“I’m a battle-scarred veteran.”

WHO: Ben Van der Velde – Performer

WHAT: “Thanks to Genghis Khan’s friskiness we’re all 8% barbarian, but were we ever that civilised in the first place? A pretty sobering thought as you play on your iPhone whilst sipping a skinny mocha-latte. Big questions require big answers, and so long as you don’t equate big with accurate, you’re in for a treat!”

WHERE: Laughing Horse @ The White Horse (Venue 296)

WHEN: 17:30 (55 min)

MORE: Click Here!

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Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

I’m a battle-scarred veteran. I first came up with the Oxford Imps and larked around doing daft improv for 4 four years. I then performed in a bunch of gang shows with great acts like James Acaster and Andrew Doyle, hosted the Big Value Showcase and have done two previous solo shows: Chain Letter and Strudelhead.

Tell us about your show.

Barbarians is my third solo show and I think and hope, my best one. It’s about how human being’s fight or flight response is not calibrated for the modern world and can lead us to make terrible spur of the moment decisions. Obviously it’s not as dry as that sounds – hopefully the show doesn’t descend into an anthropology lecture and I’ve managed to cram in jokes about Sweden, lions and Islamic fundamentalism.

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

They should absolutely go and see a play called Every Brilliant Thing at Summerhall. It is warm, bittersweet, hilarious, inclusive and devastating. It was the best thing I saw last year and I’m off to see it again today!

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