Ask an Artist - Advice on the 2024 Open Access Program
Originally published in Fringe Magazine 2024
Advice on the Open Access Program
Three artists from the 2024 Open Access Program, Ash Flanders (A Brief Episode), Hayley Edwards (Shitbag) and Tricksy Collins (Assigned Magician at Birth), sat down to chat about participating in the Melbourne Fringe Festival as an independent artist.
Hayley Edwards: I guess as the person doing my first Fringe show, what would the advice be from you learned folk who have done it before?
Ash Flanders: I'm trying to think of what advice to give you but the best bit of advice is what you've already one, which is just to dive in and have a go. Which I think is the motto of any Fringe festival. The whole idea is that you can just jump in and try something and see how it works. Have you written the show yet or are you still making it?
HE: I have lots of friends that are like, "I've registered and then I'll write the show," and I'm like "that is amazing." My brain is too neurotic to deal with that, so I wrote it last year and did a reading at the Storyteller's Festival at KXT. But I'm from Melbourne and I'm actively part of the arts community here, and I thought, 'I shall do it at Fringe.' I'm so lucky, I got a slot at the Festival Hub, which is great because I was sort of thinking, if it's not somewhere near other people's Fringe shows, all of my friends will be doing their own shows and won't be able to see it if it's not close by.
Tricksy Collins: Yeah, look, this is a worthwhile topic to talk about, especially for anyone who is doing their first Fringe, which is that we've all done a gig in a shitty spot. Like, we've all done a gig in a venue that no one's heard about, that no one can get to, that public transport has never heard of. Just take all the experiences in. Don't worry. Don't worry about awards, don't worry about any of it. Like, for God's sake, don't worry about the Best Newcomer Award. It always goes to someone who's been doing it for years, but it just happens to be their very first Festival. [Laughs] But your first Fringe, is your experience to have your first "Oh, no. I had to perform for only one person." These are gigs that you're going to be talking about for the rest of your career. Just having a show on at all is the biggest success you can have. You have no idea how much further that pushes you along, just by having a show.
AF: Yeah, as someone who is an actor as well, nothing ever feels as fulfilling as getting to do your own stuff and putting that power in your own hands. And, you know, then if only three people show up, at least those three people got to see me in my final form. It's so much better than, I don't know, saying lines by dead Russians or an an ancient bard or even something like The Mousetrap. It's nice to do something that is relevant and speaking to now. I'm doing a personal biography kind of show and I found that's where I always get the biggest response with audiences, because they can feel that authneticity and they're hungry for it.
TC: I'm doing a one-person recreation of The Mousetrap, and I'm really worried that people aren't going to like it.
HE: [Laughs]
AF: What sort of work do you make?
TC: I'm a comedian first and foremost, but I'm doing a full magic show for this Fringe, because I've been a magician for longer than I've been a comedian, but I've always thought that magic was silly enough that I never wanted to commit to it fully. So, I'm like, alright, let's see what happens if I put an hour to it.
AF: Better to pick a stable thing like 'comedian'.
TC: [Laughs] This is kind of my thing, though, which is I've done so many fringes now, I've doe so many festivals where I finish the show and go,“I don't really know how that went. I don't know if that show was great.” And then after you've done 7 or 8 fringes or so, you're just like, every single one of those shows was a necessary step to get up to where I am now. Even a show that didn't do well, that no one watched. I'm realising how much whether they liked it or whether they hated you and everything you put on the stage, they’re all necessary steps to get you to where you are currently. And the nicest thing about Melbourne Fringe as well, it doesn't matter whether it's your 15th time doing the Festival or it's your very first one. If you're there in the artist bar, you're one of the artists. You did it. And that goes for everyone in the crew. That goes for everyone who worked on it. Everyone's got the same right to be there. And I've seen so many people, me included, coming into Fringe as well and then going, oh no, I'm just a newcomer. I can't chat to the big wigs. No one’s a big wig.
HE: We all have tiny wigs.
TC: Correct.
HE: Ash, are you doing a show this year?
AF: I am, yeah, it's called A Brief Episode and it's an autobiographical show about a previous show I made and the strange journey of trying to get it to TV.
TC: [Cheers]
AF: I mean, yeah, I'm the next Baby Reindeer, look out.
TC: Good for you.
AF: I'm much more of a geriatric reindeer. So, this show is about that journey of trying to turn your story into something else and then trying to make sense of your life. I went overseas at the time to have this fabulous Greek odyssey. And then, my life just completely fell apart [laughs]. It's a hero's journey, except the hero knows less by the end than they did at the start. And I've gotten to do shows at bigger venues and smaller venues and mainstage, whatever, but when I wrote the show at the start of the year I realised I wouldn’t be able to put it on any time this year, I'd have to wait around for these other institutions. Then I happened to see an email from Fringe being like, “Hey artists, do you have any ideas?” and I was like, "I actually do." And I was just so excited that this is a way for me to get the show up and out of me. What made you want to do Fringe for the first time, Hayley? Like what actually inspired you?
HE: I've always wanted to do it. I think every year I see people releasing their promotion and I didn't quite have what I felt like was, the story or the skill set or just the confidence to do it.
TC: Yup.
HE: Yeah. I studied acting and not theatre making at VCA. They split it for the first time. I was like, oh, no, no, I can't write. It's like, no it’s all fine. You can absolutely do it. My show’s called Shitbag, which is a play on Fleabag and the category of, one-person autobiographical plays by unemployed actors…
AF: I feel very attacked.
HE: …with unconventionally attractive faces.
AF: I feel VERY attacked.
HE: So it's called Shitbag because it's about Crohn's disease and, like, colostomy bags. Shit bags. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease two years ago, and it's sort of about that period. It’s like Fleabag, but with more queer shit. Literally. I’m working on my copy. Can you tell?
AF: I think that even that school mentality is something you have to shake. It takes years and years to go, “There is no perfect way to do this. There's no right way to do this. There is no ‘If I do this, this, this and this, I get top marks and everyone comes to the show and everyone loves it because I did all the right things.’” That doesn't happen. I think another thing is, if I would say anything to any person considering doing Fringe, it would be that we spend so much time waiting for permission for someone to go, “You are now a writer, you are now an actor. You are now a producer.” But Fringe is a world where as soon as you write a word, you're now a writer. As soon as you send one email about your show to someone, guess what? You're the producer. We only learn by doing and you'll get better every time. But I can't believe how much support there is now. I remember when it was just very much like the Wild West and good luck and all the best to you. But, like, please fail, please make mistakes, because that means you’re trying. Like, you just have to try.
TC: Yeah. Especially once the Festival comes around, we're a bit away from it now, but once the Festival comes around, everything becomes about, like, ticket sales and how many people you've got in the room, that kind of thing. I think every single audience opportunity is an opportunity to learn more about yourself as a performer, learn more about performing. Every single gig is an important gig to learn from, regardless of how many people are there or anything. Just every gig under your belt is a good one. So just doing Fringe in the first place is just such a huge essential step that it weirdly doesn't matter how well or poorly it goes, doing your first Fringe is the most important thing about doing it. You know what I mean?
The Open Access Program is a come-one-come-all bounty of independently created and produced events that speaks to Melbourne Fringe's vision of cultural democracy empowering anyone to realise their right to creative expression. Learn more about being an artist at Melbourne Fringe on our For Artists page.