What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
I am very excited not to go to work for a month! I work with kids and they make me very tired and spit on me quite a lot. The other day a little boy smacked me in the face with a spade. As long as that doesn’t happen in Edinburgh I think I will have a comparatively fun time.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
It’s a character comedy show in which I recreate an online roleplaying game. I’ve invented my own World of Warcraft-style game, and I enlist the audience as players in a quest to gain a magical spell book that will teach me how to teleport. On the way we meet an oracle, an enchanted amulet and a bunch of other fantasy characters. I was obsessed with these games as a teenager and this is an attempt to get some value out of playing World of Warcraft for five hours a day for a significant portion of my youth.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
The show makes some reference to a fairly heavy autobiographical story, but in the early previews this was a huge part of the show and it was incredibly depressing and not fun to do. Fine-tuning the perfect amount of emotional heft has been, and with a month to go until the Fringe, still is, the biggest challenge. Also I use a big hula hoop as a prop, and when I’m walking to gigs sometimes men on public transport will shout things like ‘hula hoop!’ at me, which is pretty hurtful.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
It kind of used to be an excuse to get drunk with my friends every night, but now I think I have to be more sensible. I’m a lot healthier now and I’m gonna go climbing twice a week and eat lots of fish. Maybe I’ll go for a swim at the beach – I’m an ice junkie now and live for the cold thrill of the ocean.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
Will Rowland is one of my favourite stand-ups and he’s doing his debut hour this year, called Cocoon. He’s very thoughtful and sensitive, and his show will be more rich and considered than some fringe shows from acts that have been going for a decade.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Back at the Edinburgh Fringe 2020 doing another hour of financially unviable alternative comedy in some sort of hot basement.
Where? Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two (Venue 33)
When? 21:15
What are your
feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
This is my sophomore year and I’m excited! As the Edinburgh
Fringe kind of coincides with the academic year, it’s a bit like being back in
school and working towards exams. Last year I’d say I felt like I’d studied,
but then when I got there none of the questions were what I expected, my pencil
broke and I needed the toilet whereas this year I feel much calmer and more
prepared. By which I mean I will be wearing adult diapers.
What is the premise
of your Edinburgh show this year?
This is a much more personal show than my last show. I talk about childhood, identity and what it means for me to be a foreigner in the UK. It’s also a much more topical show that dives into some of the grey areas surrounding the #MeToo discussion. This sounds more serious than it is. It’s a very silly show about being defined that pays homage to my home country. I won’t say where I’m from to keep an air of mystery but we’re known for tulips and prostitutes…
What is the biggest
obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
I’d say that this year I really tried to integrate the
sillier side of my personality, which in the process of writing the show seemed
to clash with the straight-talking part of me that wants to be able to joke
openly about things like sex and gender expectations. But I really think I’ve
done it, and it’s a perfect balance of both sides of me.
Has your attitude
towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
Well, five years ago I didn’t even know the Fringe existed, and that’s still pretty recent, so I would say it’s changed a remarkable amount. It’s less scary now than it was three years ago when I first went up to do a double-header. The more people I get to know, and the more I feel a part of the community, the less frightening the Fringe becomes. It is starting to feel more like ‘that thing I do in August’ now, which is nice. But I am still a baby comic in many ways and I can’t wait for the day when I feel completely at ease at this festival.
Do you have any other
Edinburgh show recommendations?
Oh yes! First, go check out Helen Bauer’s amazing debut Little Miss Baby Angel Face and see for yourself one of the funniest new voices in comedy. She will make you laugh and make you want to be her best friend – she’s incredible. Also check out Nathan D’Arcy Robert’s debut Glowed Up, which is a stand-up show inspired by his love of cinema. Nathan is one of the funniest people I know and an incredible writer, you won’t regret it! Also check out my fellow sophomore Heidi Regan, whose show Heidi Kills Time is for anyone who likes their comedy both silly and smart!
Where would you like
to be in a year’s time?
Heading back to the Fringe, I hope! I really enjoy making
shows, so I hope to keep doing that for as long as I can. Hopefully I’ll get to
do more fun things like writing for TV and acting, but the dream is to keep
getting better at stand-up and gig in as many places in the world as will have
me.
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
I’m buzzin’, mate. I lead quite an Anchoritic existence. If I’m not reading alone in my room I’m in a care home chatting to people with dementia. And they do things like deposit lumps of poo behind the radiator ‘to stop the temperature from breaking’. Which is great – but I’ve started to question their knowledge of thermoregulation. (To be fair, the temperature didn’t break at any point after the poo was dropped behind the radiator.) So, yeah, I’m looking forward to a month away from that.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
I’ll be closing Bound & Gagged’s AAA showcase at Gilded Balloon alongside the wonderful Nicole Harris and Adam Riley. That’ll be my usual 20 (featuring dementia, drugs, wound-dipping and a woodlouse’s pregnancy sack). I’m also bringing the critically acclaimed Pope’s Addiction Clinic to Monkey Barrel. Pope’s Addiction Clinic is a show that’s similar to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. It’s a place where comedians and audience members can share the stuff they’re most ashamed of and initiate a process of purification through confession. I might talk about the time I swallowed cat litter soaked in morphine.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
Asking comedians to cut the safety net of prepared material and bring something to the room that’s an undiluted account of their personal experiences. Having said this: I also fall back on prepared material because if I’m too candid I’m scared I’ll say something where the audience is like ‘Oof. You showed your true colours there, son. We were on board with the anecdote about putting your hand in a diabetic ulcer but we cannot, WILL NOT, tolerate you undermining radiators!’
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
I preferred it last year because I had a girlfriend.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
There’s too many to list but I’ll go for these two: Joz Norris is Dead. Long Live Mr. Fruit Salad. Joz has created a tulpa that allows him to vent any latent insecurities; any hang-ups or anxieties about feeling out of step with the world. As you’d expect from a show by Joz it’s silly and hilarious but the premise of disassociation provides a poignancy and psychologically depth. Similar to Edogawa Rampo’s dopplegänger fictions Joz uses the performative function of repressing his body and identity – in the character of Mr. Fruit Salad – to rid himself “of the restlessness in [his] heart”.
And Kelly Convey: Telephone Voice. Kelly and I started comedy about the same time and it’s been a joy to watch her go from strength to strength. She owns the stage with a Medway swagger and uses her unabashed coarseness to undermine the affectations of the upwardly mobile. She’s the ‘Chatham girl done good’ and she’s hilarious.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Stewart Lee said after he returned to stand-up in 2005 he wanted to build an audience of 3000 followers who were willing to pay £10 a year to watch him perform. I’m aiming for that.
I’d also like to remain in the care home, sitting in the garden while the evening sun purples the sky, ignoring all the residents who are tangled up in SCART leads or lying on the floor having fallen out of bed. (For legal reasons I’d like to state that this is obviously a joke.)
Where? Just the Tonic at The Caves – Just Up the Stairs (Venue 88)
When? 13:05
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
Very nervous. Every year I go to Edinburgh, I’ve just gone up to get better as a comedian, but this is the first year I’ve done my own hour long show. I have purposefully never been seen by industry, reviewers etc… for years and this year is the first time that I have invited that level of scrutiny and that does worry me. It feels like I’m poking my head up from the parapet and I have no idea what to expect on the other side…
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
It’s a joke filled stand up show about love, relationships and masculinity.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
My daily fight with myself. I have very high standards of myself which I inevitably fall short of. I’ve been running around doing as many gigs as I can a night, trying to get the material ready. There have been a lot of times this year where I’ve had to remind myself that comedy is meant to be fun and to stop beating myself up when a new routine isn’t perfect.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
Every year I take it a bit more seriously… I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I still love going up there and look forward to it all year, but this year has been the first time when it’s felt like it’s coming around too quickly rather than not quick enough.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
Yes! So many… a fellow stand up debut by my friend Janine – Stand Up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated). She is a brilliant stand up and I’m really looking forward to seeing that show. She was also in my Comedy Central series Modern Horror Stories where I got to see every day how annoyingly talented she was. My writing partner Kat Butterfield is the funniest person I know and she’s one third of the sketch group Northern Power Blouse. Their very silly show gets audiences laughing like no one else can. Two US comics who are coming over that I’m really looking forward to seeing are Emmy Blotnick (Party Nights) and Anna Drezen (Okay Get Home Safe!!). I’ve heard Emmy’s show as an album already and it’s really funny and Anna is one of SNL’s best writers.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Me and my writing partner Kat Butterfield (of Northern Power Blouse – a sketch group also up in Edinburgh this year) are developing a lot of TV projects, so a dream situation would be to have one of those in production.
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
Keir: Much like I imagine a grouse feels as it enters into shooting season. I would love to tell you that I felt healthy nervous anticipation and excitement but despite this being my 15th Fringe at this stage it’s all angst, baby – pure, unadulterated angst…
Jojo: Excitement mixed with nerves and flashes of blind panic!
Jay: It can’t be that time of year again surely? It feels like I just finished last year’s show. It’s one of my favourite times of the year as I live in Edinburgh, so it feels like all your pals come up to your but for a month-long party. Although this year’s party might be somewhat tamer than the last few…
Paul: Every July, I have the same feelings of deja-vu, mixed with disbelief that another Fringe has come around so quickly. On top of that there is a mix of anticipation, fear and excitement.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
Keir: I have a new play called Madame George about a psychic. I wanted to explore the nature of the things we choose to believe and how bitterly we will fight for those beliefs even when all evidence is to the contrary. Essentially, it’s about delusion which I feel is a very topical right now.
Jojo: A smart political observation of Brexit and Scotland’s place within that, beautifully disguised within the mind of a delusional psychic.
Jay: I am really lucky to have two Fringe shows with the Gilded Balloon this year. Alongside my 3rd solo show Jay Lafferty: Jammy, an uplifting show that turns the concept of luck on its head. I am also treading the boards as an actor. I was delighted to be offered the part of Jane in award-winning writer Keir McAllister’s brand-new dark comedy Madame George. The premise of the play is ‘a psychic in a slump’; a satirical examination of isolation and delusion with a subtle nod to the social and political stramash of ideas about identity in contemporary Scotland. I have had real fun getting into the character who isn’t all that she first appears to be.
Paul: I am doing two shows this year. I am acting in Madame George written by Keir McAllister, a dark comedy about our own delusions with a nod to the political stramash we currently find ourselves in. It’s on every afternoon at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose. My solo stand-up show 60 Minutes To Save The World, which is at The Stand’s New Town Theatre is all about trying to find positive solutions to all the challenges civilisation currently faces such as Brexit, Trump, Climate Change and the current state of Scottish football.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
Keir: Funding, funding, funding. If it wasn’t for the wonderful Korens (Katy & Karen) at the Gilded Balloon co-producing this with Watch This space Productions (as they did with last year’s hit The Bench) this play would simply not be on.
Jojo: I genuinely can’t think of any; I get to spend my days playing around with some of my favourite people.
Jay: As hinted at early by the curb of my partying comment – I will be 7 months pregnant by the time August rolls around – eek! This is my first baby so I have no idea what I’m letting myself in for also just to make it super fun all my venues include a lot of stairs so if you see a pregnant lassie sitting on stars don’t worry I’m just having a rest. I have had to consider my mobility, stamina and costume for hiding said bump during the play.
Paul: Finding enough hours in the day, and enough days in July, to do all the shit that needs to be done before the start of August.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
Keir: My attitude to the Fringe changes every year. Because I live in Edinburgh, I see close-up how the Fringe evolves and changes. I think one of the main changes is that the expense for performers has risen dramatically. That needs to change if the Fringe is going to be sustainable and inclusive. It can’t be allowed to become the privilege of those who can afford it. Performers and venues must respond to this too – an example this year is both The Monkey Barrel and Gilded Balloon offering half hour slots for performers. I think this is great idea.
Jojo: I’ve been participating in the Fringe for over 20 years and not one has been the same, it’s always wise to go into it with an open heart and mind (I’m quoting from the play!) but I do believe that in real life.
Jay: I have become more aware of the industry side of things – the potential to make amazing connections that can bring you amazing opportunity outside of the Fringe. Last year Keir’s play was picked up by one of the biggest international publishing companies Josef Weinberger Ltd. when you have an experience like that it just reminds you that you never know who is sitting in that room watching you so every show has to be the best show you can do – ha! – nothing like adding a bit more pressure.
Paul: Every year, the older I get it seems to come around a lot faster than it did before. Is it really 2018 already?
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
Keir: All the cast of my play are also doing solo shows and they are all brilliant so I’m going to recommend them – Jojo Sutherland: Riches to Rags, Vladimir McTavish: 60 Minutes to Save the World and my wife Jay Lafferty’s show Jammy.
Jojo: Well I’m going to egotistically recommend my solo show Riches to Rags, Gilded Balloon, Teviot 4.15pm.
Jay: Oh wow! I have so many friends performing someone will get mad for me missing them out. I would love to recommend Liam Withnail: Homecoming at Monkey Barrel Comedy. I have been doing my preview runs with Liam and his show is brilliant he gets better every year. Also, it’s not a show but do yourself a favour and visit one of the Bross Bagel pop ups at Gilded Balloon’s venues – they are the best bagels I have ever tasted – you won’t regret it!
Paul: Glasgow is very nice at this time of year.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Keir: Right now – I think just anywhere not having anxiety dreams about doing another Fringe… but I think we know I’m going to be right here, doing exactly this.
Jojo: Alive.
Jay: Wondering how I’m going to get through the Fringe with a 10-month old on my hip? A themed mother and baby show perhaps? I doubt it though not with my penchant for the potty mouth.
What are your feelings as you enter into
this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
We are ramping up to
Edinburgh! Pumping the hair dressing show playlist currently via Spotify. We
had a gig in Exeter and Barnes over the weekend and we are very much looking
forward to the late night shenanigans that our 10:40pm spot will bring.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh
show this year?
Pamela Jones has
come face to face with herself… in the Stylist of the Year Competition. The
audience participate as hair models. All haircuts are consensual…
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d)
while putting this show together?
The biggest
obstacle are how many versions of the show there are. We are currently sitting
on number 5! Makes for some serious brain melt remembering which universe we
are inhabiting.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe
changed at all in recent years?
I think it’s good
to go up with positive vibes and an open mind. You never know how it’s going to
Pam out. (Ugh)
Do you have any other Edinburgh show
recommendations?
Yes! Medea Electronica: Pecho Mama, Witch Hunt: A & E Comedy, Josh Glanc: Glance You For Having Me, Lucy Hopkins: Ceremony of Golden Truth, Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience.
Where? Assembly George Square – The Blue Room (Venue 8)
When? 22:20
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
I’m really excited to bring Séayoncé back to the Fringe this year, contact some spirits, sing some songs have a hot festival romance. Last year I met so many amazing people I’m excited to reunite with them and meet new people this year, especially because this year there is such an amazing number of queer performers coming up! I’m also a little nervous this year, I am at Assembly in a large venue and there is more pressure and expectations as it’s my second show!
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
Well it’s a comedy cabaret séance run by the legendary Ghost Whisperer Séayoncé. We will contact the dead, read some futures, spirits will take me over, practise a little voodoo, I’ll sing some songs all with a sprinkle of sordid hilarity. This year we focus on our notions of good and evil, the strength we find from our identities and what it’s like to date the Devil. I’m excited to take the Fringe audience to the darkest depths of the spirit world.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
I think the biggest obstacle is getting past the negative voices in your head when creating. Last year I went into the festival with no ideas or predictions on how well the show would do, and I was incredibly lucky and had a great Fringe and after toured the show to venues and countries I could never have even fathomed I would be in. This year is more stressful because people know about the character and there is more pressure to create a good show, and we all know sequels are the worst obviously not including Sister Act 2.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
My attitude towards the Fringe has changed but I still see it as an amazing opportunity; it has honestly propelled me forward in my career. But as a sole performer who personally funds everything themselves, it is so expensive and such a struggle to get your show together and perform up there for a month. I wish there were more schemes or that it was cheaper so that it could be more accessible for performers, I speak to so many incredible artists who can’t afford to take shows up.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
There are so many amazing queer performers going up this year with incredible shows. One who I particularly love and am constantly inspired by is Xnthony who is bringing up their show Confirmation to the Pleasance this year. Definitely worth checking out the show, as a performer they are constantly challenging and evolving the queer scene in London and I can’t wait to see the effect they have on the fringe this year.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
I would love to be touring Séayoncé around the world, performing to all different types of people who are in need of drag, cabaret and alternative character comedy. I would love to carry on meeting amazing performers and collaborating and being inspired by all the hilarious creatures in the world.
Where? Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker One (Venue 33)
When? 18:00
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
It is so exciting. It’s been 10 years exactly since I first went to the Edinburgh Fringe and doing my own show there is such a dream come true. I’m also terrified, in a nervous ‘oh shit I’m going to Thorpe Park and I may vomit on the big ride way.’ So, excited and scared. More scared now I have thought about it.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
Little Miss Baby Angel Face is an exploration of my love for tragic situations and the relationship with my Mum. My mum and I are two sides of the same coin. My mum currently has ghosts in her house and thinks in a past life she was on the Titanic, where I wrote and performed a monologue about being sexually abused and performed it at school (TOTAL LIE & also VERY creepy)! In reality her Mum ran a ‘drama school’ from their house (from when she was small) and clearly the drama continued outside of her work! Sincerity is what the show tackles and my completely in ability to be sincere when it is most required.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
It turns out a lot of things I have assumed that are super relatable, ‘we all know that moment when’ bits are very much a me only thing. Like seriously no one else’s Mum has told them about their past lives. Weird huh!?
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
This will be my first solo show, so I have always had different Fringe experiences. What is lovely is feeling more and more a part of it as the years go on.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
So many. Heidi Regan never fails to make me laugh. Sunil Patel and Jordan Brookes are comedy gods and of course I cannot forget the sweet comedy angel Rosie Jones.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Living in a world where large foreheads and powerful calves are seen as important assets.
What are your feelings as
you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
Like every year I am incredibly excited for the Fringe, but with a healthy dose of anxiety, fear and worry. But, all in all, very excited.
What is the premise of
your Edinburgh show this year?
The show this year is about whether or not the child version of me would be happy with the man I grew up into. And whether any of us know what we’re doing. Which we don’t.
What is the biggest
obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
I did an away weekend with
some friends and there was a warped wall that was particularly hard to scale.
Has your attitude towards
the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
The longer I’ve been in comedy I’ve found the Fringe more and more fun. I essentially get to spend the entire month with people I like and don’t get to see as often as I’d like.
Do you have any other
Edinburgh show recommendations?
There’s an absolute glut
of great stuff at Edinburgh this year. But I think Rosie Jones, Tarot, George
Fouracres and Rachel Fairburn will be class.
What are your feelings as you enter into this
year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
Excitement and fear. I had a traumatising experience with a stalker after my last show Back 2 Basics in 2017. I had to take a break from going on stage. For that reason, at last year’s Edinburgh I just did a work in progress show. I feel like I have been building up to this Fringe for two years. The silver lining is, I feel more prepared and comfortable with this show than I have in previous years.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this
year?
Fighting back against the
cruel treatment I’ve experienced as a marginalised person. I have an invisible
disability. I’m Bipolar. The state treat us cruelly by cutting our vital
support services and making it difficult for us to claim the benefits we need
when we are unwell. Individuals and sometimes whole groups of people can be
cruel due to misunderstanding of mental health issues and the stigma around
being diagnosed.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while
putting this show together?
Getting the money I need to produce it. I applied to the Arts Council but so far have been unsuccessful, so the show is mostly self-funded. Lots of kind people supported my crowdfunder and there have been donations at preview shows. I feel mission-driven to do this, so I don’t mind working hard to get the money for my show. It’s just hard to get the balance between doing waged labour and my labour of love. I believe when there is a will, there is a way. I’ve managed to get the costs covered, without selling my gold. I’ve sacrificed little luxuries like my TV subscription and Licence, a social life and most difficult of all, pedicures! On the positive, I’ve managed to (mostly) quit smoking, I’m also drinking less alcohol and more water.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
I fall more in love with the Fringe every year. I have been coming now since 2013. Last year I left early and went on holiday to Greece, which was awful! I just didn’t feel right not being at the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s my spiritual home!
Do you have any other Edinburgh show
recommendations?
Yes, and they are all by people who’ve experienced mental illness; Laura Lexx: Knee Jerk, Juliette Burton: Defined, Dave Chawner: Mental, Fern Brady: Power and Chaos, Alfie Brown: Imagination, Tony Slatteri: SlatteriWill Get You Nowhere, my indigo sister Clare McCartney in Working-Class Progress with Backenders, Mags Mchugh in Blacksheep, My director Phil Nichol: Too Much.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
Here, there and
everywhere. I’m a gypsy at heart. Most of all, I’d like to be in my happy
place; expressing myself through comedy, producing socially conscious creative
projects and guiding others as a mystic.