The main Edinburgh Festival features hundreds of artistic performances, covering all genres. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, although possibly more well known, is an offshoot and the best way to understand the history is probably to watch this 2024, 55 minute video by Dominic Frisby (which also happens to feature Jimmy, around 22 minutes in).

Jimmy has mentioned that he first visited the Fringe in 2000, to see what it was all about. At the time his car was a Rover 75 (which he has described as a mock Tudor Jaguar) and he had to sleep in it to save money.

While he was there he did sneak in a performance though, when he entered the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards He didn’t win but him and Andy Zaltzman impressed – see in this article link (here).

For up-and-coming comedians everyone tells them to “go to Edinburgh” (including Jimmy, who has said “if you want to get into comedy – don’t go on holiday to Spain, go and see what Edinburgh is like”).

The problem, as with many things in life, seems to be money.

The UK comedy scene probably hasn’t changed much from when Jimmy was starting out in that people try and get 5-minute spots in comedy clubs and rooms above pubs, to gain experience. See UK Comedy Circuit for more about the life of a jobbing comic, here.

Going up to spend 2-3 weeks in Edinburgh means you have not only the expense of travel and accommodation (which goes up in price, during the Fringe) but you also have to print flyers, to promote your show…and find enough money to eat (and, allegedly, some may partake of beverages too).

Over the years I’ve seen many articles describing how new comics have ended up in debt, through trying to make it at the Fringe.

But Jimmy’s August 2001 attendance was possibly bigger in the rear-view mirror than it would have seemed at the time. Because, for 2 weeks at the Café Royal, he was part of a sketch show, called Rubbernecker, with 3 other comedians. I would imagine that most people would recognise the names of the first 3:

Jimmy Carr
Ricky Gervais
Stephen Merchant
Robin Ince

Originally posted by Stephen and then reposted by Jimmy (here) Stephen had said underneath it (about Rubbernecker):

…we only performed for two weeks and it went very well. So afterwards I decided to stop doing stand-up. Our TV work had taken off and it seems like an unnecessary stress that I could live with out

In Stephen’s 2025 06 appearance on Neal Brennan’s Blocks this photo was flashed up and it’s also been published by Stephen / re-tweeted by Jimmy.

I’ve seen mentions in forum discussions that Gervais and Carr had been on the same stand-up bill at the Hen and Chickens that year and that, in Rubbernecker, Gervais was doing his Derek Character.

The Edinburgh programme entry:

I’m assuming the (19.00) is the end time as I’ve since found Festival listings on the British Newspaper Archives (from The Scotsman) that only list the show under 17.45pm. And an interview with Ricky said that they got “18 minutes each”.

Despite Stephen saying “two weeks” this would have been 8 daily performances and, in 2024, Paul Sinha tweeted that Rubbernecker was “the show on before us at the same venue each night”. This was referencing a “Big Value” showcase which included Micky Flanagan (performing his Out Out routine).

Venue 47 refers to a number allocated by the Fringe organisers and the address (for the benefit of using Search) is Café Royal, 17-19 West Register Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AA.

Chortle gave them a brief write-up saying:

Comics messing about and possibly embarrassing themselves. The title? There’ll be bits you know you shouldn’t watch, but be compelled to, in the same way as a car crash.

There are a couple of longer reviews in this post – here – that give you an idea of what the show content was like.

Edinburgh 2001 ran from August 5^th to 27^th and here is the Programme for 2001.

In Oct 2000 Jimmy and Ricky would have met on the 11 O’clock show, Jimmy submitted some material for Meet Ricky Gervais (see here) and the 2 of them (plus Stephen) also worked at XFM Radio.

As I like to wrap some context around the comedians that Jimmy came through the trenches with – the comics seen at the Fringe 2001 included the ones below – with their show name indicated, where I could find it.

Note that lists like this are the people that have drifted in and out of Jimmy’s TV shows and career (and not just my favourites). As I’ve mentioned in other posts – when people wonder why these guys all appear on each other’s TV / Radio shows or podcasts – they’ve known each other for 25+ years, bumping into each other at clubs and festivals.

In no particular order…

• Joan Rivers (appeared on Jimmy’s UK panel shows)
• Stephen K Amos
• Andy Parsons
• Daniel Kitson (Love, Innocence and the Word Cock)
• Alan Davies
• John Oliver
• Ross Noble (Slackers Playtime)
• Dara O’Briain
• Tommy Tiernan
• Danny Bhoy
• Otis Lee Crenshaw (Rich Hall)
• Daniel Kitson (Love Innocence and the Word C**k
• Andrew Maxwell
• Dominic Frisby
• Adam Hills (Go You Big Red Fire Engine)
• Sarah Kendall
• Emo Philips
• Johnny Vegas (Being Johnny Vegas)
• Jason Byrne
• Micky Flanagan

Next see Edinburgh 2002 / Bare Faced Ambition