24 companies including several high-profile foreign acts, blamed several "brutal blows" for the pull-out - in particular the withdrawal of an unnamed sponsor.

Wigwam Theatre was formed as a new venue this year, with the playwright Justin Butcher as artistic director. Robin Snowdon, who had worked at C Venues, was managing director. Its line-up was to include the premiere of Guantnamo Baywatch, the last part of a trilogy of plays by playwright Justin Butcher lampooning the war in Iraq.

The first in the series, The Madness of George Dubya, was a major hit at the Pleasance in Edinburgh before it moved to London’s West End.

The company had already run into a 10,000 shortfall, Mr Snowdon said. "As a responsible venue operator we are not in a position to fulfil all our promises to all our companies. We are financially unable to be confident that we could pull through without the company going under."

Fringe officials have been trying to contact other venue managers to find space for the artists affected by Wigwam’s demise.