The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with over 3,700 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!

It seems everyone is talking about sex workers these days.

From the Scarlet Harlot to Stormy Daniels, sex workers and their rights have been a hot topic, with calls for reform and support jutting against cries for rehabilitation and criminalization from both sides of the political aisle. Long dubbed the "oldest profession," it is long since time for workers' rights to be properly addressed.

Kaytlin Bailey, the founder and executive director of Old Pros, a non-profit media organization striving to change the status of sex workers in society, is doing everything she can to kick off those conversations. A former escort, Bailey has created a crackling solo show as an extension of her wildly successful podcast, The Oldest Profession, to bridge the divide.

Titled Whore’s Eye View, it's a mad dash primer through 10,000 years of sex worker history. From Ishtar and Lilith to Victoria C. Woodhull and Dora Noyce, the play provides audiences with a handy grasp on the top layers of sex worker advocacy and identity, underlining the gendered connections between sex work and military service. The daughter of a nightmare-plagued veteran, Bailey grapples throughout the piece with the stark gender divide between their choices, and the moral panic heaped upon them from either side. "If you hate people doing gross stuff for money, you hate poverty, not prostitution," she says during the show. 

Like a TEDTalk spun through a poppers cloud, the show opens minds as eagerly as it fills them with fresh perspective. To talk about the experience of developing the show, Bailey checked in with Playbill on a misty Scottish morning.

How long have you been working on Whore's Eye View?
Kaytlin Bailey: I started working on Whore's Eye View December 17, 2019 when I was headlining an event for International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers in New Hampshire. Then I did a week-long residency at the Barbershop Theater in Nashville, Tennessee January of 2020. Then some stuff happened—global pandemic, my Dad died, I built a non profit.

What inspired you to present this material in this way?
I've been a stand up comic for 14 years, and I've been hosting The Oldest Profession Podcast since 2017. I became a full time sex worker rights advocate in 2018, speaking to legislators and policy makers about this issue. Mixing stand-up comedy with history, personal storytelling and explicit policy proposals is something that developed pretty naturally from the culmination of all of my personal and professional experience.

Why did you choose to bring this show to the Fringe?
This show doesn't fit neatly into a box. It's not pure stand up, it's not just a personal story, and it's not like any history lecture or TEDTalk you've seen before. At the Fringe, artists are not afraid to mix and match different storytelling styles.

What’s been the most difficult part about performing this particular show in the Fringe so far?
I knew that I would be doing a lot of walking, but I did not expect it to be literally uphill both ways!

It was a challenge for me to find my audience at first, but people have been talking about the show and more and more people are starting to come. This is one of those shows where everyone knows someone who has to see it!

What has been the most rewarding part about performing in the Fringe?
After every show people stand in line to talk to me. It's such an honor to hear people's stories and I never get tired of hearing about people's experiences. This is the kind of show where people may feel inspired to tell me that they were a sex worker, and I might be the first person they're telling. It's incredible. I also love the audience members who tell me that I changed or opened their mind about the oldest profession.

What’s something you’ve learned over the run that you wish you had known before beginning performances?
I didn't realize that I would have to censor the word "whore" on all my outdoor ads. If I had known I might have made different choices about how to advertise the show. People seem to be showing up anyway.

What other Fringe shows would you recommend that people go see and why?
I loved Megan Prescott's Really Good Exposure, she does a great job highlighting what exploitation looks like in the entertainment industry and how sex workers take their power back. Michaela Burger's The State of Grace is an incredible story about a sex worker rights advocate from Adelaide Australia that is beautifully told. Ryan Patrick Welsh's Sex, Camp and Rock & Roll is another amazing show about a sex worker that will leave you dancing in the aisles. If you want to learn more about the local sex worker right's movement I highly recommend Ask A Stripper, where Edinburgh based advocates answer all your questions about the job, and the ongoing sex worker led labor rights movement.

Whore's Eye View is running at C Arts through August 25. Get tickets here.