“Taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe costs more than my college education… which, in hindsight, explains why my student loans never taught me about flyering. Bummer!”

WHO: Drew Lausch

WHAT: “Drew Lausch grew up gay in Fargo, North Dakota. So he did what any emotionally stable teenager would do: invented the world’s first gay superhero. Years later, he’s still trying to save himself. Friendliest is a dark, funny and quietly devastating solo show about first love, small-town repression and the creative impulse to rewrite your own origin story. Blending biting stand-up with raw storytelling, Drew unpacks the boy he hurt, the hero he built, and the mess in between. It’s sharp, intimate and occasionally feral. Written and performed by Drew Lausch. Directed by Jenny Leon.”

WHERE: Nook at Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14) 

WHEN: 18:00 (60 min)

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

The last time I was at the Edinburgh Fringe, I was an 18-year-old closeted musical theatre kid, secretly in love with the boy this show is based on. I spent most of that trip trying to fit into someone else’s idea of who I should be. This year I’m coming back with a one-man show that’s about finally telling the truth. That’s a pretty surreal full-circle moment.

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

The biggest lesson I’ve learned over the past year is that taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe costs more than my college education… which, in hindsight, explains why my student loans never taught me about flyering. Bummer!

I’ve also learned that making a great show is only half the job. You can write the funniest, most personal hour in the world, but if no one knows it exists, you’re basically performing for a very supportive lighting technician. PR isn’t the glamorous part of comedy, but it’s essentia

l. I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for the people who help artists find their audiences.

The other lesson is that writing a show is nowhere near as hard as finishing one. I used to think once I’d written the script, I was done. Instead, I’ve spent the last year cutting jokes I loved, rewriting scenes that weren’t working, finding new emotional beats, and learning that every performance teaches you something the page never could.

Have I absorbed these lessons? Ask me after Edinburgh! I’m still learning as I write this!

Tell us about your show.

The show actually started as an hour of stand-up comedy. As Jenny and I kept developing it, we realized the story wanted something bigger. It evolved into a hybrid of stand-up, theatrical storytelling, and a one-man play, using comedy as the entry point into much more vulnerable territory.

Growing up, I was completely obsessed with comic books and superheroes. They were the first stories that made me believe ordinary people could survive impossible things. So when I started writing about my own life, growing up queer in North Dakota, addiction, first love, and the search for identity, it made sense to frame it through the lens of creating the world’s first gay superhero. Throughout the show, the audience watches me pitch that superhero while my real life keeps interrupting the fantasy.

Before Edinburgh, we’ve been fortunate enough to develop and perform Friendliest in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, allowing the show to grow with every audience. We also recently took the television pilot adaptation to the ATX Television Festival, where we pitched the series to industry professionals. That experience reinforced what we’ve believed from the beginning: Friendliest isn’t just a stage show, it has the DNA of an ongoing television series.

After Edinburgh, the goal is to keep building the project on both fronts. We want to continue refining and pitching the television pilot while pursuing an Off-Broadway run in New York and an Off West End production in London. Every version of Friendliest, whether it’s onstage or on television, is trying to do the same thing: tell an honest, funny story about finding your identity in a world that keeps trying to write it for you.

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

If you’re at the festival, there are a few shows I genuinely think are doing really interesting work and are worth your time.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Caitlin Ort and Megan Ort is a really smart, unsettling adaptation that takes something literary and makes it feel immediate and alive onstage. The writing is sharp, atmospheric, and really confident in how it leans into tension without over-explaining itself.

I Almost Died For This by Kristina Libby is another one I’d strongly recommend. It’s funny in that very specific way where you’re laughing and then suddenly realizing you’ve been emotionally ambushed. The storytelling is precise, self-aware, and really well structured.

I’d also shout out Jenny Gorlelick, whose work has this great mix of sharp comedy and emotional honesty. It feels very present-tense and alive, like you’re watching someone actively figure something out in real time.

And Brendan Scannell’s The Abyss is exactly the kind of festival show I love—big comedic voice, emotionally risky, and completely unafraid to sit in uncomfortable truths while still being really funny.

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