How to Structure Your Edinburgh Fringe Stand-up Show
- Chris Head
- Jul 16
- 2 min read
Are you doing an Edinburgh comedy show this year? Perhaps you’ve got a lot of stand-up material you need to shape for the show? Here is a show structure that I work with to organise the material into a three-part structure to effectively pace the content and maintain audience engagement.
Part 1 (approx. 10 minutes): Start by establishing your persona. Select the material that best sets up who you are and where you’re coming from. At the end of this section, set up the central question or issue you are exploring (e.g., on a recent show I advised on it was "Why am I 33 and single?"). This provides the audience with a premise to follow throughout the show.
Part 2 (approx. 40 minutes): Dedicate the bulk of the show to exploring the central theme. (In a 45 mins set this section becomes 30 mins)
The job here is to complicate and deepen the central question.
Tangents: You will also go off on tangents that are nothing to do with the theme! The theme is the main road and you have all of these side roads you can go down and then come back.
Mid-set energy: Just past the halfway mark, where audience interest might dip, introduce a surprising or high-energy element—in the case of the show I’m working on, it’s a song—to lift the room.
Closing the section: Conclude Part 2 with the "worst points"—the lowest, most shameful, or embarrassing moments of your material.
Part 3 (approx. 5 minutes): Use this final section for conclusions, answering the central question. End on callback(s).
Want to work with me on getting your show into shape? I have given notes on structure, material, jokes, storytelling, and performance for a huge range of shows for Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, Melbourne Comedy Festival and more.
Among many others, I've worked on shows with Count Binface ("Bindependence Day, 2024 tour show - pictured), Stefania Licari (Italian medic comic with Edinburgh Fringe and Adelaide Fringe sold out shows). Richard Lindesay (flute playing social media phenomenon) and Matt Parker (maths comedy genuis).
Inspiring, practical and problem solving. Guaranteed to make the structure stronger, the narrative clearer, your performance better and the whole thing funnier!
Send me a video of the show and/or the script and I will review it, prepare my thoughts and then we'll work on it in a Zoom call. Following the session you receive detailed written notes covering all the points. £125
