EdFringe Talk: Michelle Shocked: Bootleg This!

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, *Written Interviews by

“I enjoy the giddiness the Fringe fosters, the sensory overload combined with relentless FOMO.”

WHO: Michelle Shocked

WHAT: “Grammy Award-winning US music artist Michelle Shocked brings her brand new show to the Fringe (Her first UK shows in eight years). Blending music with memoir, Bootleg This! offers audiences a unique, live encounter with the stories behind the songs. Forty years after her legendary bootleg debut – surviving a 13-year blacklist – the Grammy winner returns with a vengeance. The show connects directly with the release of her audio memoir, Bootleg This! A fiercely original voice shaped by Texas folk, blues, with storytelling and spiritual conviction.”

WHERE: Doonstairs at Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24) 

WHEN: 20:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This will be my fifth Fringe appearance. The first time in 1988 was on a double bill with Richard Thompson, the second as a company member in the Mark Morris Dance Group at the International Festival. I performed at the Fringe in 2017 and again in 2018, both times in an attempt to break the blacklist created by the 2013 defamation. My most memorable moment from the Fringe is a distant memory of an Australian circus that did a brilliant show on the ceiling. Was this around 1988? I’m not sure. Believe it or not, I enjoy the giddiness the Fringe fosters, the sensory overload combined with relentless FOMO.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I learned a wonderful lesson in trust, faith and letting go in the production of Bootleg This!, the show based on my audio memoir, in collaboration with my producer, Sue Zizza of SueMedia Productions. There were moments when I truly did not know next steps to take, but Sue, with over 40 years of experience producing audio dramas, knew just the perfect solution. We kept calm and carried on, one step and then another.

Tell us about your show.

Call them producers if you must; I know their criminal identity: enablers of intrepid creativity. Alan Whittaker is the brave captain of our ship, and soon thereafter, Bradford Louryk navigated its artistic direction. Once Dominique Bravo signed on, we found our sea legs. My show is actually two shows; the Truth Show and the Reality Show. Each night, the audience decides which one it’ll be. If I get my way. However, only one show will premier in Edinburgh if the good sense of my producers prevail. The show was road-tested for three months in the Spring; first, my half of a solo show, then a performance of Samuel Beckett’s one-hander, Krapp’s Last Tape, and I’d close with the second half of my show. After Edinburgh I’ll be taking both shows —theTruth Show and the Reality Show—on the road for three months … without adult supervision!

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Audiences should see The Woman in The Mirror by Dayna Steele, she is a Texas Radio Hall of Famer, but the show focuses on her experience with her mothers Alzheimer’s. I’m also interested to see Andy Macleod in his show SOHO DAYS, CAMDEN NIGHTS, another story about music and the industry.

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