The Irish contingent at this year's Edinburgh Fringe is particularly impressive - but it hasn't happened by accident, writes Brian O'Connell.
Karl Spain may have found a woman, but two weeks before the start of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he's still searching for a tight routine. Upstairs at the King's Head in Galway, Spain is nervously testing new material during his packed lunchtime gig. But part of him is thinking "to hell with it".
He's had a good year and perhaps the last thing he needs is a 20-date stint in a 70-seater venue in Scotland, where his recent television success will barely raise a ripple. So why bother?
"You know, I've been asking myself that same question all week," he says. "Edinburgh can be the most humbling stage in the world. The economics of it mean that you are virtually guaranteed to lose money. Two years ago, the venue I played in could hold 60 people - if I had 54 a night I broke even. It's a very gruelling experience, but there's still something that keeps drawing you back year after year."
Like it or not, for Spain and dozens of other Irish comics, actors and dancers, the three-week-long Edinburgh event is an essential stop-off point in their performing calendar. With more than one million tickets already sold and close to 2,000 shows on offer, Edinburgh is, quite simply, the Olympics of arts festivals.
Already, the Irish contingent travelling to Edinburgh is creating a stir, with sections of the Scottish media complaining that local talent can't match Ireland's cultural exports.
"When the reviews come out and the awards roll in, it's not hard to imagine Ireland coming out better than the home team," mused the Scotsman last week.
There is nothing haphazard about the emerald invasion though: of the 14 shows headed to Edinburgh, 10 have received funding from Culture Ireland, the new State agency promoting Irish culture internationally.
Next month, receptions will be held in Edinburgh so that these companies can network with other performers and producers and be officially unveiled before the home crowd.
From experienced veterans to talented first-timers, those funded cover a diverse range of performers and shows, including Rough Magic's Improbable Frequency; Barabbas's Hairdresser in the House; Inis Theatre's Tick My Box; CoisCéim's dance piece, Knots, inspired by the work of Scottish psychoanalyst RD Laing; relative newcomers Spanner in the Works, Flipside and Spacecraft theatre companies; Karen Egan's cabaret show at the Traverse; and Dr Ledbetter's Experiment, an onsite piece from the Performance Corporation located in an 18th-century medical faculty.
For many companies every last funding avenue will have to be exhausted to travel to Edinburgh, from credit union loans to inventive sponsorship campaigns.
Yet despite the financial hardships, for many the rewards are worth it, as regular Edinburgh aficionado and Cork Midsummer Festival director Ali Robertson explains.
"Outside the simple fact that Edinburgh is the biggest arts festival in the world, most performers will tell you that getting discovered in Edinburgh is more satisfactory than getting discovered anywhere else," she says. "It is, in a sense, the festival of festival directors, and many of us go to Edinburgh knowing that we will find totally unique shows there. It is also an incredibly good advertising window. If a show is running well in Edinburgh, you can get up to 20 promoters a day coming to see it, so it remains one of quickest ways for a performer of performers to springboard onto the international stage.
Culture Ireland's decision to allot €325,000 to companies heading for this year's festival underlines the importance of using Edinburgh to showcase Irish talent and of enabling novice companies to gain vital international experience.
Board member Mary McCarthy points to the fact that there is no formal structure in place here for inviting international festival managers or promoters to see Irish work in its intended context. The only option therefore is for Irish companies to travel abroad.
"Edinburgh is a key event to showcase Irish theatre and dance and allow it connect to a bigger audience," says McCarthy. "This year we had a strong series of applications by a very diverse range of companies, from older, more established troupes to performers who have never been to Edinburgh.
"We are very aware of the fact that there is no coherent structure to bring in presenters to Ireland to see work and go about booking international tours for Irish work. So, in many cases, Irish companies have little choice."
One of the companies hoping to attract attention is the Co Kildare-based Performance Corporation, which has been earning solid reviews for its off-site performances throughout the country since its foundation in 2002. By the time I get hold of artistic director Jo Mangan, it is 10.30pm on a Monday night and she is methodically compiling a list of all production materials to be transported to Scotland by ferry a few days later.
The company received €50,000 from Culture Ireland, which accounted for almost half its total production costs, and the show is its most ambitious to date.
"This is our first year going, and without the support we got, it wouldn't have happened," says Mangan. "It's still a huge undertaking. The past few hours I've been on the phone to our production manager making sure nothing gets left behind, from CD players to 450 metres of electric cable and the 18-strong crew accompanying the show."
Mangan isn't alone; director Rachel West is also finding the logistics behind her inaugural participation at Edinburgh hugely challenging. Aside from getting the English-language premiere of Under Ice, by German writer Falk Richter, into shape, West has found herself multitasking to an unprecedented extent over the past few weeks. Like many new companies, though, the hardest part of the Edinburgh experience is persuading festival audiences to attend her show.
"It's just been a huge learning curve," says West. "I wouldn't consider myself a producer, but it was only when I signed the contract that I realised what I'd really let myself in for. It's just been one deadline after another, from getting advertisements designed, to sending the copy, getting a PR company, organising the press packs and so on. It's just one thing after another really."
Given that so many companies are in pursuit of the same audience, West decided to employ a UK-based PR company to help her with some of the legwork.
So far, the decision seems to have paid off.
"We may have already gone over budget, but I felt the show hadn't budgeted for PR or marketing," she says. "I got aUK company on board, and am basically getting their cheapest pack. It means that they will help me guide publicity material, so that we don't just hand out publicity material down Edinburgh's Royal Mile. We will have a more targeted marketing strategy, which we need because it's not the type of show we can do excerpts from on the street. It will be a hard sell, I'm under no illusions there. It's not comedy - we are presenting serious contemporary European theatre and I just hope we can strike a chord. It's important for us to keep in contact with other parts of Europe."
Both directors should also benefit from having the Theatre Institute (formerly TheatreShop) at this year's festival, to help market Irish companies taking part, in much the sameway as the British Council works to promote British companies at international festivals.
The job should also be made easier by the fact that Irish performers are riding the crest of an international wave at present, from Druid Theatre Company in New York to Pan Pan in China, and comedians such as Dara Ó Briain in the UK.
The hope is that the increased demand for Irish artists will not bypass the Edinburgh audience.
Apart from the Culture Irelandsupported acts, upwards of 40 Irish performers will also be bringing their shows to the festival, from newcomers such as Bell X1, who take on the Liquid Rooms, to Parnassus Arts Group with its production of Dolly West's Kitchen, by Frank McGuinness, to Abie Philbin Bowman's Jesus: The Guantanamo Years and Edinburgh veterans such as Kevin McAleer and David O'Doherty.
In one sense, for Irish comedians headed to the festival it's less of a risk, though still a big financial cost. Since 1990, there have been three Irish winners of the prestigious Perrier Award - Sean Hughes, Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan - while seven others, including Owen O'Neill, Graham Norton and Ed Byrne, have been shortlisted.
The rewards for creating a stir in Edinburgh are huge, from increased peer recognition to developing an international audience, and Irish comics who build a solid reputation in Edinburgh often find themselves on the radar of British television producers looking to unearth the next Dara Ó Briain or Graham Norton.
A guaranteed sellout each year is the "Best of Irish" show, which includes performances from Michael Redmond, Owen O'Neill and Deirdre O'Kane. Other Irish comics with shows in the Fringe include established acts such as Dylan Moran, DaraÓBriain and Jason Byrne. It's also a chance for the next generation of Irish comedians, including Colum Mac-Donald and Neil Delamere, to kickstart Fringe careers.
Also hoping to create a stir will be firsttimers Andrew Stanley and Damian Clarke, who are coming together to do a show called I Dare Ya, where they allow audience members choose a dare which they then have to perform at the next night's show. The pair has been roadtesting some dares in Dublin in the past few weeks, from sunbathing at the Spire to turning into a superhero in a phone booth in Dublin city centre.
Fresh from her success with Naked Camera, Maeve Higgins will be hoping for a good festival and is bringing a new show called Ha Ha Yum, which features her sister, Lilly, baking cakes while Maeve cooks the one-liners.
If recent publicity, including in the Scotsman, is anything to go by, this year's Edinburgh Fringe could prove fertile ground for Irish performers hoping to establish themselves internationally.
For Karl Spain, though, it's all comes down to simple arithmetic.
"Most of the talk in the performers' bar afterwards is about how many people you were able to get in the door. If you were cynical about it, that's basically what Edinburgh is about. It's one of the hardest and most punishing climates to work in. To be honest, I can't wait!"
• Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs from Aug 6-28; www.edfringe.com