Author Archives: Dan Lentell

+3 Interview: Archie Maddocks: Matchstick

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“It’s all been upwards in the last twelve months.”

WHO: Archie Maddocks, Performer/Comedian

WHAT: “Award-winning Archie Maddocks presents an hour of biting, provocative, unflinchingly funny comedy where he explores his deepest and darkest thoughts, exposes his flaws and interrogates his personal connection to Grenfell Tower. Fresh from a stint in the BBC Writersroom, having previously toured South Africa and Europe, this ‘super cool, super smart storyteller’ (Bruce Dessau, BeyondTheJoke.co.uk and Evening Standard) hilariously explores life, love and loss with a candid authenticity, marking him out as a ‘real highlight’ (BBC Introducing).”

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

WHEN: 13:55 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my fifth year in a row, but third show, if that makes sense? I was up before doing compilation shows and stuff, but this is my third hour long show. I personally love the madness of it all, running in to people you don’t get to see as often as you’d like, drunken emotional conversations at 3 in the morning on a staircase, having literally no idea what day or time it is most of the time. For me, Edinburgh is basically the most stressful holiday, you get away from everything, but you’re also in the midst of the most creative community there is. I love it. My waistline and liver says it don’t love me though…

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

This year I’ve progressed a lot in the TV world, writing wise. I’m also a playwright, and since the last festival, I’m formally in development with five of the biggest production companies in the UK, have written an episode for TV on a greenlit series, and written a feature film for a massive company with a view to shoot soon, I was also in the BBC Writers Room, 4Screenwriting programme and was named the BBC Writer in residence – it’s been fucking hectic. With Stand-Up, I played Soho Theatre for the first time (all because of the Edinburgh show in 2017, IlluminArchie) and filmed a special in Norway, along with playing the biggest gigs in the country and fronting an online documentary for The Hook, which is going to be released in the next few months. It’s all been upwards in the last twelve months. I’m very aware that the fall is probably beckoning around the corner though. For now, I’m just grateful I can afford Nutella everyday.

Tell us about your show.

This show is about me growing into myself. Personally, it’s been one of the saddest years of my life, but also one of the most joyful – which I guess is what life is about, managing the ups and the downs and not getting drowned in either wave of optimism or pessimism. I’m more aware of what I think now, I’m more grounded in myself – and I’m also angrier than I’ve ever been at the state of things around me. This show, and how wanky is this, actually ‘means something’ (I feel like such a prick for writing that) and, while I’m never proud of anything I do (minus eating a 5kg tub of Nutella in 4 hours) this is the closest I’ve come to actually being me and being truthful on stage.

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

Obviously, see my show. Apart from that… I would say get lost and just stumble into things. Go and see something you don’t think you’ll like, watch something mad and experimental – go and see someone you hate to see if your mind can be changed and your horizons shifted. I think we tend to go and see things we’ll know we’ll like too much, and that’s great, but sometimes it’s good to see what you don’t like and why. I, for example, didn’t know I wasn’t a fan of someone ramming their hand up their arse, all the way up to the elbow (!) and then licking it clean until I saw it. But I did see it, and now I know I ain’t a fan of that shit (not a pun. Is that a pun? I don’t think I know what a pun is).

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+3 Interview: Very Blue Peter

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I became a legal knife-wielding Oyster Shucker. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But all I know is, I smell like fish more regularly than one man should…”

WHO: Toby Boutall, Writer/Director/Performer

WHAT: “1998. England are out of the World Cup. JK Rowling is still pretty skint. Richard Bacon has been framed. Or did it really happen? Or was it all just a cover-up of something much, much bigger? Get your badge on, here’s one we made earlier, welcome to the set of Very Blue Peter. A bonkers, immersive, party of a late night show – bringing you back to your childhood whilst destroying the innocence of all of it.”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Teviot – Billiard Room (Venue 14) 

WHEN: 23:15 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

As a performer, yes this is my first time at the Fringe and i’m pretty excited! However, I came up last year working with Eastlake Productions helping with shows such as This Is Not Culturally Significant and Your Ever Loving! It was utterly ridiculous. RIDICULOUS.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

This year has been a pretty crazy one. Got seen for Genie on the west end… wasn’t quite right for that. Helped my mates reopen an immense theatre in Tottenham Hale, N16 (even though it’s N17). But by far, the most important thing that happened this year was far away from acting. I became a legal knife-wielding Oyster Shucker. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But all I know is, I smell like fish more regularly than one man should…

Tell us about your show.

Very Blue Peter is my love child with Eric Andre and Rik Mayall (even though they don’t know it yet). The show centres around the Richard Bacon fiasco of 1998. After being supposedly caught in an illegal adult act, Richard Bacon was fired from the Blue Peter. However, this was all a cover-up for something much, much bigger! TCC (The Children’s Channel) had been cancelled on the 3rd April and 5PM for unknown reasons. After the cancellation of their channel, three disgruntled presenters broke into the BBC studios, Locked and blocked all the doors, kidnapped the school kids, the guests and the techies for that day’s show. They then forced the BBC to record this episode in hope of regaining some credit in their careers, but everything went disastrously wrong… The episode has only just been rediscovered and will be presented in front of your very eyes.

The show is being produced by Eastlake Productions, who recently opened Flesh & Bone at the Soho theatre! The company itself came about through a mix of drinking, football, stupidity and a little bit of theatre. After having worked with almost everyone here before, I knew they’d be the right people to go crazy with! We’ve only done a few in-house previews before hand, so Edinburgh will be getting the proper first previews and run! This is really exciting and we know that if it goes well, then it will go really well and we’ll hope to do a run in one of the theatres Eastlake Productions works with on the regular. if it goes wrong, I’ll find a nice little shack in Lancashire and retire. At 25.

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

There are a number of good bars to see at 12 o’clock at night. I like the one with the sofas in, that’s pretty neat. And Frankenstein’s for the mad one. Oh yeh, in terms of theatre, probably Loop, probably Ouroboros, maybe some of the young lads Naughty Corner’s productions…

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+3 Interview: Belly of a Drunken Piano

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“Each time he performs in the UK, Stewart pulls together an awesome band of Scottish artists and this year is no exception.”

WHO: Sandy Bruns, Producer

WHAT: “Multi-award winning performer and artistic director Stewart D’Arrietta (My Leonard Cohen, Fringe 2016-17) returns with a new show for 2018. Belly of a Drunken Piano offers gritty, imaginative arrangements of the most-loved music from the most enigmatic and influential songwriters of the age, punctuated by D’Arrietta’s laconic humour and compositions of his own. The lyrical tragedies and jocular narratives of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, Ian Dury, and others, inhabit the underworld of D’Arrietta’s drunken piano. All five-star reviews at Adelaide Fringe 2018 – ‘Not to be missed’ (BroadwayWorld.com). ‘10/10!’ (TheAdelaideShow.com.au).”

WHERE: Assembly Rooms – Ballroom 18:15 (Venue 20) 

WHEN: 18:15 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Stewart is a regular at the Edinburgh Festivals, this year being his fifth year at EdFringe. In 2016-17, ‘My Leonard Cohen’ was a big success with audiences, but he’s returning with a new show for 2018, titled ‘Belly of a Drunken Piano’, in which he’s taking on the material of Tom Waits, Ian Dury, Randy Newman and other musical legends.

Each time he performs in the UK, Stewart pulls together an awesome band of Scottish artists and this year is no exception.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

The biggest thing for us since 2017 was the Adelaide Fringe Festival in Feb/March, at which Stewart premiered ‘Belly of a Drunken Piano’, to great acclaim. The show earned four reviews, all of them 5 star, including 5 stars from the Adelaide Advertiser (which is the Adelaide equivalent of getting a 5 star review from The Scotsman).

Tell us about your show.

We premiered the show at Adelaide Fringe Festival earlier this year. It represents a welcome return to some of Stewart’s favourite material, the music of Tom Waits, which he has worked with extensively in the past. Having performed his Tom Waits show (also titled ‘Belly of a Drunken Piano’) in New York for five years, Stewart was surprised to find himself faced with a ‘cease and desist’ order from the man himself!

This reincarnation of ‘Belly of a Drunken Piano’ offers gritty, imaginative arrangements of music from the most enigmatic and influential songwriters of the age, including Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Ian Dury, among others, punctuated by D’Arrietta’s laconic humour and compositions of his own.

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

The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign – I saw it last year, very good. And we’re really looking forward to seeing stand up comedian Camilla Cleese, daughter of John Cleese, who is producing his daughter’s show. We bet it’ll be brilliant!

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+3 Interview: The Delightful Sausage: Regeneration Game

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“Last year went embarrassingly well. Reviewers and audiences liked it. We really weren’t prepared for that.”

WHO: Amy Gledhill and Chris Cantrill, The acts

WHAT: “Surreal comedy from Yorkshire’s finest, meat-themed double act. Join Chris and Amy in a gag-packed mission to crown their town the City of Culture. Find out what culture is, who’s been secreting it and why that stain won’t wash. A multimedia adventure for fans of economic recession, blue top milk and Bigfoot. The follow-up to the duo’s debut show which was recorded for NextUp and transferred to the Soho Theatre. ‘One of the best adverts for modern alternative comedy’ **** (EdFestMag.com). ‘Inventive and increasingly hysterical’ **** (Skinny). ‘Brims with ideas and creativity’ **** (ThreeWeeks).”

WHERE: Monkey Barrel Comedy Club – Monkey Barrel 2 (Venue 515) 

WHEN: 12:00 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

It will be our second time up there as a duo. (Chris did a solo show in 2016 and the twelve people who saw it have never been the same since.)

Last year went embarrassingly well. Reviewers and audiences liked it. We really weren’t prepared for that. We were brought solidly back to Earth though when we got back to the confused grimaces of comedy clubs of the north-west.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

We had a run at Soho Theatre which was a huge deal for us. On the last night all four of our parents were on the front row, and Chris had a tiny cry on stage, which has never happened out of joy before. Amy’s dad shook everybody’s hand in the theatre bar and since then we’ve both had the confidence to complain in restaurants.

Tell us about your show.

Regeneration Game is a bizarre comedy show, loosely (oh so loosely) based around a City of Culture bid. It features trolls, unsettling illustrations and is packed tight with gags. We write (secrete ) and produce it ourselves with the overseeing, ever-twitching eye, of our agent.

We met whilst performing as solo acts in the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year final and both of us ended up relocating to Manchester and needing someone to have a Cheeky Vimto with.

Regeneration Game will premier at the festival this year and if the friendship survives, it will be going on a small tour of the UK early next year.

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

We’d highly recommend having a day at The Monkey Barrel, their programming is innovative, often silly and of a really high standard.

Our other picks of the fringe would be;
Ross Brierley – Accumulator.
James Meehan – Gaz
Jack Evans – Work
David Callaghan – One for Sorrow, Two for Joy – Shoes.
Sleeping Trees – World Tour
Lazy Suzan – Forgive Me, Mother!
Harriet Dyer- Sooz A Prick
Lou Conran – At Least I’m Not Dog Poo Darren
Lee Kyle – Kicking Potatoes

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+3 Interview: KillyMuck

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I took last year off to pay all the credit cards and loans I took out to fund my work!”

WHO: Kat Woods, Writer/Director/Producer

WHAT: “Inspired by real events, Killymuck is a housing estate built on a paupers graveyard in 1970s Ireland. Niamh navigates life through the parameters of growing up, with the trials and tribulations of being a kid from the benefit class system. Lack of opportunity, educational barriers, impoverishment, addiction and depression are the norms as the struggle to escape the underclass stereotype becomes a priority. From school trips organised as cross-community excursions to unite a fractured post troubles town, to finding the humour within an estate crippled with misfortune. From award-winning, critically acclaimed writer of Belfast Boy, Wasted, Mule.”

WHERE: Underbelly, Bristo Square – Jersey (Venue 302) 

WHEN: 18:25 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

In 2004 I went on a Hen party to Edinburgh and one of the only things I can remember was the Frankenstein bar and a very drunken open top bus tour!

This will actually be my fourth Edinburgh Fringe. My previous shows include BELFAST BOY in 2014 (Sold out and won; The Stage award for Excellence and The Fringe Review award for Outstanding Theatre), WASTED (Sell out shows transferred to New York and London) in 2015 and MULE in 2016 (Sell out shows transferred to London and Northern Ireland). I took last year off to pay all the credit cards and loans I took out to fund my work!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I cleared my credit card, working a million Restaurant hours!

I signed with a fantastic writing agent, Alex Rusher at Independent Talent. Found my writing Mojo again and penned Killymuck. Mule went on tour to Northern Ireland. Belfast Boy took part in a producing showcase in London. Wasted premiered in Wales.

My company have been invited to Baltimore and Washington DC, at the end of August to present Wasted as part of a college campus tour.

Tell us about your show.

I am the Writer/Director/Producer. The show is a solo piece of theatre and will be performed by Aoife Lennon. I have known Aoife from doing a Drama Degree in Derry N.Ireland over 10 years ago and I have worked with her on a few pieces, most notably, our last EdFringe piece Mule.

Killymuck is an exploration of issues surrounding class, that I have experienced throughout my childhood and adult life. I am from a council estate, grew up on benefits. With the rise of unpaid internships, unpaid work in general and cuts to arts funding. I felt compelled to write something. We are in danger of the arts becoming solely an elitist playground. Yes, ‘Fleabag’ is fantastic but it is yet another middle-class voice. Where is the representation of the underclass, have we been forgotten? No one speaks of us. It’s time to change that.

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

I am always a little bias towards other Irish shows and in saying that, ‘My Left Nut’ by Michael Patrick and ‘Maz and Bricks’ by Eva O’Connor both look incredible.

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+3 Interview: Jeremy Nicholas: After Dinner Stories from My Disastrous Broadcasting Career

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“This is my Edinburgh debut at the age of 55. I’ve been many times to watch and always loved it.”

WHO: Jeremy Nicholas, Writer and performer

WHAT: “Sony Award-winning broadcaster Jeremy Nicholas brings his hilarious debut hour. Based on true-life stories from 27 years of trying not to get fired on TV and radio with the BBC. There was the time he reported on the face of Elvis in the blue veins of a cheese or his catastrophic mistake to a global TV audience during London 2012. You’ll also get the inside track on the dreadful celebrities he’s interviewed. Jeremy has been described as ‘a complete anchor’, but he may have misheard. Not to be missed.”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Teviot – Nightclub (Venue 14) 

WHEN: 13:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my Edinburgh debut at the age of 55. I’ve been many times to watch and always loved it.
Last year I was chatting to a South African theatre director about me doing comedy and he said ‘oh you must bring your one-man show to our theatre in Johannesburg’.

Now I’m a very experienced after-dinner speaker, but the comedy I was talking about is a class I do on a Monday night with adult performing arts academy Stage & the City at Kings Cross.

However, as we’d just done some improv sessions with our fab teacher Maddy Anholt, where we learnt to say ‘yes, and ….’, I found myself saying, ‘yes that would be lovely, when shall I come?’

He offered me a date in December, which gave me four months to weave three hours worth of long-form after-dinner stories into a punchy Greatest Hits-style comedy show.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

So on December 12th I found myself performing a one man, one hour show for the first time, in Johannesburg. I figured if I was rubbish, no one would ever need to hear about it, as it was a long way from home.

But it wasn’t rubbish. It sold out and I got great reviews in the papers. Mainly in Afrikaans, so I’m not sure what it said, but it was all good apparently.

I’d promised myself that if it was good I’d take it to Edinburgh. So I applied to six venues and waited to see if I got in.

My best ever day was on March 15th (the Ides of March) when Gilded Balloon said yes. I couldn’t believe I’d got into such a prestigious venue. I thought I’d be in a tiny space on the outskirts somewhere. And then when I looked to see who else was on at my venue and saw Luisa Omielan was, I suddenly was completely overwhelmed, because she’s one of my all-time comedy heroes.

Tell us about your show.

So now I’d got my slot, I thought I need a much better show than I actually have. I’m one of the top after-dinner speakers in my category, which is: Speakers you’ve never heard of, who haven’t climbed anything, overcome anything or won something involving a ball.’

This show needed to be more than just me rambling on. So I hired Maddy Anholt to produce it for me. She’s my comedy teacher from Monday nights at Kings Cross, who inspired me to do this.

I picked her because I saw her Edinburgh show ‘Herselves’ last year and was blown away by it. She’s superb at comedy characters and has her own production company MadMaddy TV.

Maddy has made me much punchier. She’s added theatricality to my performance. My background is current affairs presenting on TV and radio, so I’m used to being quite calm. One of my producers once described me as ‘a complete anchor’ but I may have misheard. With Maddy’s direction I came out of my shell. She allowed me to develop my stories by adding more accents and becoming the characters, rather than just talking about them.

I’ve seen the show go from quite good, to rather good, to quite possibly brilliant. I could never have done that on my own.

The show started as a ‘work in progress’ at the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell, London, with other shows at the Museum of Comedy in Holborn, Hen and Chickens in Islington and Turk’s Head in Twickenham.

I then played to a sell out crowd at the British Legion in Radcliffe on Trent in Nottingham. That’s when I thought it might be good.

The scariest gig was the Quay Theatre, Sudbury to an audience that included my Mum, Dad, sisters, aunties, uncles and old school friends. (My mum features in one of my big punchlines and I was worried she’d stand up and say ‘I never said that!’)

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

I would suggest going to see Luisa Omielan: Politics for Bitches. I saw a short bit of it at The List launch in London and it looks fab. If it’s anywhere near as good as her last two Edinburgh shows, What Would Beyonce Do? and Am I Right Ladies? it will be brilliant.

Bernie Dieter’s Little Death Club will be fab if you’re after cabaret, along with The Secret Divorce Society with Till Death Us Do Part?

As for stand-ups I’m going to Hal Cruttenden, Lou Sanders, Lauren Pattison, Heidi Regan, Tim Key, Zoe Lyons and Gary Delaney.

I’d recommend going to compilation shows like Fast Fringe, Spank! and Late ‘n’ Live. That’s where I go to find shows I’d never think of going to.

As an after-dinner speaker myself, I’ll be going to see Gyles Brandreth in Break a Leg! He has so many fun stories from inside politics as well as more serious stuff from Countdown. This time it’s all theatrical anecdotes.

I’m also a fan of interview type shows like Fred MacAulay in Conversation. I love to hear people just chatting, rather than performing and Fred is the master of that.

And one last shout out to a serious bit of drama from David William Bryan, In Loyal Company about a missing WWII airman. This guy is a phenomenal performer.

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+3 Interview: Sid Singh: American Bot

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I graduated from law school after living in San Francisco for the past 3 years specializing in refugee law and also start up law. So really the moment I can help a refugee who invents something, my non-comedy career path will be set.”

WHO: Sid Singh, Comedian

WHAT: “Silicon Valley dominates the news with the richest man in the world (Jeff Bezos), a website that helped spread fake news and swing a presidential election (Facebook), and a future presidential candidate (Mark F*cking Zuckerberg). Join Silicon Valley native Sid Singh, fresh off his best-selling comedy album Amazing! Probably, returning to Edinburgh to take down Silicon Valley’s toxic tech culture. From tech’s invasion into our personal lives, to the rampant sexism and racism that festers behind closed doors, the world of tech has never been more problematic or more powerful.”

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

WHEN: 18:25 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my fifth time doing Edinburgh and my first new hour since I released my first comedy album “Amazing (Probably)” last year! I love the Fringe and am excited to be back!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I graduated from law school after living in San Francisco for the past 3 years specializing in refugee law and also start up law. So really the moment I can help a refugee who invents something, my non-comedy career path will be set. I also only went to law school initially to please my parents so to actually be done is one of the weirdest feelings in the world.

Tell us about your show.

As I mentioned above, I’ve now been doing stand up for almost a decade and most of my comedy was very introspective and self-deprecating. Then I moved to San Francisco after having been gone for 10 years and my perspective completely changed. My hometown has basically been sold off into a playground for the rich. Thanks to law school I was able to become one of the heads of the Homeless Legal Services and also volunteer for the Legal Action Resources Clinic and see first hand how the city has changed for the worst and actively hurt people who need our help the most.

So I decided to write a show about that, specifically how the tech billionaires who control much of San Francisco are crazy and should get a lot less respect than the working class that still make up this city. Despite the fact that it’s my first ever show with a message (which would normally go against my general brand of New York styled comedy), I believe the show can be one of my funniest ever too.

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

Honestly, the reality of the Fringe is that you’re best served watching as many shows as possible to get as many perspectives as possible. So in addition to the shows I’ll recommend, please do just wander about and get talked into seeing anything that strikes your fancy.

As for shows that I do want to specifically recommend: Droll by the Owle Scheme Theatre is such a fun show. Basically, the premise is what if a bunch of really fun and talented performers put on a play from 400 years ago that was ILLEGAL at the time it was written and didn’t take themselves too seriously? The result is a really fun time. As a man raised with a large amount of toxic masculinity that he has to overcome, I was shocked by how much I liked this play, especially one that describes itself as experimental classical theatre.

As for comedy, go watch this amazing list of people if you can: Dan Audritt, Tamar Broadbent, Ed Night, Aatif Nawaz, Peter Michael Marino, Jamie Oliphant, Rahul Kohli, and Eshaan Akbar. They are all so different from each other and that is what makes them also so unique and distinct in super interesting ways.

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+3 Interview: Nick Hall: Spencer

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I had my appendix taken out. It was a huge moment in my life when I stared death right in the eyes and kicked it in the balls.”

WHO: Nick Hall, Writer/Performer

WHAT: “Spencer Percival has one claim to fame. He’s the only British Prime Minister ever to be assassinated. Unfortunately, no one’s ever heard of him. 206 years later, Nick Hall tells his story. In this inventive and hilarious journey through history, Nick brings alive the world of the 19th century, while drawing parallels with the present. In this age of Brexit, Trump, Corbynista and Maybot, could we still learn something from the past? As seen on BBC Two and Three, and heard on BBC Radio 4. ‘Brilliant’ (Times). ‘Crackingly original’ **** (List). ‘One not to miss’ **** (Skinny).”

WHERE: Underbelly, Bristo Square – Clover (Venue 302) 

WHEN: 13:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my 8th year of coming to the Fringe! There’s something very depressing about writing out that sentence. That said, once you come up here it’s a great fun and you wonder where else in the world you’d like to be. Then by the end of August you can’t wait to get away. And the cycle starts all over again…

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I had my appendix taken out. It was a huge moment in my life when I stared death right in the eyes and kicked it in the balls. The moment when the nurse turned to me and said, ‘Yep it’s definitely appendicitis’ was a truly life-changing bombshell which put things in perspective. Coming round the next day after the general anaesthetic I swore that I would lead life to the full, and not waste a single moment. Six months later I’m eating Pringles while I write this and preparing to go to the Fringe for the umpteenth time. But I’ve got a really good show. Which is actually sort of about death.

Tell us about your show.

My show is called Spencer – it’s written and performed by myself (egotistical I know). There is no company apart from myself – I’m a one-man company. A manpony. Although that just sounds like a man and a pony were genetically fused together in a Fly-like scenario. It’s directed by an wonderful lady named Jess Lazar and is being premiered in London in the run-up to Edinburgh. As for what happens after, touring around London and the UK hopefully, and then who knows? By the way that isn’t a rhetorical question, I’m genuinely asking the reader what I should do next.

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

You should check out the hilarious stand-up stylings of Dan Cook. He’s a brilliantly funny man who also happens to be my flat mate in Edinburgh. I’m therefore recommending him in a bid to sooth his gigantic ego and try and curry favour when it turns out that I accidentally used his milk.

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+3 Interview: Dan Simpson: Worried Face Emoji

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I fly through the Fringe with an electric energy, riding those currents of exhaustion to the very end.”

WHO: Dan Simpson, Stand Up Poet

WHAT: “If brevity is the soul of wit, then emoji is the funniest language on the planet. Or it should be. Stand-up poet Dan Simpson taps into the ideograms and idiocy of our modern anxieties with a little ‘wordplay alchemy’ (FringeReview.co.uk). ‘Charmingly geeky’ (Scotsman). Glastonbury and BBC regular returns to the Fringe with whip-smart words and playful performance. Praise for previous Fringe shows: ‘The perfect antidote to the perpetual screen-burn of our internet-obsessed age’ (Scotsman). ‘A talented wordsmith… poetry for the selfie generation’ (WestEndWilma.com).”

WHERE: Banshee Labyrinth – Banquet Hall (Venue 156) 

WHEN: 18:40 (55 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my fifth Edinburgh with a solo show, and the ninth time I’ve headed up to be part of it in some capacity. As a solo performer who does everything for the show – from writing and performing to producing, marketing, and press – I fly through the Fringe with an electric energy, riding those currents of exhaustion to the very end. In 2016 I managed to perform in over 90 shows – two of my own each day, plus guesting anywhere else. I absolutely love it.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I did a big project in Chicago, with the Botanic Garden there. I’m part of a popular science partnership (Dr. Illingworth & Mr. Simpson) and we flew over for nearly two weeks to partner up poets and scientists, and get them to make spoken word pieces together. I also ate a lot of deep dish pizza, which is the very best food in the world.

Tell us about your show.

They say a picture paints a thousand words: so how many does an emoji depict? Can poetry survive in a world of love hearts, shocked cats, and smiling poop? I love thinking about the impact of technology and how we communicate – essential things for a poet, or any writer / performer – so the show is influenced by that. It’s also a whole bunch of pieces I’ve written over the past two years as I work towards my second collection of poems.

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

Rob Auton is always a fantastic experience – I can’t fathom what he does, and he’s super unique. A big shout out to all the other spoken word shows, especially on the Free Fringe – the biggest home to the genre at the Festival. I can’t not mention my other show Stand Up & Slam: a battle night where we get poets to fight comedians (with words) – that’s 8.45pm each day at Subway on Cowgate, and we have acts like Harry Baker, Mark Grist and The Story Beast going up against the Fringe’s finest comedians!

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+3 Interview: Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: Home Sweet Home

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features by

“I got a PlayStation 4! So, yeah, it’s been a big year.”

WHO: Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, stand-up

WHAT: “The debut hour from the future of Scottish stand-up. A three-time Scottish Comedian of the Year finalist, So You Think You’re Funny? finalist and two-time nominee for Best New Act at the Scottish Comedy Awards. As featured on BBC Radio 1 and 4 Extra. ‘On the cusp of something big and you don’t want to miss it’ (Daily Record). ‘A charming young comic. Macarthur-Boyd’s material is well-honed and well-delivered’ (Scotsman). ‘The personal and political housed seamlessly’ (Skinny). ‘A comedy nerd’s informed tweaking of stand-up convention’ (Chortle.co.uk).”

WHERE: Gilded Balloon Teviot – The Turret (Venue 14) 

WHEN: 22:15 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my first proper debut hour, but it’s not my first rodeo. In 2015 and 2016 I did double-handers with Ben Pope and Rosco Mcclelland, then last year I did a 45-minute solo show called The Boyd With The Thorn In His Side.

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

My girlfriend has emigrated from Australia to Glasgow to live with me… in my mum and dad’s house. That’s what the show is about, too, funnily enough. Also, I got a PlayStation 4! So, yeah, it’s been a big year.

Tell us about your show.

Well, like I said, I’ve got my girlfriend living with me, my mum, and my dad. The show is about that living situation. 4.3 million adults in Britain still live with their mum and dad, and I think that’s shite.

The first ever run-through of it was at the Leicester Comedy Festival in a room above a pub, then the Glasgow Comedy Festival at The Stand. Since then it’s had trial runs at the Bath Comedy Festival, at The Stand in Edinburgh, at the Tringe in Tring, at Breakneck Comedy in Aberdeen, and in the corner of a pub in Bristol called The White Rabbit. I’ve put a lot of miles into making sure that it’s as good as it can be.

I’d really like to tour it post-Fringe. Fingers crossed!

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

The room I’m performing in at the Gilded Balloon is called The Turret. It’s a wee tiny sweatbox, and it’s great. I can recommend virtually every comedian who’s playing in it. It’s like a who’s who of modern Scottish brilliance; Rosco Mcclelland, Julia Sutherland, Jay Lafferty, Chris Forbes.

Also, check out Ed Night and Ben Pope. They’re brilliant.

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