Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Aatif Nawaz

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Aatif Nawaz is a comedian who isn’t afraid to challenge mindsets by delving straight into taboo issues and offering his own side of the story. He is bringing his latest show The Last Laugh (following his previous two shows, Muslims do it 5 Times a Day and AATIFicial Intelligence) to the Edinburgh Festival. Aatif will be performing this free show at the Newsroom throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

I could tell you it’s the world’s biggest arts festival. I could tell you it’s about the opportunity to test my new show in front of the strongest, most comedy-savvy audiences. I could tell you it’s an inspiring environment. But you want the truth don’t you?

Honestly? There’s a halal kebab shop in Leith that’s open 24 hours and they always throw in a deep fried mars bar. All for a fiver! A FIVER!!!

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

In 2015, I took my first solo show to the Fringe: It  was called ‘Muslims Do It 5 Times A Day’ (I know. That’s really clever innit?). The show was about my life as a muslim man in what was becoming a more islamaphobic atmosphere around the world.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

Guardian readers and Daily Mail readers. But not Times readers. That’s a nut I’ve yet to crack…

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

It’s one I bring on myself every year. I’m a creature of habit. So I stay in the same place in Leith every year. And it’s a really nice place with really nice flatmates. Everyone is considerate and tidy. It sounds pretty great right? Well here comes the caveat: It’s on the 5th floor and there’s no lift. And on any given day at the Fringe, I’ve probably walked anywhere from 5-10 kilometres. So a steep five-story staircase isn’t something I have wet dreams about. Particularly when I have to lug 5000 flyers up them on day one.

On the plus side, my calves are always in great shape…

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with many of my comedy idols. That moment where your heroes become your peers feels like a massive accomplishment. Also, walking off stage at the Watford Palace Theatre to a standing ovation after my first major TV set. I still think about that from time to time. It makes me smile…

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

Aside from my own fantastic show you mean? Well there are so many acts I love – last year, in addition to performing my own 60 minute show 24 times and doing another 48 sets, I managed to see another 38 shows. And I loved almost all of them. I fear if I began listing them for you now, you’d run out of bandwidth and storage space for your website and would have to upgrade your plan to one that allows more storage. And I’m a considerate guy. So I won’t put you through that..

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

I’m hoping someone will come along to my show and think  ‘Damn – he’s so good, why don’t I cast him in a British remake of Better Call Saul I was planning…’ or something along those lines.

I think of the Fringe as comedy bootcamp. I develop a new show, perform is 20-odd times to varying audiences and then that’s my set, my show, my material for the next 12 months.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

It might be this one. Maybe. It’s called The Last Laugh and it’s about how I took a non-traditional route as a stand-up comedian. They told me it wouldn’t work. They told me I wouldn’t be successful. They told me I wouldn’t last. Well, here I am. Back again. For a third year in a row. And a third show. And it’s on at 11:15pm. So, in a literal sense, I may well be having the last laugh…

BOOK TICKETS FOR AATIF NAWAZ: THE LAST LAUGH, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Stuart Goldsmith

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Stand up and Comedian’s Comedian podcaster Stuart Goldsmith‘s show craftsmanship just keeps getting better and better. Like I Mean It won Best New Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival earlier this year, despite still being unfinished, so it looks as though Goldsmith is set for another brilliant year in Edinburgh. Stuart is performing his free show at the Liquid Room Annexe throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

The chance to feel like a normal human being for an entire month, as everyone around me lives my life: thinking, talking, eating and breathing comedy! And the “macaroni pie”, which is unavailable in the real world.

© Matt Crockett

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

It was called “The Reasonable Man” in 2010, and it was about realising I’d spent my whole life trying ever so hard to be alternative, but despite my best endeavours I was actually (depressingly) normal.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

Nice people! I’m incredibly lucky – I almost never get heckled, and anything people do shout out tends to be encouragement. At a recent new material night a heckler shouted “yeah – seems like a ‘bit’!”

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

Oooh, probably when I stayed in a suspiciously cheap rental place in Haymarket, which turned out to have no lock on the door and effectively a bunkhouse where people wandered in and out all day. I had a watch stolen which had just been given to me by my then girlfriend. Still, I was too cheap to fork out for decent accommodation despite enjoying at the time a street-performer’s pre-boom income, so you buy cheap you buy twice, or whatever people say. “You pay peanuts you get your monkeys stolen”. Something like that.

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Well I’ve been lucky to have a few sparkly show-off gigs, but bringing my baby onstage at the final performance of last year’s Edinburgh show (which had been all about him) was hilarious and heart-warming and better than Wembley.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

Andy Daly. He’s an American improviser who did the world’s best piss-take of standup comedy. Search “Jerry Ahearn Standup” on youtube and cry laughing. He’s at the Gilded Balloon in an improv show and we shall become best friends.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

I’d like to come out of it with some money, a finely-tuned tour show that’s ready to take on the road, and these days due to the sobriety of fatherhood, some actual un-fogged memories for once! I don’t drink at the festival anymore, and i’m staying in a house with dear friends and two other babies, so we’re going to have wholesome super-fun and go swimming and hang out at play-parks and it’s going to be all squeaky cle- AAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHH.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

I try to do every show as if it’s my last, yeah? Because I’m an incredibly pretentious wanker.

BOOK TICKETS FOR STUART GOLDSMITH: LIKE I MEAN IT, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: David Trent

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© Idil Sukan

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

I get excited that I am going to get to eat at all my favourite places especially Palmyra Pizza and Kebabs and Wings. Sometimes you can find a couple of people flyering for Wings. If you do a chicken impression you get a free bowl of Wings. I do five chicken impressions for them. And also I like the Crepe stall.

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

It was called Spontaneous Comedian and it was a tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 but because I didn’t call it “A Tribute To Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, the computer goes wrong and the human is helpless without his tool” nobody ever mentioned it, not even when all the lines in it towards the end were directly lifted from the script.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

No. My comedy attracts absolutely no type of audience whatsoever. I would say it would appeal to people who like to go out at 10.35pm and watch a man shouting at a TV.

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

I have had a very bad flat at 28 Lutton Place, which should be avoided as it was like a normal flat if it had been meticulously coated in a layer of grease and sadness. It really was a depressing month. My tip is always get a flat with a living room. And also don’t get a room with a door through to another room or your friend’s girlfriend will be coming into your room and whispering “Stop snoring Trent” into your ear in the middle of the night and you will feel very confused and scared.

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Machfest, 2010. Magic.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

I always make sure I see the bagpiper at the top of the Royal Mile. He is really terrific.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

I don’t hope to gain anything except a one million dollar contract to turn my show into a HBO special and a massive crown that I can wear around my dick.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

It will be about a man who went to Edinburgh hoping for nothing, but then when he got there he got given a one million dollar contract to turn his show into a HBO special and a massive crown that he wore around his dick, but then it cut into his dick and the cut went septic and he died and as he died he realised that he thought that getting a one million dollar contract to turn his show into an HBO special would solve all his problems and make everything great, but now he realises that that was true and that he’d had a great time until he died of a septic dick.

BOOK TICKETS FOR DAVID TRENT: HERE’S YOUR FUTURE, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Julie Shavers (Mary Go Nowhere)

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© Roman Cho

Julie Shavers writes and stars in Mary Go Nowhere, a comedy play set in LA about a mother desperately trying to keep her foul-mouthed toddler in preschool, where everyone in the neighbourhood seems to be watching her every move. The cast will be performing at the Assembly George Square Studios throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

I’m excited to be a part of a vibrant community of entertainers and see what everyone else is making.

2) What is your first Edinburgh show about?

Mary Go Nowhere is about trying so hard to be perfect you don’t notice you’re an asshole. It’s about raising a large angry toddler in a world of strivers with a spouse who just wants to play Candy Crush and take a nap.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

People who love watching masterful actors live in a world that is both bizarre and familiar will like this show.

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

Every time I book a private property to stay in I spend my whole trip looking for the spy cameras. I’m convinced we’re being recorded. Or that they’re going to sneak in during the night and murder us all in our sleep.  

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

The first full length play I ever wrote was such a thrill. I was so nervous I couldn’t even watch it. Then standing outside the door as it was being performed I heard the audience howling with laughter. I couldn’t believe it. It was delightful.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

I will definitely see Baby Wants Candy and Whose Line is it Anyway because both of those shows feature super talented actors from our cast. 

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

Our cast is quite large for a fringe show. Nine actors. All of them hilarious and frenetic performers. I can’t wait to spend an entire month living in this play with them. I hope that we will all grow as performers and the play itself will take on a whole new shape and continue to live on after the Fringe.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

I probably should not admit this, but I have always thought I might be a sort of half-baked prophet. I once wrote a play about a man who lost one arm and one leg and during the run I broke my arm and my leg. I wrote and performed a monologue about a woman with boils and got boils. Mary Go Nowhere goes some strange places so I’m being extra careful lately.

BOOK TICKETS FOR MARY GO NOWHERE AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Kat Bond

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© Rosie Collins

Actress and character comic Kat Bond (one half of That Pair) is embarking on a very artistically interesting project at the Edinburgh Festival this year. She has based her debut solo show around one prop: a loo roll. This combination of character comedy, stand up and clowning is set to be packed with energy and original ideas. Kat is performing at the Pleasance Courtyard throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

The thrill of the chase.

2) What is your first Edinburgh show about?

It’s about one woman and her Loo Roll essentially. Pat my alter ego (that’s right I changed one letter of my own name) is trying to put on a show about Loo Roll (why not) and it ends up descending into madness with her trying to find her long lost family in the audience. I play all the versions of my family. It’s a character comedy show.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

People with a sparkle in their eye like it. A glimmer of madness. They love it them lot! My audience are a creative bunch – they made their own loo roll bonnets at Mach Fest this year.

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

Recipe for disaster – mice, one toilet and a man on the edge. Not the title of my next Fringe show but a small insight into my accommodation nightmare.

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Recording a Radio 4 show in a super studio. Hopefully lots more treasure to come. I’m excited.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

I’ll be seeing James Rowland’s show at Summerhall.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

Flyers. I just love flyers to be honest. So more paper flyers, just flyers oh and love from lots of audience members please.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

I imagine if I carry down the toilet theme maybe ‘Kat Bond: Bidet’. Lots of audience members please.

BOOK TICKETS FOR KAT BOND: LOO ROLL, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Nazeem Hussain

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© Tony Briggs

Australian stand up comedian Nazeem Hussain’s latest show, Hussain in the Membrane, explores cultural identity in this day and age. He retells anecdotes from his Sri Lankan immigrant mother as well as finding the funny within issues relating to perceived in-groups and out-groups with regard to race, background and culture. Nazeem will be performing at Assembly George Square Studios throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

Meeting other comedians, and watching lots of shows. Also, there’s something really amazing about a major city being in love, or at least involved, with the arts for a month.

2) What is your first Edinburgh show about?

As with my shows, it’s an hour of jokes and stories from my life over the last 12 months. I talk about harassing the CEO of a major telco in Australia over the course of a few months, to my mum finding a dead man in a toilet, to starting a family with a flag.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

I still can’t figure out my audiences. Some like the political jokes, some just laugh at the silly character stuff. It’s a mix!

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

So far my accom has been mint!

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Meeting and opening for Dave Chappelle. He’s my comedy idol, and he is the nicest dude.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

I have no idea. I haven’t a clue who will be there, I’ll end up making a huge list when I’m there, and frantically see one tenth of the list in the final week.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

Being on stage for a month of shows can only be a good thing for a performer, right?

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

About my struggle with incurable gangrene.

BOOK TICKETS FOR NAZEEM HUSSAIN: HUSSAIN IN THE MEMBRANE, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Louise Reay

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© Alexis Dubus

Louise Reay’s latest show, Hard Mode, is set to be a comedy experience unlike any other. Reay examines issues such as censorship and surveillance, giving her audiences first hand experience of an authoritarian regime through her unique and interactive style of comedy. Louise will be performing at The Stand throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

I love the rhythm of it – doing a show every day, eating a KFC every day, what’s not to love? Also seeing so many excellent shows.

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

My first show was all in Chinese – but for people who didn’t speak any Chinese at all. Only 7% of communication is verbal; it was an experiment in the other 93%.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

Yes, I only let very handsome and generous philanthropists seeking patronage opportunities come to my shows… wait, guys, guys???

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

Frankly, I’m afraid I’m about to have it… I’ll be living in a large shared house this year with about ten comics, none of whom I know very well… uh oh. Let’s hope they all remember to take their meds, haha! Let’s hope none of them read this! Heh heh.

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

I think I’m probably about to have it also… I will be going on tour to South Africa in a couple of week’s time… I really have no idea if they’ll get my comedy. Have they got Monster Munch and Tinder there?

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

There is a show called Undercover Refugee by Karen Houge and David Tann. It was just nominated for an award at Brighton Fringe and looks incredible.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

A poker face, a piece of cake, a poke in the eye, a wet fish on a marble slab? I’m so excited to be in the Stand for the first time, I’m hoping not to embarrass myself too much in front of the heroic comics performing there.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

I’ve got an irrational preoccupation with the little placards dedicating park benches to the deceased. Probably this.

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Erich McElroy

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© Steve Ullathorne

Erich McElroy is an American-born stand up comedian based in the UK. In his latest show Erich McElroy Tops Trump, McElroy challenges himself to bring the fakest news to Edinburgh, in efforts to well and truly beat Donald Trump. Erich will be performing his free show in the Pravda Room at Espionage throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

Other than when it’s over? At its best the combination of getting to do something I’m lucky to be able to do surrounded by the best comics in the country.

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

It was about my slow transition from being an American to having a British passport and identity. It’s an ongoing process, which has broken down a few times. Like Sunday train service.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

The BEST! Well, anyone who comes to see me is automatically the best.

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

I’ve been pretty lucky. But I come up with my wife and two children so I spend through the nose to not have a bad experience.

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

The first gig still sits with me, when one of the other open spots asked me, “Did you write all of that yourself?”  It was a whole 4 1/2 minutes of material.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

Matt Forde, Jessica Fostekew, and haven’t had a chance to look at others yet.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

GLORY! And to have an audience leave happy every day.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

Something funny.

BOOK TICKETS FOR ERICH MCELROY TOPS TRUMP AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Tom Allen

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© Aemen Sukkar

Tom Allen is a fascinating stand up performer who juxtaposes a sinister sense of calm with an effortlessly charming demeanour. With a playful glint in his eye and a playful flamboyance to his delivery, this comedian is incredibly easy for audiences to warm to. You’ve probably seen him on 8 out of 10 Cats and Live at the Apollo already, so catch his latest show at the Pleasance Courtyard throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

I think it’s celebrating everyone’s work and seeing what people have come up with this year. And seeing all the other comics and just generally having a nice time. It should feel like a celebration.

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

It was ten years ago and it was about what makes a good story.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

I’m not sure – I’ve never surveyed them! A lot of really lovely people from all different backgrounds seem to come. I hope there’s something for everyone! Like in Asda. In my portentous moments I like to think comedy is great at finding the common ground and the situations and feelings we all experience so I hope a broad spectrum of people enjoy what I do.

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

Oh a dirty sink. But isn’t that everyone’s?

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Oh blimey! I think it might’ve been doing Live at the Apollo last year. I was nervous about wanting to get it right and then in the end it was just lovely. And my friend Sarah Millican introduced me and my mum and dad were there and I was really pleased with how it went.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

My friend Suzi Ruffell’s show Keeping it Classy at the Pleasance at 9.45. She’s been such a great friend of mine.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

Oh you’re always learning aren’t you? So to keep learning. But my goal is always to give people a good time and so if I do that I’ll be happy!

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

Oh I hope it’s like Elaine Stritch at Liberty. I’d like there to be tap dancing. Beyond that I’m not sure.

BOOK TICKETS FOR TOM ALLEN: ABSOLUTELY, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017

The Edinburgh Interviews 2017: Dan Antopolski

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© Edward Moore

With a show entitled Return of Dan Antopolski, it might not surprise punters to hear that Dan Antopolski hasn’t been seen at the Edinburgh Festival for a while. In fact, it’s been seven years since Dan’s last show. And seeing as he was once nominated for Best Newcomer and Best Show in the same year, Antopolski’s return to Edinburgh is certainly going to turn a few heads. He is performing at Assembly George Square Studios throughout August.

1) What excites you most about the Edinburgh Festival?

The race to create a good new show by the start of August is a pressurised thrill. Preview season is hard gigging, the sun is out in July so often you do your unsteady show to the three people and a dog who don’t have the sense to be drinking a beer outside – you know, crazy people – then in August the crowds turn up and there’s a huge injection of energy. What’s good is, the difficult preview gigs create a high water mark – if your Mount Ararats are getting laughs they’re probably strong. Making people laugh is a visceral pleasure but as a writer it’s making new bits work that offers the thrill of the hunt – make me feel like a mayan (man).

2) What was your first Edinburgh show about?

My first solo show was way back in 2000 AD – I recorded dialogue on a C90 and did a kind of double act with my (former) self. My present-self had both the benefit and liability of hearing the audience reactions while my past self was deaf to them. By acknowledging his deafness, he was sort of able to make an honest relationship with the audience and I then left the stage and he did stand-up to them. Sometimes it worked just like a live comedian and sometimes not and on two occasions an audience member pressed stop on the tape recorder – a respectable heckle. Also there were knob gags because I know my duty.

3) Does your comedy attract a certain type of audience?

I love language so maybe I attract people who can enjoy language. There can be an elegance to writing choices even when you are talking about farts. I would dearly like to repel a certain type of audience, those who come for the beer and stay for the consensus. My needs are simple; all I want is an audience that’s literate, urbane, liberal but not pious, open to ambivalence – and if possible 0.0001% slower than me so I can get the drop on them with my really great jokes about farts. It’s not much to ask. Also if they could like taramasalata. I eat it all the time and am quite unkissable some mornings but it’s strictly a morning thing so you’re fine to sit at the front hahaha I shouldn’t have mentioned it.

4) What is the worst experience you’ve had with Edinburgh accommodation?

A few years ago I rented a flat from Southside of Nicolson Street – whom I am delighted to name and shame – and gave them a couple of grand. On the day I moved in, the flat stank and the bathroom ceiling had collapsed – great stalactites of plasterboard were hanging down. When they grudgingly sent a cleaner to clean the kitchen I asked her to clean the whole stinky flat and then the agent Natasha Bonello shouted at me on the telephone for “exploiting” the situation. I just checked the Southside website and Natasha is still there – why not pop in and rent something from her while you’re in town?

5) What is your most treasured memory of your comedy career so far?

Tim and Polly Mulviel. They come to my shows and sit at the front, I banter with them anew each time. Now that I have committed their faces to memory I treasure that memory.

6) What show will you definitely be seeing at the festival this year?

Sarah Kendall’s show One-Seventeen at the Assembly George Square Studios at 7pm – her gag-rich but narratively suspenseful storytelling shows are just about my new favourite thing – sorry taramasalata.

7) What do you hope to gain from the Edinburgh Festival this year?

I want my job back. I started stand-up twenty years ago and loved it so much. Then I couldn’t balance it with family and hated it. Now I love it again. My arrogance got squished out of me and I respect the audience’s time – I get why they need coherence in a show.

8) What do you imagine your last ever show will be about?

If I have medical notice that my death is nigh it would be churlish not to attempt a Bowie-style farewell. Maybe I would actually die on stage – the epitaph writes itself!

BOOK TICKETS FOR DAN ANTOPOLSKI: RETURN OF DAN ANTOPOLSKI, AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2017