Felix and The Scootermen: The Edinburgh Interviews 2019
Who? Felix and The Scootermen
What? Self-Help Yourself Famous
Where? Underbelly, Bristo Square – Friesian (Venue 302)
When? 16:40
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
There’s some trepidation, but so there should be! Who the flip do I think we are just changing lanes on our musical (not that kind of ‘musical) past at this stage of the game? At some level being older makes certain moments land with a thud (most recently when I had an out-of-body experience during a particularly empty preview show watching myself flail around pretending to be a dying robot) and others land a little lighter (namely what other people think as I’m looking less for validation from people). Of course I still want people to come and see it and love it more than their children.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
What begins as a self-help seminar led by frontman Felix Scoot and drummer Lee Delamere, spins out of control and crashes through the wall of ‘lies’ each of them have erected to predicate a life of grasping after something as unnatural and ethereal as the validation of mass-approval, aka ‘fame’. There are songs. There is dancing (both classically trained in tap, ballet and hip hop) so it would be a waste not to show off these hidden talents. We split our britches writing this. That was a lot of fun. Now it’s time to get to work.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
Covering our likely losses and justifying the investment. We’re still honing it to ensure that we’re saying everything we want to. We’re basing the show on our experiences whilst not letting the truth stand in our way. As we dug into the writing we found we’ve a lot of complex feelings around the subject matter and we wish the show to serve as the most fun cautionary tale we can muster.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
I ran tech for two shows a day back in 2003. That was the last time I was there, so I don’t really have an attitude to the Fringe owing to my inexperience of it. I look forward to answering this next year. Al and I went as punters last year and the scale of it blew me away. Like the Glasto of comedy festivals. It’s overwhelming. I marvelled at the sheer number of creative people out there.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
Looking forward to seeing what Spencer Jones and Phil Nichol call fourth from their sick-puppy minds.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
In a position where it doesn’t make sense NOT to bring a show to Edinburgh. Get your head round that. Took me a while and I wrote it only a moment ago. Let’s see what happens this time around…
GET YOUR TICKETS FOR FELIX AND THE SCOOTERMEN: ‘SELF-HELP YOURSELF FAMOUS’ HERE