Just The Tonic founder looks back on 20 years at the Fringe

For many, the beauty of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe doesn’t lie in the sleek and polished auditoriums with pricey tickets to match.

It’s in the grittier, backstreet cellars (sometimes caves) that, with a curtain and some chairs, are transformed into a comedy club ready to welcome thousands of punters across August.

That’s certainly the case for Just The Tonic founder Darrell Martin, who this year is celebrating 20 years of running venues at the Fringe and spotting some of the biggest names in comedy at the very beginning of their careers.

“When I when I think of the Fringe it’s not George Square with all the flashing lights and those big gardens,” he said.

“The Fringe to me is the dirtiness of Cowgate and the Old Town. It feels a bit less civilised, and that’s what I prefer!

“I’m from a background where I haven’t got lots of money to go away and do things. The world’s expensive enough without having silly ticket prices for shows.”

Just The Tonic aims to keep the original spirit of the Fringe alive and make it as accessible and affordable as possible for performers and audiences alike.

This year also marks 30 years since their beginning as a Sunday night comedy club in Nottingham, where they still operate.

Names to have done their first stand-up through them include Ricky Gervais, Jo Brand, Jimmy Carr, Sean Lock, Stewart Lee, and Tim Vine.

Romesh Ranganathan is one of the acts who has been through Just The Tonic.

Darrell has been taking acts to Edinburgh since 2002, and a current crop of big-name TV comedians came through the Just The Tonic Edinburgh venues.

“It all becomes a blur, but we had a time with Seann Walsh, Matt Forde, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan,” Darrell recalled.

“There was a little gaggle of that generation, a solid gang who’ve all gone on to do really well. You know them as normal people and now you see them ridiculously successful.

“When I first saw Rob, I was judging a competition. I had to argue with the other judges to get him to win, because they weren’t actually into stand-up comedy.

“I could see how good a stand-up he was. You could see that he had this sort of confidence that you could mistake as arrogance.

“It’s great seeing these people in positions that, in your early 20s, seemed unattainable.”

For all the hits there have been a couple of misses though – in one instance quite literally a big one.

“The one I think of is Greg Davies,” Darrell admits sheepishly. “That’s such a blunder because he’s on everything at the minute and he’s just so naturally funny.

“I compered a gig he was on and I just didn’t get it. I thought no more of it. I’d met this big bloke. He was alright.

“Then his name was popping up everywhere, you watch him and he’s hilarious. How did I get that so wrong?”

With acts ascending to TV, big stages and the Fringe’s shinier venues, it leaves behind a vacuum of slots to fill.

That’s where Darrell’s eye for new acts, the lifeblood of the festival, comes into play.

“I get a real buzz out of seeing new people do well,” he said. “There’s something more satisfying in that than seeing someone who’s already successful just having a good year, because of the life-changing thing that the Fringe can offer to people.

“If I see someone and they make me laugh for ten minutes, I’ll just go, yeah, I think they’re funny, and I book them.

“I’ve always felt it only takes one person to champion someone, help them get through a hard time where they might not believe in themselves. I like to think I might spot something in them that other people might not.”

In over 20 years of being at the Fringe, Darrell has plenty of memories. He reckons his favourite is from an afternoon slot years ago where they had an empty room to fill and he simply went through his contacts to ask acts if they’d come along and do a random, one-off show.

“Tim Vine did a show called Tim Vine Sings Tim Vine songs. I was at the back, just creasing up laughing because every time he opens his mouth, I laugh.

“He can’t help but be funny. He was singing his songs and trying to be quite serious. He just shouted out, ‘Darrell, you’re really not helping the situation!’ That made me laugh even more because it was Tim Vine trying to tell me off in his silly voice!

“2004 when Wil Hodgson won Best Newcomer is also a really fond one because that was a real roller coaster of a rags to riches underdog story. Me as a really young man grafting and helping someone and Wil getting the award.

“If we hadn’t crossed paths in that year, Wil wouldn’t have gone anywhere and I wouldn’t have managed comedians. A proper sliding doors moment, or more like crashing falls. We were both oddballs in our own way.”

With over 200 shows spanning 17 rooms in five different venues, Darrell admits it’s hard to pick out a top act to go and see this year.

“People say ‘what do you recommend…’ You almost forget half the stuff that’s on until you actually get going because there’s so much there. 200 shows is a lot!”

Visit edinburgh.justthetonic.com