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Ben Pope

Ben Pope: The Edinburgh Interviews 2019

July 9, 2019 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment
© James Deacon
Who? Ben Pope
What? Dancing Bear
Where? Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two (Venue 33)
When? 20:00

What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?

I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m looking forward to a haggis pie.

What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?

It’s a show all about work. Using stories about all the jobs I’ve ever had, I try and shine a light on the current nightmare work atmosphere we’re experiencing – zero hour contracts, unpaid internships, caffeine addiction and the erosion of sleep – and persuade you to work less and live more. Plus there’ll be jokes!

What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?

The sheer wealth of amazing (and deeply depressing) research and writing there already is on the topic of work. Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, Not Working by Josh Cohen, Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker… there’s so much exciting literature around at the moment. Trying to convert my sincere opinions and all the fascinating information and stats I’ve learned into solid material has been TOUGH. But very rewarding.

Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?

When I first came up in 2013 as a fresh-faced and -livered student, the Fringe was complete spiralling Gothic wizardry. This year will be my 7th Fringe in a row, so the varnish has come off – I think I’ve seen too much of the android machinery behind the Wizard of Oz curtain. That said, every year something completely blows my mind or breaks my heart, and if you boil it down, it’s a lot of hope-ful, wonder-ful creative people gathering together and grasping for something live and meaningful in a room and I think that’s really beautiful.

Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?

I saw some of Ed Night’s new material and he’s going to have a blisteringly sharp show.

Where would you like to be in a year’s time?

On holiday in Scandinavia. But if my incessant need for validation is anything to go by, I’ll be back at the Fringe doing another show and filling my body with deep-fried haggis pie.

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR BEN POPE: ‘DANCING BEAR’ HERE

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2019

Posted in: Comedians, Edinburgh, Interviews Tagged: Ben Pope, Dancing Bear, Edinburgh Festival, The Edinburgh Interviews, The Edinburgh Interviews 2019

Seven Questions With… Princes Of Main

May 26, 2017 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment
Princes Of Main are a comedy sketch group made up of award winning comedians and writers Ben Pope, Alex MacKeith and Jamie Fraser. They also host a monthly free new material night in London called Crazy Science Stupid Magic, showcasing stand up, character and sketch comedy from a wide range of names on the UK comedy circuit. The Princes will also be returning to the Edinburgh Festival this year with another hour of absurd, fast-paced fun.
I asked Princes of Main these seven questions to find out more about them…

1) How did you feel when you woke up this morning?

BEN: Relieved. I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last night and I had nine straight hours of premium nightmares.

ALEX: I felt neat and okay.

JAMIE: I have a wisdom tooth coming through so I woke up feeling achy, tender and like I was wearing a face two sizes too large for me. Other than that, tip top.

2) Jelly Babies or Jelly Beans?

BEN: Jelly Babies are better than Jelly Beans. No question. But I’d still take Jelly Beans over an actual baby.

ALEX: Honestly, gutted that they’ve gone their separate ways because we three would often sit down for hours on a Monday knocking back alternate JBeans and JBabies (as we abbreviated them; we didn’t have time for the whole names — you wanna eat them, not say them!) If that’s the way it is I will abstain from both parties until they work it out. JBean/JBaby relations have frosted before and always thawed. It’s not worth falling out over. But I know exactly how Ben will feel about this, and I will not be the one to tell him.

JAMIE: Jelly Babies are fantastic, I wish I had some now.

© Princes of Main

3) Do your sketches tend to develop or stay the same each time you perform them?

BEN: They always develop. We have short attention spans so too much repetition makes Jack a dull boy. New lines, new delivery, new voices constantly refresh old stuff or else it goes stale like milk or Kiefer Sutherland.

ALEX: They change considerably. You’ve got to change things up or Jamie gets incredibly, incredibly angry with you. If Ben had his way we’d hone and whittle until the sketch was just one syllable long. We actually cut the syllable-long sketch in the end because of time constraints. But I never have any regrets when we lose a line or a character or a joke. I’ve got them all right here.

*Points to head, then heart, then to notebook full of lines, characters and jokes.*

JAMIE: I think this has changed for us the more we have written and performed together. When we started out doing shows together, we had a sort of maniacal attitude to the actual writing of sketches, with very little left to be figured out in the moment. Call it being more relaxed or just laziness, but now we’re much happier to try a sketch with only vague idea of what might be funny about it, or even where it will go. From there, you see what gets a response and go back to the original idea, altering according to what felt best about it. That gradual erosion through the gentle lapping of positive and negative feedback eventually results in the sketch ossifying into a fixed state. If you’re lucky, this final frozen form is both Good and Funny and you can charge money for it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

4) Who do you find the most annoying out of the three of you?

BEN: Oh, it’s a dead heat. We’re all insufferable toilets.

ALEX: Alex?

JAMIE: Myself.

5) How do you think you will die?

BEN: Google ‘La Grande Bouffe’. Ideally that.

ALEX: Too much love.

JAMIE: I’d like to say something dramatic but it’s almost certainly going to be a prolonged John Donne-style malady.

6) What makes you feel as though you have your life together?

BEN: The split second when I wake up before I remember everything.

ALEX: I don’t know if you’ve heard of a little book called The Holy Bible?

JAMIE: My slow cooker.

7) What’s the best thing about your audiences?

BEN: The thing I love absolutely love the most about our audiences is that sometimes they turn up.

ALEX: Their undying patience.

JAMIE: I wouldn’t want to generalise, but our shows are usually at their best when the audience enjoys seeing us mess up as much as they enjoy seeing us succeed. This is a lovely thing to experience as a performer and I’m grateful when it happens. Our audiences also tend to have an ineffable sexual charisma which makes them irresistible to friends, coworkers and strangers alike.

Tickets for Crazy Science Stupid Magic are available here. All proceeds go towards Parkinson’s UK. You can also follow Princes of Main on Twitter.

Posted in: Comedians, Seven Questions With... Tagged: Alex MacKeith, Ben Pope, British Comedy, Comedy, Jamie Fraser, Princes Of Main, Seven Questions With
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