Shows, scouting, biblical rain, several thousand Pad Thais, and an awful lot of brilliant people. Roo reports back from Sharky + George’s annual recruiting trip to Edinburgh…
Every August, we head up to Edinburgh for a few days of shows, inspiration, recruitment and general Fringe chaos.
It’s one of our favourite trips of the year, partly because we get to see loads of current and former S+Gers doing what they do best, partly because we always come back with new ideas, and partly because Edinburgh in August is one of the best places imaginable to find brilliant new people for the Party Team.
This year Claire and I managed to squeeze quite a lot into four days.
We headed up bright and early on Monday morning and arrived at Edinburgh Waverley to sunshine — an absolute Brucie bonus.
After dropping our things at Vicky’s, who very kindly hosts us every year, we repacked our bags with our new S+G recruitment stickers and leaflets and headed straight out.
First stop was Katie Pritchard’s Elton Scone’s Game Show — a riotous start to the Fringe.
We regularly work with Katie on bespoke immersive events, including murder mysteries where she appears in various guises as an improv pianist. Her show was light-hearted, silly and brilliantly ridiculous, packed with off-the-wall bakery-themed interactive games and original songs.
Claire was selected as a team captain and swiftly renamed Eclair.
We also celebrated another momentous occasion: the first Ting Thai Pad Thai of the Fringe (many more were to follow).
Next up were the Leeds Tealights and their show SPF 5000. As Leeds alumni, we’re always keen to support the Tealights — and hopefully drum up some brilliant new S+G recruits while we’re there.
After seeing some unbelievable writing come out of groups like Good Bear Comedy over the years, student sketch groups are always high on our Fringe list, and SPF 5000 didn’t disappoint. We’re hoping some of this year’s Tealights might find their way onto the S+G Party Team.
After dinner we caught S+G alumnus Matt Norman in Coco, the Time-Travelling Tart: flirty, fun, interactive and a chance to see Matt’s clowning abilities and rather raunchier side.
And somehow we also squeezed in Grace Campbell’s First Night of My Life. An absolute class act.
Even better, we bumped into Grace a couple of days later in the girls’ loo and she couldn’t have been more gorgeous.
Then back to Vicky’s for a well-earned sleep.
We divided and conquered for the morning.
I headed off to a science show for a bit of R&D and inspiration, while Claire went to support Fraser from the Party Team in Shakespeare for Breakfast.
After lunch we reconvened for a big flyering and recruitment mission, getting our stickers and leaflets into as many venues as possible and keeping our eyes open for people with that little bit of S+G magic about them.
Later, we met up with more of the Sharky + George team at Pleasance Courtyard to watch our own Kathryn in NewsRevue – the world’s longest running live comedy show (now in its 47th year).
We may be biased, but she really was the standout. Her original sketches about Paddington Bear and Nicola Sturgeon were totally hilarious, and we were incredibly proud of her.
We finished the evening with Not Another Quiz Night for a healthy dose of gameshow research and inspiration. They were a class act and we had a total riot.
Our luck with the weather finally changed on Wednesday. The rain was biblical, but our spirits weren’t dampened.
First stop was Dr Jimmy, created and performed by S+G HQ and Party Team member James.
Camp, original, informative and unlike anything else we saw. We were incredibly proud of the show he brought to Edinburgh this year.
We then hotfooted it back to the Pleasance to see The Crimes of Pete, starring Party Team member Honor and directed by fellow Top Gun Fabian, before staying on to watch Rosalie Minnitt as Clementine, a really strong and brilliantly funny piece of character comedy.
I then indulged in a personal pick I’d wanted to see for ages: The Underground Monk Show.
It was everything I wanted and more. I left feeling lighter, happier and incredibly inspired. It was exactly what the Fringe is all about — almost impossible to explain what we’d actually witnessed, but the audience absolutely loved it.
We went to bed wondering how Edinburgh manages to fly by so quickly every single year, and already wishing we had another week.
The sun was back for our final day, with recruitment and flyering our main focus.
We headed onto the Royal Mile, where we met loads of fantastic potential Party Team members and picked up some exciting leads for future immersive events too.
We spoke to students from Durham, Imperial, Manchester and various drama schools, all of whom we’re looking forward to following up with after the Fringe.
And then, in a pleasing reversal, we got flyered ourselves.
A producer gave us such a good pitch for Apparently Ugly: A Stepsister’s Story that we spontaneously went to see it.
It was an original retelling of Cinderella from the stepsisters’ point of view, and exactly the sort of unexpected Fringe discovery we needed on our final day.
Naturally, we then headed back to Ting Thai for approximately our 5,000th Pad Thai of the festival.
We were due to see the Manchester Revue afterwards, who really impressed us last year, but alas — the biblical rain had flooded their venue and the show was postponed. Absolutely gutted, we headed back to George Square for one final leafleting push before calling time on Edinburgh 2026.
As always, the whole trip was incredibly inspiring.
It was so fulfilling getting to see so many members and alumni of the S+G team doing what they do best. There’s something particularly lovely about being in Edinburgh scouting for new Party Team members while, all around us, people we already work with are putting on their own shows and pursuing their own creative careers.
We came away full of new ideas and inspiration for our own bespoke and immersive events.
And we met loads of exciting potential new Party Team recruits who we can’t wait to follow up with.
Four days was nowhere near enough.
Next year: surely we have to make it ten?
See also: Why we go all the way to Edinburgh to find our people
