PublicationsGigglebeats
Although ten people are listed as Gigglebeats’ editorial team, only one of them, John-Paul Stephenson, seemed to make it to the Fringe in 2013.
This is a shame, as last year the publication calling itself “The Independent Northern Comedy Guide” promised to bring a different eye to a festival that sometimes seems like a hellish arts pact between the South and middle-class Scotland. This year it managed to review 14 shows and bang out a couple of interviews and news pieces – all by the hard-working John-Paul.
On the whole, Gigglebeats is rather sparse on reviews – a quick scroll down on any page in its target area soon takes you back to 2011 when the site was set up, presumably with more enthusiasm
Gigglebeats is now a much easier read: a comprehensive redesign has got rid of the headline font set to Irritating Bold 18pt with triple line space. Hopefully some of the nine people who aren’t John-Paul Stephenson will start doing a bit more work. One of them could even help out with the sub-editing, so that there are more lines that make sense and less paragraphs that are seven words long.
Looking at its shiny new look, Gigglebeats has great potential if it works out exactly what its remit is. Perhaps it should stick to its territory in the English north, or only review northerners at the Fringe? The Fringe is so vast that focus always helps. It’s no less silly an idea than Scotsgay only telling Scottish gay people about comedians who are also gay and, preferably Scottish. Other than this we can’t say much about Gigglebeats’ reviewing style that won’t be contained in our reviewer-review of the one-man show that is Mr Stephenson.
Jemyma C Noevil
Reviewers for Gigglebeats
Molly Stewart
Lorenzo Pacitti
John-Paul Stephenson
