The 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the 59th Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
2006 was the first Fringe following the introduction of the new legislation banning smoking indoors. During a photocall at the Assembly Rooms for a play in which he was playing Winston Churchill, the actor Mel Smith lit a cigar, flouting the ban. Controversy arose when Smith insisted he would smoke onstage during the first performance - he did not go through with this claim. [1]
2006 was the first year that the udderBELLY, an offshoot of the Underbelly venues in the shape of an upside-down purple cow, was erected on Bristo Square. [2]
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Melvyn Kenneth Smith was an English comedian, actor and filmmaker. He worked on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the United Kingdom's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows.
Dylan William Moran is an Irish comedian, writer, actor and artist. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series Black Books, and his work with Simon Pegg in films such as Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run. He was also one of two lead characters in the Irish black comedy film A Film with Me in It.
James Anthony Patrick Carr is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer and actor. He is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of one-liners which have been known to offend some people. He began his comedy career in 1997, and he has regularly appeared on television as the host of Channel 4 panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Lucy Donna Porter is an English actress, writer, presenter and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She is also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote... Unquote and The Personality Test.
Alun Cochrane is a British comedian, and actor. He was born in Glasgow and raised in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. He was a co-presenter on The Frank Skinner Show on Absolute Radio (2011–2022).
Underbelly is a live events producer and venue operator, known as one of the "Big Four" venue operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. From its roots as a Fringe venue, the company has expanded to include a festival on London's South Bank and seasonal events in Edinburgh and elsewhere.
Jim Kenworth is an English playwright.
A smoking ban in England, making it illegal to smoke in all enclosed workplaces in England, came into force on 1 July 2007 as a consequence of the Health Act 2006. Similar bans had already been introduced by the rest of the United Kingdom: in Scotland on 26 March 2006, Wales on 2 April 2007 and Northern Ireland on 30 April 2007. Plain tobacco packaging and a smoking ban in cars with passengers under 18 were introduced under Children and Families Act 2014.
The Edinburgh Comedy Awards are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Established in 1981, they are the most prestigious comedy prize in the United Kingdom. The awards have been directed and produced by Nica Burns since 1984.
Craig Hill is a Scottish comedian, TV presenter and actor known for his cheeky, irreverent and camp act.
Chris Neill is a British comedian, producer, and writer who features regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland. Performing also as a stand-up comedian on the UK circuit, he has presented five solo shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2002.
The Udderbelly is an upside-down giant purple cow tent owned by the event venue and management company Underbelly, originally sponsored by E4 as the "E4 udderBELLY".
Justin Smith is an Australian actor, best known for his AFI nominated performance as barrister 'Josh Bornstein' in the ABC mini-series Bastard Boys. He is also known in Australia for his TV, film, theatre and television commercial work.
Peter "Pete" Firman is an English magician, comedian, television presenter and actor.
Edinburgh Comedy Festival was a short-lived festival of comedy shows which operated during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2008 and 2009. Effectively a marketing campaign for the "Big Four" venues at the Fringe - Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly - the designation was quietly dropped after widespread media and industry criticism.
Kev Orkian is a British-Armenian comedian. He has performed around the world from New York City, Los Angeles and Toronto to Dubai, Oman and Australia. Orkian has been compared to the likes of Victor Borge, Les Dawson and Dudley Moore.
DugOut Theatre is a British theatre company founded in 2009 by students at the University of Leeds.
Wilfredo is a fictional comedy character, created and portrayed by the British comedian Matt Roper.
The Reid Concert Hall is a small music venue in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the south-western corner of Bristo Square about 0.53 kilometres (0.33 mi) south of the Royal Mile, and is part of the University of Edinburgh. Originally opened in 1859 as the Reid School of Music by the university's professor of music, John Donaldson (1789-1865), it was designed by the Scottish Architect David Cousin and is a Category A listed building. The hall is named after General John Reid, an army officer and musician who founded the Chair of Music at the university. The Reid Concerts take place every 13 February.