Edinburgh fringe comedians rediscover the art of dressing up for laughs

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jul/26/edinburgh-fringe-comedians-dress-up-for-laughs

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Is it the influence of the Earl of Grantham and the dinner jackets of Downton Abbey? Or has an old-school cabaret dress code made a comeback at the Edinburgh fringe? This year's festival, which starts on Friday 1 August, looks to be a more sartorial affair than fringe-goers may have been expecting.

A growing number of comedians are dressing up for the occasion; several will even don tuxedos. Among the smart set are the avowed "dandy" Charlie O'Connor, the DJ-wearing radio star Tom Allen, the "time-travelling" magicians Morgan and West, the impeccably smart Jimmy Carr and Jack Dee and the impersonator Luke Kempner, in a show called The Only Way is Downton, which at least justifies his evening dress. Even the poster for the comic trio AAA Stand Up could have been torn straight from the society pages of Tatler 70 years ago.

"I like to dress up. I look like an announcer from the old days of the BBC," said Allen, best known for his lead role in Radio 4's Dickens parody Bleak Expectations. "When I was a teenager I dressed in Victorian clothes because it distracted the bullies at my comprehensive. You don't get bullied if you are that far 'out there'."

Allen's dapper look is also a symptom of the growing influence of cabaret on the fringe. This section now takes up 12 pages of the programme. Marc Blake, a former comic who is now a writer on comedy, is watching with an analytical eye. "There is a move towards the showbiz tradition. There's an Edwardian, frock-coated flavour too, which has something to do with Downton," he said.

Trends in comedy tend to be reactions to the previous era, he has noted. The alternative comedians of the 1980s were keen to establish that they were different from club comics. "When we were starting out, people like John Hegley and Harry Enfield, and me too, all went to the charity shops and bought 'dead men's suits' to wear on stage," said Blake. "It was an ironic nod to showbiz that said 'We are not really like that'."

While character acts such as Eric Davis's outrageous Red Bastard, a hit on last year's fringe, have always worn costume, it is common now among traditional standups. Allen believes it can amplify the humour, but that it relaxes the audience as well.

"The crowd tend to like it because you are saying, 'I am wearing this because I want to', whether it is a smart look or an odd look, like Alexei Sayle's tight suits or Ross Noble's long hair. You are saying you are confident in yourself and sometimes it seems the most bizarre outfits are the ones we like the most. They seem to make audiences relax more," said the comedian, 31, who is appearing at The Stand in Life/Style.

But Allen argues it is important that the adopted look is honest and part of the comic's persona.

"You should not try to hide your true self," he said. "Audiences are very savvy. So there is nothing wrong about dressing in a straitlaced way if that is who you are."

Blake suspects it is trickier for a woman standup: "They are judged more on what they wear in any case. They also have to be careful not to look as if they are trying to be sexy. Unless they happen to be as funny as Mae West."

Suzi Ruffell, 28, from Portsmouth, who will be performing at the Assembly in George Square all next month, agrees. "The first thing for me is my eyeliner. It is part of my war paint. And I wear plum lipstick," she said. "I used to feel I had to wear a jacket. I felt it gave me status. In three years I had about 12 different jackets. But I don't have that crutch any more. Now I will wear a nice top and my stage clothes are sometimes things I would wear in normal life."

The importance, for Ruffell, lies in that "moment before you even walk on stage when the audience is wondering, 'Who is she?'"Ë

It is only beginners who do not worry about what to wear, believes Blake, because "they don't know any better". After 20 years of performing, he knows that "acts are judged in the first five to 10 seconds".

Blake suggests that even when a comedian is in a T-shirt and jeans there is big difference between the performer and the person wearing the same thing in the audience. "It may be a distance of only three to four feet, but you need to establish a demarcation somehow, although the compere helps and the stage itself confers authority."

Whether a comedian is, in the jargon, high status, such as Jack Dee or Stewart Lee, or low status, like Milton Jones, they need to consider the impact of how they dress and how they look. "There are also some middle-ground people too, of course, who are genial nice guys, like Russell Howard, Alan Davies or Josh Widdicombe. They may wear T-shirt and jeans, but they will have thought about it."

Blake's own early standup character, a German called Helmut, started off dressed in lederhosen: "I pared it down eventually to a T-shirt with a German flag on it. Milton Jones was an actor for 15 years, but then he pushed himself in his writing and found out what was funny about himself, so the crazy sweaters came later.

"It can take five to 10 years to get the look right."