“The Free Festival and Free Fringe are core to my Edinburgh experience as it encourages both performers and audience members to take a risk on something new and different.”

WHO: Andy / Angela Bra

WHAT: “Get your dabbers ready for playful parodies, polished puns and surreal stories from the frontline of the UK party bingo circuit. With on-screen singalong karaoke lyrics, audience interaction and an actual game of bingo it’s unlike any other show you’ll see! Critics Choice Award winner at the 2024 Bay Fringe. Best Comedy Show nominee at the 2024 and 2023 Buxton Fringe. Mamma’s Drag Battle finalist 2024. ‘A cheerily endearing persona…’ (Chortle.co.uk).”

WHERE: Hollywood at Laughing Horse @ City Cafe (Venue 85) 

WHEN: On Demand (50 min)

MORE: Click Here!

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This will be the forth show I’ve taken to Edinburgh Fringe and every year it gives me something different. Admittedly, one year it was mild food poisoning but usually it’s something positive! I love meeting my audiences as they come from all kinds of backgrounds and locations across the globe. I have a strong social media following so it’s always nice to chat to the people behind the comments and the clicks.

I also love watching shows from both acts I know and complete unknowns. The variety is amazing. Last year I mainly watched stand-up but I also watched a talk laying out the speaker’s manifesto for living; hosted in a tiny alcove at the back of a pub to an audience of six. The Free Festival and Free Fringe are core to my Edinburgh experience as it encourages both performers and audience members to take a risk on something new and different. Edinburgh Fringe really is only second to Venice in giving you the chance to take a punt…

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2024 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I’ve learned not to worry if it’s five minutes to showtime and the room is still half empty. Being on the Laughing Horse Free Festival, you can be looking at an empty room one minute and then in the next a queer theatre cast arrive on a group night out. This actually happened last year.

I’ve also learned to be kinder to myself. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the experience you end up running multiple shows and then appearing as a guest in three times as many as a panellist or mixed-bill variety hours and, though fun, it’s utterly exhausting. This year I’m focused on the one show and a limited number of guest spots from promoters I know and trust. I want my energies to be largely directed towards my show and performing it to the best of my ability.

Tell us about your show.

Angela Bra: Secret Diary of a Bingo Call Girl is a drag musical comedy full of songs, games, stories and semi-political puns following my real life ascent from primary school music teacher to a party bingo MC who tours the pubs, clubs and hen do’s of the UK. I won “Joke of the Fest” with it at Lancaster Comedy Festival earlier this year and it has also been well received at Buxton Fringe (where my last two shows have been award-nominated.)

Whilst a solid hour of fun and nonsense, it does also have a political edge that acknowledges and challenges the rise of right wing “populism” – something I now do more and more now on Threads, a site I have been using since ending my relationship with the toxic mess that is the site formally known as Twitter.

It’s now an X…

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

I’d definitely recommend you go and see my friend and podshow co-host Aunty Ginger at Assembly. It’s a proper late night laugh full of adult humour and audience interaction. Last year we did a late night cabaret show called Drag-A-Do but because both our shows are late evening this year that hasn’t been possible. We are planning to bring it back nationally next year though.

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