“We do everything together. We wrote the show, we produce it, we act in it, every morning we wake up in the same big bed and put each other’s socks on even as we kick.”
WHO: Brad Beideman of Big Tobacco
WHAT: “American comedy troupe Big Tobacco returns with a show that answers the timeless question: What if Pinocchio was all f*cked up? The group takes their absurd, irreverent, joke-a-second style to the land of old-timey Italy for a hilarious retelling of the classic tale. Join Pinocchio, Jiminy, Geppetto and The Blue Fairy on an outrageous journey to discover what life is all about. It’s a wild new spin on the beloved story that’s packed with twists, surprises and wall-to-wall laughs. Don’t bring your kids unless you want to explain a bunch of messed up stuff to them.
WHERE: Upper Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9)
WHEN: 19:15 (50 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
We did our last show Bad Play at the festival in 2023. It’s so cool to see shows we never would’ve seen, in genres we don’t usually try. And on the other side of that, getting people to see our show who never would’ve otherwise, since in LA it’s usually people our age. But in Edinburgh we got to explain to a group of women in their 60s what hentai is and that’s an experience we will always treasure. We also liked that everyone thought we were Canadian because we were polite.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
Something we learned from our last fringe is that when you’re flyering, old Scottish men will come up to you and talk to you as long as they want because you can’t leave. They will do this unless they have a wife with them, and then the wife will eventually say “okay leave them alone, let’s go.” Our favorite was a man who was annoyed at the city council and telling us about it very loudly. He called them the city clowncil, was how much he hated them, and said he wanted to take them up to the castle “and give them some flying lessons” and by that he meant he wanted to throw them off and kill them. We know this for sure because he mimed it and we were like whoa that’s crazy. We’re hoping to run into him again and see which government body he wants to kill next.
Tell us about your show.
Big Tobacco’s Pinocchio is our twist on the classic tale that is funnier and stupider than any Pinocchio you’ve ever seen, especially if you’ve never seen any. The four of us met in college in Boston and we’ve been working together ever since. We do everything together. We wrote the show, we produce it, we act in it, every morning we wake up in the same big bed and put each other’s socks on even as we kick. We’re typing this together now, eight hands on the keyboard, fingers interlaced like a basket weaving.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
Our friends at Half Trick are doing a show called The Faustus Project, which one of us will have a guest role in, and we really loved their show last fringe so definitely check that out. We also saw there’s another Pinocchio show called The Last Lie of Pinocchio and you would expect us to consider them our enemy but they are our brothers in Pinocchio and you simply must go see their Pinocchio as well, there’s plenty of Pinocchio to go around, heaping helpings of Pinocchio.
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