Author Archives: Dan Lentell

+3 Interview: Michael Odewale: #BLACKBEARSMATTER

Posted in *Written Interviews, Plus 3 2019 – Features by

“My show is essentially about me taking to task my selfishness and feelings of apathy when it comes to social issues.”

WHO: Michael Odewale, Writer/ Performer

WHAT: “Michael Odewale is selfish. And apathetic. And so are you. Join the fast-rising star as he tries to figure out what matters, and what’s just noise, in his highly anticipated debut show. A fresh new voice known for delivering sharp, slick and beautifully executed stand-up, Odewale is set to take the comedy world by storm. Winner Best New Show Leicester Comedy Festival 2019. As seen on Stand Up Central for Comedy Central. As heard on BBC Radio 4. BBC New Comedy Award finalist. Pleasance Comedy Reserve 2018. ‘Smooth, assured, more-ish’ **** (Scotsman).”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 17:30 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

I’ve been to Edinburgh a few times before. My first time was in 2013 i think to take part in a so you think you’re funny heat. It was only my third gig and I went with my mum. I went last year as well as part of the Pleasance Reserve.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

I won the Leicester Comedy Festival best new show award in February for this show i’m taking up now to Edinburgh. It was a real surprise. Writing a show especially you first one is filled with moments of self doubt and this was a nice confidence boost that I was on the right track.

Tell us about your show.

My show is essentially about me taking to task my selfishness and feelings of apathy when it comes to social issues. I think there’s a lot of different movements and tragedies that pull at our attention and its easy to become indifferent to it all, i’m trying to tap into that and we’ll see if people resonate. I’m performing at the Bunker two in the Pleasance Courtyard at 5.30.

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

I would suggest Loyiso Gola, Jamali Maddix, Darren Harriott, Sophie Duker, Travis Jay.

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+3 Interview: Arabella Weir: Does My Mum Loom Big in This?

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“Incredibly it IS my first time appearing at Edinburgh – I know it very well outside of the Fringe as my dad was from Fife and my mother from Melrose, so it’s been part of my whole life, just not as a performer.”

WHO: Arabella Weir, Writer/ Performer

WHAT: “The mother of all confessional shows from the bestselling author and star of The Fast Show and Two Doors Down. Does My Mum Loom Big In This? is for everyone who’s had a mother or been a mother, featuring hair-raising hilarious true stories from Arabella’s dysfunctional childhood, her perilous career and her life as a single working mother. Devastatingly funny, excruciatingly honest and definitely embarrassing for all of Arabella’s relatives, not to mention herself, this is a helter-skelter tour of appalling – and appallingly funny – maternal behaviour.”

WHERE: Assembly George Square Studios – Two (Venue 17) 

WHEN: 16:00 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Incredibly it IS my first time appearing at Edinburgh – I know it very well outside of the Fringe as my dad was from Fife and my mother from Melrose, so it’s been part of my whole life, just not as a performer. I am super excited and super nervous in equal measure about appearing at the Fringe.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

I did a fourth series of Two Doors Down for BBC2 which I love doing.

Tell us about your show.

Jon Canter and I wrote the show together. We wrote the spoof cookery show Posh Nosh for BBC2 starring Richard E Grant and me and always write well together. We ‘get’ each other and are old friends too so it’s always very good fun writing together. Berk’s Nest are producing it – they are a wonderful, fairly new, young, exciting bunch of producers and have been brilliant to work with, I really feel like they’ve got my back, as it were. The show has done try-outs at the Hen and Chickens, the Vaulty Towers and the Bill Murray comedy clubs in London, the Cornbury Festival in Oxfordshire and slightly oddly the Frinton Tennis Club in Frinton-on-Sea! I’ll be touring the show early next year all over the UK the Fringe ’19.

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

Kieran Hodgson’s shows without fail – he is a genius and fantastically funny. Never miss a show by Lucy Porter or Tiffany Stevenson.

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+3 Interview: Murder on the Dancefloor

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“As a group of close friends ourselves, the piece seems much more personal than our previous work and we’re looking forward to the challenge that brings.”

WHO: Hamish Lloyd Barnes, Co-artistic director of Spies Like Us

WHAT: “Sabrina digs up dirt, a hysterical boy looks heavenward and there might be a ghost in the garden. In a city that feels less and less like home, five friends are plunged into a ruthless world of greed, grudges and grooves. Lurching from dodgy pubs to dysfunctional dinners they must figure out who they can trust and how far they’ll go to get what they want. Following a national and international tour, the multi award-winning Spies Like Us return in their explosive physical style with a jet-black comedy for our time. Don’t try this at home.”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Beside (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 14:15 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is our third year at the Ffringe after forming as a company in 2017. In 2017 we brought our debut show – a fast-paced adaptation of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, and in 2018 we brought a fresh adaptation of Büchner’s Woyzeck and also revived Our Man in Havana for the final week of the festival.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

We’ve been lucky enough to tour our shows a bit, taking Woyzeck around the South of the UK to places like London and Bristol. However, the most exciting thing has to be taking Our Man in Havana on our first international tour to Hong Kong in June!

Tell us about your show.

Our show is a brand new tragicomedy called Murder on the Dancefloor, written by Oliver Norton-Smith, and it will premier at the festival this year. Following themes of friends, family and the housing crisis, the show hopes to tackle current themes in our trademark explosive physical style which puts movement at the forefront of the narrative with minimal props – we’re trying to make all the set out of IKEA furniture! As a group of close friends ourselves, the piece seems much more personal than our previous work and we’re looking forward to the challenge that brings. We’re hoping to tour the show after Edinburgh!

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

We met as a company taking part in Young Pleasance, so you’d be silly to miss their show A Grave Situation. Our friends at Incognito Theatre always produce great work – so check out their new show The Burning. Finally, we are massively inspired (as any physical theatre company is) by Complicite, so I’ll Take You To Mrs Cole! Is an absolute must see!

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+3 Interview: dressed.

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“It is a piece of theatre made by me and three of my best friends from school. I’m a theatre maker, Lydia is a seamstress, Nobahar is a singer and Olivia is a dancer.”

WHO: Josie Dale-Jones: Co-creator, Performer, & Producer

WHAT: “After being stripped at gun point, Lydia set out to redress herself with a new healing set of armour. Lydia now only wears clothes she has made. Combining choreography, live sewing, comedy and original music, four friends tell her story. Part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2019. Fringe First Award winner 2018. Untapped Award winner 2018. Total Theatre Award-nominated 2018. Offie Award-nominated 2019. **** (Scotsman). **** (Independent). **** (Sunday Times). **** (Stage). **** (WhatsOnStage.com). **** (Fest). **** (List).”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Forth (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 12:10 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

I have taken a new show up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe under ThisEgg every year since 2012. A lot of this was during holidays from university. After graduating, it became less of a ‘fun thing to do’ (though still that too otherwise I don’t know how I’d get through the month…) and more of a working model for my company – opening a show at the Festival and booking a tour for it from there. It is a difficult routine to shake…

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

Being back at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the British Council Showcase is one of the biggest things to have happened to us since last year. When we took the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2018, it felt like a month of women being on stage, women putting their work on stage, women putting their lives on stage. Brilliant. And, being the ‘#MeToo Fringe’, we were definitely on trend. Trends in theatre (and life generally) are funny though… things get put on stage because of the time we are living in. Women’s stories had a profile, the platform we had been looking for, but, as we all know very well, time passes. Time passes and trends shift. What will it be this year? We hope we can keep the conversations going. Surely these stories, these voices, these shows aren’t just being watched because they are fashionable, but because they matter. I hope our time hasn’t passed.

Tell us about your show.

It is a piece of theatre made by me and three of my best friends from school. I’m a theatre maker, Lydia is a seamstress, Nobahar is a singer and Olivia is a dancer. The show is based on a real life event. In 2012, Lydia was stripped at gunpoint. 5 years on, in 2016, Lydia gave herself one year to make her entire wardrobe from scratch. She blogged about the process (at mademywardrobe.com) making her clothes had allowed her to reconnect with her body. It was an act of redress – she could protect herself with a brand new healing set of armour. At the end of that year, she gave away all shop bought items. Lydia now only wears clothes she has made. On the last day, she wrote about why she had done it.

The response was mega, from friends and family but also other women, and the press and media. She was invited to write for newspapers, magazine, talk on podcasts, radio shows. Somewhere along the way she felt like she had lost control of her story. For Lydia, it is always about creativity, about turning something dark and traumatic into something beautiful. I had spent years watching her do this on her own, so when she asked me if I wanted to collaborate and make a show about it, it was an absolute yes. We wanted it to be from the perspective of joy, friendship and female performance. That’s when we asked our friends Nobahar, a singer, and Olivia, a dancer, to make it with us. They said yes too. On one level, I guess that’s what dressed. Is about really, the four of us. We have just finished touring the show across the UK. As far as we know now, this is the show’s last stop.

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

There is so so much great stuff on!! A few ideas… I’ve seen Rhum & Clay’s War of The Worlds and it’s super, I want to see Katie Greenall’s Fatty Fat Fat and won’t get the chance because of a time clash with SWIM (a show I am in with Sam Ward and Liz Richardson) so maybe come see that one too?

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+3 Interview: Kieran Hodgson: ’75

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“The last few shows have gone alright, but this year may well push me into the next phase: taiko drumming.”

WHO: Kieran Hodgson, Writer/ Performer

WHAT: “The Tales of Kieran Hodgson: Part Four. Nominated for Best Show, Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2018. Passion. Betrayal. Harold Wilson. In June 1975 the United Kingdom voted to remain in the European Community. Since then, things have changed somewhat, and character comedian Kieran Hodgson wants to find out why. On a deeply personal quest for understanding, Kieran discovers that the 70s were about more than just Tiswas, the colour brown and the words ‘let’s go on strike again’. It’s the politics one. **** (Guardian). **** (Times). **** (Telegraph). **** (Scotsman).”

WHERE: Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Beyond (Venue 33) 

WHEN: 18:30 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Sadly not. The fire is dim, the joints are stiff, and I’m back for Fringe number thirteen. Unlucky for some! Technically I only did one night in 2017, though – does that count? I started off doing a uni revue (’07-’08), then migrated through the rough-and-tumble of sketch (’09-’12) into solo character comedy (’12 – Present). The last few shows have gone alright, but this year may well push me into the next phase: taiko drumming.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

Christmas was pretty epic this year. I had it at my in-laws’ for the first time and it involved a lot of high-spirited card games, a walk on the beach and a visit to the cracking Ocean Liners exhibition at the new V&A in Dundee. Highly recommended.

Tell us about your show.

I’m having a go at a sort-of ‘retrospective’ this time round. I’ll turn up for the final fortnight of the Fringe and perform a set of four previous shows, one per night in rotation. They got good reviews at the time but I fear they may not have aged well. Still, if there’s anyone out there with happy memories of them, or no memories of them at all, now’s your chance! I’m a character comedian so all the shows are full of lots of different characters, held together by a kooky story. There’s one about a Parisian switchboard operator (called ‘French Exchange’), one about a plague of boils (called ‘Lance’), one about debit cards (called ‘Maestro’) and one about a childhood IQ test I once took (called ”75′). They’re all on at the Pleasance for a last hurrah and then I shall start the proper work of writing a new show for next year. Promise.

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

I reckon you should check out these fantastic new sketch guys called Moon, and this fantastic new character comedian called Alexander Fox. I’ve seen their previous shows and they were electric! My other recommendation would be for the legend Arabella Weir, who’s bringing a hilarious and very moving debut solo hour to the Fringe this year called, rather brilliantly: ‘Does My Mum Loom Big In This?’

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+3 Interview: The Fishermen

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“One of the major things that has happened to us is the increased international demand for our work.”

WHO: Sally Anne Tye, Executive Director of New Perspectives

WHAT: “In a small Nigerian town Ben, Obembe and their two older brothers slip away to fish at a forbidden river. Unnoticed and carefree they continue until the prophecy of a madman changes their lives forever. Based on the Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel by one of Africa’s major new voices, New Perspectives’ critically acclaimed award-winning production of Chigozie Obioma’s powerful allegory of brotherhood, vengeance and fate adapted by Gbolahan Obisesan, returns to the Fringe for six performances only. ‘Something very special’ (Guardian). ‘A supreme piece of theatre’ (Stage). Part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2019.”

WHERE: Assembly George Square Studios – One (Venue 17) 

WHEN: 12:15 (40 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

We have been to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival many times, most recently in 2017 and 2018. In 2013 we brought The Boss of It All, a world premiere adaptation of the film of the same name by Lars Von Trier. Adapted and directed by our Artistic Director Jack McNamara, this was also a British theatre debut of an adaptation of Lars Von Trier’s work. We followed in 2017 with two productions: The Giant Jam Sandwich adapted and directed by Jack McNamara, and Finding Nana by Jane Upton directed by Katie Posner. In 2018 we returned with two contrasting productions: A Fortunate Man, which is a stage exploration of John Berger’s book by Michael Pinchbeck and The Fishermen, adapted by Gbolahan Obisesan and directed by Jack McNamara. 2018 was a great Edinburgh year for us with both A Fortunate Man and The Fishermen selling out their month-long runs.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

One of the major things that has happened to us is the increased international demand for our work. Since last year we have taken A Fortunate Man to Singapore (M1 Festival) and Cologne Festival and have plans afoot to take work to Sarajevo next year. The Fisherman has also just secured a West End Transfer and will run at Trafalgar Studios Sept 3 – Oct 12.

Tell us about your show.

The Fishermen is a first stage adaptation of the Man Booker shortlisted novel by Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma. It was adapted by Fringe First-winning playwright Gbolahan Obisesan and directed by our Artistic Director, Jack McNamara. It premiered at Home Manchester where it played to sell-out audiences before heading to Edinburgh and then touring. It was performed by two brilliant young British-Nigerian actors, Michael Ajao and Valentine Olukoga, who together won a Stage Award for outstanding performances. We are thrilled that it will have an opportunity to return to Edinburgh under the British Council Showcase, then transfer to the West End and then onto the Marlow Theatre in Canterbury.

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

Of the established artists we are big fans of Tim Crouch’s work so would certainly recommend Total Immediate Terrestrial Salvation. We are also excited to see Vessel by Sue Maclaine; another theatrical adventurer whose work we admire. Other shows to look out for are Y.O.U by Fuelled Dance Theatre and To Move in Time by Tim Etchells. But mainly Edinburgh is about taking a punt and discovering something unexpected, bizarre and extraordinary. So for all the known and acclaimed shows we also always recommend people diving into the unknown at least once a day. Spend some time in a cellar, check out the Free Fringe, get up early morning and see a children’s show. Many of our best Fringe experiences have come from going off-piste.

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+3 Interview: Melinda Hughes: Off the Scale

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” I will sing original songs about internet trolling, selfies, cougars, hipsters, sex-pest cowboys, as well as Melania Trump’s Diary entries which has become a hit feature of my shows in London.”

WHO: Melinda Hughes, Writer/ Performer

WHAT: “Backed by a live jazz trio, Melinda’s show is a sophisticated romp through social and political satire, packed with provocative original songs on internet trolling, cougars, hipsters, sex-pest cowboys as well as an appearance by Melania Trump. Melinda has been a sell-out success at Crazy Coqs (London) and The Metropolitan Room (New York). ‘So clever… every pun hit the mark’ **** (Times). ‘Delightfully playful, devastatingly funny and deliciously entertaining’ ***** (LondonTheatre1.com). ‘Scandalous and timely’ (Vanity Fair). ‘A brilliant cabaret goddess, a satirist of high order’ (NewYorkSocialDiary.com).”

WHERE: Assembly Rooms – Drawing Room (Venue 20) 

WHEN: 16:50 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my third time at the Edinburgh Fringe. Last year I came with quite a dramatic show called Margo half woman half beast set in Weimar Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. This year is good old fashioned satirical cabaret.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

Probably spending time performing in Barbados. I took part in a wonderful music festival at Cobblers Cove, guesting with the US a cappella group The Harvard Din & Tonics and also performed a concert of my own. It was a wonderful experience and I hung out with Cliff Richard!

Tell us about your show.

Off the scale is a fun-packed musical romp through social and political satire. I will sing original songs about internet trolling, selfies, cougars, hipsters, sex-pest cowboys, as well as Melania Trump’s Diary entries which has become a hit feature of my shows in London. I’m still in the middle of writing it as so many things are happening in the news, I have to change links and lyrics.

I formed my cabaret group Kiss & Tell with my co-writer Jeremy Limb in 2007. We have performed at festivals and events as far afield as Beirut. This year my MD will be Michael Roulston. We’ve written a brilliant song together especially for the show and it will be previewed in London at the Canal theatre cafe and The Pheasantry.

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

I’m a big fan of comedy so already on my list is David O Doherty Michale Legge, Lucy Porter, Marcus Brigstocke, Robin Morgan and Simon Evans. I always catch Austentatious as they are so clever.

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+3 Interview: Archie Henderson: Jazz Emu

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“I’ve been working on the show for a while, and I won an award for it at the Brighton Fringe last year (IYAF Best of Brighton Fringe Comedy).”

WHO: Archie Henderson, Writer/Performer

WHAT: “After two years of making musical stings on his computer, mostly in his underwear at 3am, Archie’s facing an artistic crisis. It’s time to break the cycle. The debut hour from this multi award-winning comedian is the multimedia musical experience you didn’t know you needed. Winner: IYAF Best of Brighton Fringe Comedy, 2018. ‘Radiated a delightfully daft energy’ (Chortle.co.uk). ‘Immense talent and fantastic energy’ (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine).”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon at Old Tolbooth Market – Bothy (Venue 98) 

WHEN: 18:45 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This’ll be my eighth show at Edinburgh, although it’s also my first solo show. I performed in a bunch of sketch shows for the first few years, but the most recent one made me realise that I wasn’t burdening myself with enough pressure, stress or self-loathing, and so I decided to embark on the solo road. I’m delighted to say it’s been incredibly efficient in totally crippling me in every respect! I did a work-in-progress of this show last year in the Globe Bar with PBH Free Fringe.

The Globe Bar is a classic Edinburgh are-the-walls-leaking venue, and Saturdays were always completely rammed, half with people coming to see me, and half with people coming to watch the football outside. There was only a curtain between my room and the screaming people, but I quickly realised that if I turned the speaker at the back to full volume I could create a wall of sound behind the audience, and all for the very low price of all the eardrums of members of the back row!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

I made a comedy video with a friend that went viral on the worldwide net, which was fun. I’m also 87% sure I saw a rat hi-fiving a pigeon in Leicester Square last week.

Tell us about your show.

It’s a comedy show about music, with a healthy dose of multimedia magic in the form of music videos (assisted by my very skilled and actually professionally employed film-making friend Hunter Allen) and almost a hundred sound cues that I have laboured over a disproportionate amount considering their artistic merit. The show ostensibly explores my obsession with music from a variety of different angles, but is, more importantly, an excuse for me to make a variety of bird noises. I’ve been working on the show for a while, and I won an award for it at the Brighton Fringe last year (IYAF Best of Brighton Fringe Comedy). Since then I’ve tried to take it to every comedy festival under the sun and I’m quite chuffed with how it’s shaping up.

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

My favourite stand-up act at the moment is Heidi Regan. She writes the most compellingly funny stuff straight from the bizarro world and I am perpetually fascinated by how her brain works.
Phil Wang’s last show was my favourite at fringe 2017, and I’m highly excited for his new one. He is amazingly watchable and his joke-writing is enviably good.
In terms of sketchy stuff, Police Cops’ shows are always high-energy narrative masterpieces with loads of really good jokes. Max and Ivan do this incredibly well too, and their stories compromise one of the few sketch shows that can stir emotion in my cold, dead heart.
If you want to see some musical comedy that is actually clever and not just screaming, you should go and see Harriet Braine. Her act is impressively deft and always really funny. Also she’s on at my venue so you can double up on musical comedy, which – just admit it – is all you’ve ever wanted.
Also, for a great newcomer go and see Janine Harouni. She is very funny and skilled at stand-up and you will be chuffed that you saw her first.

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+3 Interview: I, Tom Mayhew

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“There’s so many of us that were treated badly for a situation that was the fault of a previous generation, and I want to stand up for those people.”

WHO: Tom Mayhew, Comedian

WHAT: “Tom Mayhew (BBC New Comedy Award semi-finalist 2018) was unemployed for three years from the age of 18. This is a story of rejections, the JobCentre, being working class, and fighting for your place in the world. With lots of jokes. This show explores what its really like for someone in their twenties in 2019. While some seem to think we have it all, the reality is that many of us can’t afford to move out of our parents’ place. ‘His content is from the heart; spellbinding, raw and telling… a genuine joy to watch’ (Kate Copstick).”

WHERE: Just the Tonic at The Mash House – Just the Bottle Room (Venue 288) 

WHEN: 19:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

It’s not – 2015 was my first year as a performer, in a guest role as President Obonjo’s “white butler”.

In 2016, I was part of a two-hander with Adele Cliff, in Adele and Tom’s First Birthday Party. It was in a marquee tent that had no soundproofing and flooded numerous times over the month. We wore party hats and it was a laugh, though.

2017 was the year that I took my debut hour up to the Fringe. I feel like acts with big agents or a lot of money behind them see their debut hour as them “arriving”, but my show was self-financed by my £7-an-hour job at Sainsbury’s, so it was more for me, to prove that I could do it.

I didn’t bring a solo show to Edinburgh in 2018, because I couldn’t afford it. I did, however, take part in a compilation show called Best In Class, where all of the acts were working-class comedians. It was a lot of fun, and it felt like quite an important thing to be a part of, considering how difficult it is for comedians from poorer backgrounds to finance their own shows.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

I have written for The News Quiz a couple of times in 2019. When I was growing up, my Mum worked for Boots and my Dad did various manual labour jobs, so for me to be getting paid work at the BBC… it was honestly something that felt worlds away from my normal life! I was so excited to see where the news takes place, to have a pass that said “BBC” on it, to be working on a show that I listened to before I had ever performed comedy… It was a really lovely feeling, and I hope it becomes a regular thing.

Tell us about your show.

My show is called I, Tom Mayhew: it is a show about my experiences of growing up poor, being on benefits, and the stigma that comes with it. I wanted to write this show because…well, when I, Daniel Blake came out in 2016, I cried. Not because of the film – I didn’t actually watch the film until a couple of years after it was in cinemas. I cried because it felt like the first time I had seen someone show my experience of being on benefits, of being completely skint in the 2010s, of what it is like for people at the bottom.

My story is different from that film, of course, because it is that of a person in his 20s – part of a generation that experienced record levels of unemployment. There’s so many of us that were treated badly for a situation that was the fault of a previous generation, and I want to stand up for those people.

The show is produced by Objectively Funny, who have been described as “the art-forms cutting edge” by The Guardian.

It is being directed by Olivia Phipps, who was a production secretary on Detectorists, and is an award-winning producer.

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

If they enjoy my show, then they will enjoy shows by some of these working-class comedians at the Fringe:

Sian Davies is hosting Best In Class again this year, and she has some of my very favourite acts taking part in Jordan Gray, William Stone and Hannah Platt.

James Meehan is an incredible comedian – his show in 2018, Gaz, was my favourite show of last year’s festival, so make sure you catch him.

Bethany Black isn’t at the Fringe this year, but her show in 2018 made me laugh more than any other, and it was a close second, just behind James’ show. So follow her on Twitter anyway, and see her when you can.

Lauren Pattison is only doing one date, so if you are reading this in June, I suggest you book a ticket right now – unless she’s already sold out. But she will sell out. She’s quality.

Finally, they aren’t working-class, but they are Objectively Funny: David McIver, Yasmine Day, Siblings, Harriet Braine, Nathan Roberts, Will Rowand.

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+3 Interview: Travis Jay: Funny, Petty, Cool

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“This time I’m looking forward to trying some Haggis and a deep fried chocolate bar!”

WHO: Travis Jay, Performer

WHAT: “After attending the festival in 1994 as a young boy to watch his mother Angie Le Mar perform, Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year nominee Travis Jay is bringing his own show to the Fringe! Funny, Petty, Cool combines hilarious, deeply personal anecdotes with side-splitting social commentary, offering insight into Travis Jay’s world. From the time he accidentally became the leader of a Black Lives Matter protest to the time he went to war with a four-year-old, Travis recounts stories and more with the effortless charm he‘s become renowned for. ‘He’s amazing’ (Dave Chappelle).”

WHERE: Just the Tonic at The Mash House – Just the Attic (Venue 288) 

WHEN: 14:35 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is not my first time, I actually attended the Edinburgh festival around 25 years ago. My mother Angie Le Mar is a stand up comic, so I was at the festival as a 7-year-old. My main memories are mostly focused on the iconic shortbread biscuits. This time I’m looking forward to trying some Haggis and a deep fried chocolate bar!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’18?

Well I didn’t attend the festivals last year, but the biggest thing has got to be supporting Dave Chappelle on his recent London dates. I met him when he came over last year in an impromptu secret gig, that was a great night and when he came back I was the UK support. That was a tremendous experience, sharing the stage with somebody I consider the greatest comic ever for 3 nights in a row. An experience I’ll never forget.

Tell us about your show.

This show is an attempt to really introduce myself to the audience, I take the audience into my experience of fatherhood thus far and the curveballs that I’ve had dealt along the way. I open up about how the passing of my Grandfather had affected me and caused me to face my toxic masculinity. My show has lots of social commentary and much more, I really can’t wait for people to see it.

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

I know a few comedians who are taking shows up this year, I definitely recommend going to see Marlon Davis, Thanyia Moore, Steff Todd, Jacob Hawley and Sophie Duker.

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