Steve Hili. Photo: Rene Rossignaud

Steve Hili is hilarious – but we wouldn’t know that had it not been for his many shows over the years and his sporadic Facebook posts about people with strange kinks… Indeed, Steve’s presence on the stage has meant that he has fashioned a great name for himself in the industry – both in Malta and in the UK, where he writes for media companies as big and as influential as the BBC and Sky.

His career has taken him to many places, too – on tour in Europe and Australia, for example – but there is one city that is very close to his heart: Edinburgh in Scotland, particularly when the Edinburgh Fringe Festival  is on.

Now, thanks to local training and consultancy company Ideas Alive, he is teaming up with another funny chap from the theatre scene – and one of Malta’s best-known scriptwriters, actors and comedians – Malcolm Galea, to help aspiring actors and counterparts take their dreams and shows to the festival they both love so much.

“I love working with Malcolm,” Steve says as soon as I ask him ‘Why Malcolm?’ “He is very talented and knows his stuff. We have worked together in Malta many, many times, from Adult Pantos to being on the same bill on Stand-Up nights.

“This year, we were performing at the Festival at the same time, too, so we got to hang out and watch a couple of shows together. He has been to the Festival a few times with different types of shows to mine, and so our experiences have been different. This, we believe, will give us more and better knowledge to pass on.”

Steve and Malcolm have taken in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival  on numerous occasions. Steve with Burning Love. To the Ground. With Lasagne. (yes, that’s one title) and The Comedy Shootout in 2017, as well as having co-produced and performed in The International Incident last year, among many others. Malcolm, meanwhile, in The Complete History of Europe and Porn: The Musical. The Festival welcomes hundreds of performers from all-over the world every year – just last year, in fact, it played host to over 53,000 performances of 3,399 shows in more than 300 venues. No other festival of the sort anywhere in the world even comes close to that.

“It’s the most exciting performing arts festival in the world, honestly,” continues Steve, who has made the Festival a big part of his life. “Performing there is a life-changing experience and I would encourage anyone and everyone who has ever dreamed of performing on an international stage to make the Edinburgh Fringe their first port of call.”

For many people, the process of actually becoming part of the Festival and performing there is massively daunting

The rewards of doing so can be huge: from talent scouts to having an international audience keen to see and experience more at your doorstep, and from seeing some of the world’s best and most promising actors and comedians on stage to getting new ideas, there is literally nothing like the Edinburgh Fringe.

“The problem is that, for many people, the process of actually becoming part of the Festival and performing there is massively daunting. Over the last couple of years, I have been asked by a lot of people in Malta for tips about where to start when it comes to the Fringe…

"So, when Michael Fenech [the organiser of the seminar, producer of Steve’s Adult Panto, and the man behind some of the Island’s best-loved shows, including Bla Kondixin] told me about his idea to run an information seminar, I jumped at the chance.”

The seminar, which will run from 10:30am and 2pm on January 13 within the Music Room at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta, will help attendees understand the process better.

Steve and Malcolm will, in fact, be going through the whole shebang, including what type of shows work at the Fringe, how to get your show Fringe-ready, the application process, the logistics and practicalities of actually putting up a show there, which venues work best for certain genres, how to go about meeting the right people, how to get audiences to see your work, and even how to get to get good accommodation in a city overrun by theatre-goers, culture vultures and actors. All this will be followed by a Q&A too.

“Although over the past couple of years, the Maltese contingent at the Edinburgh Fringe has slowly but surely grown, we hope that this can make it even bigger… Some nationalities have so many shows at Edinburgh that they even print their own Fringe programme to promote them all! I want the Maltese contingent to be big enough to do so too,” Steve concludes.

For more information about the ‘Take Your Show to the Fringe’ seminar,  send an e-mail to ann@ideasalive.com.mt or call Ann Fenech on 9944 9161.