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.
Where? Just the Tonic at the Caves – The Fancy Room (Venue)
When? 20:50
What are your feelings as you enter into this
year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
I’m really excited actually. This may change when I arrive in Edinburgh to discover my accommodation doesn’t exist, or my venue smells of dead rat but for now – it’s all gravy baby!
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this
year?
Celeb impressions like you’ve never seen them before. Nigella Lawson defrosts meals in her bathtub, Adele sings her heart out over a custard cream and Melania Trump joins the Spice Girls.
What
is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show?
I tried to use a head mic on my 4th preview in London. On the day of the performance, the particular mic-tape I needed had not arrived from Amazon. So I decided to use my initiative and be really clever (stupid) by using surgical tape instead. Sadly, despite my optimism- it did not stick the mic to my face (what a surprise, they shout) and instead allowed it to flap around like a third arm. But don’t worry, the correct tape is now in use and performing wonderfully.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at
all in recent years?
I now get excited at the thought of going straight home after a show and eating a Deliveroo’d Pizza Express in bed. Though I will still cry with FOMO if I see anyone I know heading somewhere fun whilst I stand waiting for my taxi to take me back to nana-ville.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show
recommendations?
Abandoman is a Fringe classic. His incredible hour of improvised rapping will leave you a little astonished. Austentatious for true improvisational gold and Newsrevue, obviously… sketch comedy at its absolute finest.
What are your
feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
Excitement. I think that is the number 1 feeling. Bringing my 3rd solo show to world’s biggest arts festival and performing it for 26 nights to paying punters is an absolute privilege, I think remembering that will help me to enjoy it more.
What is the premise
of your Edinburgh show this year?
Not much of a premise. I’m just going to tell some funny
stories of what’s going on in my life recently. In the last year I have turned
30, got engaged, booked a wedding, been to Australia, made my TV debut and
subsequently had my first twitter troll.
What is the biggest
obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
People telling me I need a premise.
Has your attitude
towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
No, not in the slightest? Should it have? I didn’t even know
what the Edinburgh Fringe was until 2012. My attitude is always just go up and
try to make people laugh.
Do you have any other
Edinburgh show recommendations?
Josh Pugh, Mike Newall, Rosie Jones and The Delightful
Sausage. Bit of something for everyone there. All very different, all very
funny!
Where would you like
to be in a year’s time?
I think I’d like to move in to a 3 bed semi-detached with a driveway and possibly 2 ovens (obviously in Wigan).
Where? Just the Tonic at The Mash House – Just The Bottle Room (Venue 288)
When? 14:10
What are your
feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
I spend July in France hanging out with my kids and visiting
with my mother and my sister. While in France, I catch up on books and on wine
and on sleep so that I can be ready to have a great Fringe and have a good time
while I’m in Edinburgh. I’m bringing a new show to the Fringe this year and I’m
really excited to see how it’ll play out.
What is the premise
of your Edinburgh show this year?
In this show, I talk about being French and American, about being Iraqi and having a Dutch last name. Adding to that, I went to schools in Germany, Switzerland and South Carolina. The show is primarily about my personal journey of cultural identity. Along the way, I talk about having kids and being in a relationship, relatives, refugees, school, shoes, ketchup and seat belts.
What is the biggest
obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
The biggest obstacle was actually putting it together, writing the jokes and coming up with material. I decided to do Edinburgh 2019 after I left Edinburgh 2018, and I gave myself the goal of writing a brand new hour. I told myself I’d start working on it ASAP and because I’m great at procrastinating, I didn’t. So the last few months have been a bit stressful but it’s been exciting to see this whole thing shape up.
Has your attitude
towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
Before coming to the Fringe, I was afraid of it because I
had heard horror stories about the festival, about how no one was ever going to
come see my show, about how difficult it was to stand out and about how it was
crazy to even try to do Fringe because it would be a waste of time. And then,
last year, I did the Fringe for the first time and I loved it. I had a great
time which is why I’m doing it again this year. There is a lesson here
somewhere…
Do you have any other
Edinburgh show recommendations?
I went to see a bunch of shows last year and school productions,
independent actors and producers, things I’d never heard of before. I saw some
very interesting stuff. I was stunned by the amount of energy, creativity and
fearlessness each production brought in their work. I look forward to seeing
that again this year. Check with me after the first few days and I’ll probably
have some stuff to recommend.
Where would you like
to be in a year’s time?
I think same place where I am right now, I’d like to do
Fringe again next year. It was a great motivator for me to write a bunch of new
material and put it together and try new jokes. I look forward to doing this again
next year.
Where? Just the Tonic at The Grassmarket Centre – Just The Meeting Room (Venue 27)
When? 17:50
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s
Edinburgh Fringe season?
Nervous excitement. I’m proud of where my show is at, I’m
excited to see how it will grow throughout the month, and I’m nervous to see
how it will be received.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
Since I was seventeen, I’ve lived by a code: if something
scares me, I have to do it. Join me for a raucous hour of music, comedy, and
bathroom stall graffiti art to find out why.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting
this show together?
The biggest technical obstacle: I have a song in which all
the lyrics are pieces of graffiti from bathroom stalls all around the world,
and I display photos of this graffiti via projector as the song progresses. So,
I’m controlling a foot pedal that switches the photos, as I sing and play
guitar. It’s a lot like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same
time.
The biggest emotional obstacle: my show could potentially be
categorized as a comedy show that stems from trauma, and I have to relive that
trauma every time I do the show. It’s been exhausting and a major challenge for
me but also hugely cathartic.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in
recent years?
When I first visited the Fringe two years ago, I thought, ‘This.
This is exactly where I should be. This is where I belong.’ It’s taken me
those two years to get my ducks in a row, but I can’t wait to be back.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
Sean Patton’s Contradickhead is going to blow people’s minds.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
I’d love to be relaxing on some beautiful beach, eating mango, and sitting pretty because this show got filmed as a special, went viral, and got adapted for a hit TV show. Hey, a girl can dream!
What? Joz Norris is Dead. Long Live Mr Fruit Salad
Where? Heroes @ The Hive – The Bunka (Venue 313)
When? 16:40
What are your
feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
Ooooohhhh boy, feeling great. Very proud of my solo
show, hope people really like it. Very
much having fun with my double-act show, it’s a hot mess but I think it’s gonna
be ridiculous. Learned a bunch of good self-care Fringe things last year and
gonna be using them again to make sure I don’t get stressed or go crazy. Gonna
see all my good pals, gonna eat scampi in the City Restaurant. Yes please yes
please.
What is the premise
of your Edinburgh show this year?
A man called Mr Fruit Salad has written a one-man comedy
show and wants to perform it. This is odd, because he doesn’t exist. He knows
he doesn’t exist, and doesn’t know how to write a comedy show, so spends
most of the show just trying to get out of his head and convince himself to do
the show. It’s a sort of nonsense musing on connections and anxiety and hiding,
performed from behind a disguise.
What is the biggest
obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
The character of Mr Fruit Salad first emerged as a way of
engaging with live performance at a time when I wasn’t enjoying it because of
some personal stuff I was having to deal with. As such, when it came time to
build a show around Mr Fruit Salad, the show inevitably became about
that stuff, it became a reflection on why I’d invented him and what he meant
and where he’d sprung from, but I really didn’t want it to become a
confessional show along the lines of “Hey, here’s some bad stuff I went
through, isn’t it sad?” I knew it had to be a show that was informed by all
those things, but I gradually learned they needed to be hidden in the background,
and not shown, or it completely undermined what I was trying to do, which was
to build something silly and hopeful out of old hurt. So realising that and
sort of surgically removing the foundations the show was built on and seeing if
it could still stand up without them was the hardest bit.
Has your attitude
towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
I dunno, really. I know which bits of the Fringe I like and
which bits I don’t these days. I love it as a creative playground and a place
to share your ideas. And I really like that it’s an opportunity to build new
audiences and build connections and find opportunities to work with new people
over the subsequent year, and make new exciting things. I do like that side of
it, and it’s important. But out of that side of things grows all the other
things, all the ego nonsense and the industry stuff. I find that side of things
hard, the careerism and so on. It’s all got to exist, at the end of the day, so
I just try to let it exist and stick to the bits of it I know I’m good at, and
the bits I know I like. So my attitude hasn’t changed, necessarily, but it has
solidified.
Do you have any other
Edinburgh show recommendations?
Oh boy, so many. I’ve been recommending a show every day for
the last 70 days or so on Twitter, so if you find me @JozNorris you can read a
whole bunch of recommendations there. For this Q&A, I’ll specifically flag
up Ben Target and Ed Aczel, both of whom I’m working with this year and are two
of the funniest, most wonderful people in the world, so check out their solo
shows. I’d also highly recommend Ali Brice’s show – he always makes some of the
funniest shows every year, and this year’s is much more personal and reaches
some incredible heights as a result. And Laura Lexx has become one of my
absolute favourite comedians, she is so much fun to watch and so incredibly
accomplished at what she does. I missed her show last year but am very keen to
see this year’s.
Where would you like
to be in a year’s time?
I try not to plan too much. I think it’s good to be
ambitious, because then it means you’re open to any and all of the good things
that might come your way, but not necessarily to have loads of specific
ambitions, because then it’s easy for them to not work out for reasons outside of
your control and then to look back on them as failures. I’m working on a bunch
of TV, online and radio ideas at the moment, and I’d love it if one of those
took off, and if it did I guess that would become my big project over the next
year. And if not, then in a year’s time I’ll probably be making another new
Fringe show and keeping myself busy that way. I’d like to have been on a nice
holiday by this time next year as well, and I’d like my houseplants and all the
things in my herb garden to be absolutely enormous.
What? Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Real
Where? Gilded Balloon Teviot – Turret (Venue 14)
When? 21:00
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
My feelings are like a like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get but they’re pretty sweet. I’m scared, excited, nervous, sitting on the edge of my seat, enthralled, confused, terrified and so excited I want to kiss a priest.
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
The premise is this: In the last 2 years I have become a video game celebrity but my bathtub is in my kitchen. I’m an online hero and a real life zero. What’s real in this weird social media ruled world and what’s fake? I’m asking myself that and at the moment I don’t have the answer. If you think that sounds too heady don’t worry, there will be jokes about my breakdancing vagina.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
The biggest obstacle about putting this show together is putting the show together. I want this show to be really, really, really, really, really, really real and that ain’t easy.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
This will be my fourth time doing the Fringe. I did three consecutive years in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Then for 2 years I experienced what summer is and now I’m back to soak up some more rain, rejection and ramen dinners. After my third year I needed a break from it all and now I’m excited to be back and run around the streets with all the other marvellous nutters who dare to perform in the festival.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
I also highly recommend my other show Lucie Pohl’s Immigrant Jam, a mixed bill stand up show with immigrant comics. I run this show monthly in NYC and am bringing it to the Gilded Balloon on three Thursdays during the fringe.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
In Rome shooting a comedy about a woman who becomes a serial killer to get acting roles. It’s the ultimate #MeToo revenge porn flick. Instead of deep throat it’s cut throat. You’re welcome.
Where? Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Three (Venue 33)
When? 20:15
What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?
The feeling is positive! I’m really looking forward to showing people what I’ve been working on. I’ve created something that I think will be really fun to watch and also fun to perform, which is something I really concentrated on whilst developing the show
What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?
My show is an exploration of creative musical comedy and I’ve decided to do this by wearing a full-size keyboard for the entire show, which is physically challenging, but also definitely funny. The show is very silly and I think people won’t be able to see anything like it.
What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?
I think starting the show has been the hardest challenge for me. My act is quite low-energy which is a nice contrast on a mixed bill, but is a challenge in a cold open. Luckily, I found quite a silly way of getting the audience warmed up at the top of the show, which is now one of my favorite bits of the show.
Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?
I think it’s more of less stayed the same to me. It feels more like home every time I go up there. Edinburgh is always a place I go to challenge myself creatively, so I always go up knowing that I’ll come out a better comedian, which feels really great. I think the standard of shows has gone up, which is great as I love seeing my friends and peers produce shows that are really fun and inspiring.
Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?
I recommend seeing my Edinburgh favorites Mat Ewins, Alison Thea-Skot, Ed Night and The Travelling Sisters, but there are also really great new acts you may not have heard of such as Janine Harouni, Sophie Duker, Olga Koch, Jack Gleadow, David McIver and Jack Tucker, they’re all great.
Where would you like to be in a year’s time?
I’d like to be passionate about the next project, I have a few ideas floating about, but I can’t wait for a new challenge. Hopefully this show will run past Edinburgh, so I can perform it around the UK, I’d really like the opportunity to show people the show, who couldn’t make it up to Edinburgh.