Produce a Small Book for Mental Health this Edinburgh Fringe

Hi there! I'm Martin, and I run a comedy production company with an eye on mental health.

My company, Objectively Funny, are looking to produce the third edition of our Small Book for Mental Health, a pocket-sized booklet that we distribute for free to anyone working at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In 2018 I performed in my forth show at the festival, and the experience hit me in a very hard way. The constant push to get an audience, endless comparisons with peers, the exhaustion of performing every day for a month, daily social pressures and anxieties, excessive alcohol or drug consumption, all while trying to make work that was vulnerable and honest. It was all too much. It tested my relationships, and pushed me into a depressive space.

In 2019, the first year Objectively Funny produced a batch of shows at the Fringe, I wanted to do something about the widespread mental health problems at the Fringe. So we made a book, and handed it out to anyone I could that was working at the festival; be they performer, flyerer, venue worker, technician, producer, PR person, and god forbid even a reviewer or two. We handed out around 2500 in total. This got a lovely reception, with the BBC, Guardian, STV and others covering our work.

After the pandemic, the book felt even more important. So in 2022 we did it again, and again it was a success. We handed out around 2000, and I won a Comedians' Choice award for services to the industry, probably the proudest achievement of my life.

My efforts that year came at a significant cost to my own mental health however, as the Fringe's spiralling costs and increasing reliance on expensive marketing and PR companies meant that I saw acts that I love dearly have an extremely difficult month. I vowed not to return until the Fringe changed.

Two years later, and I have to admit, I might have been a little rash. However, supporting the mental health of people in the industry still feels extremely important to me and to my company, so we're back. In previous years we have run a fundraiser or two to cover the cost of the books, but in honesty this has just been a huge expense of energy and stress and (you guessed it) has come at a cost to my own wellbeing each year. I don't want to do that again.

As such, I'm asking for your support. £500 will cover most of the printing. £250 should get the design done. The rest will go to contributors, artists and charities who are offering their thoughts and experiences to the book. Anything over the cost of the book will be donated to Scottish mental health charities.

Thank you so much for anything you can give.

Martin x