“Get over being cringe, market your show consistently and aggressively.”
WHO: Douglas Widick
WHAT: “Microsoft Word’s writing assistant, Clippy, has seen the future – and it is bleak. Determined to prevent the impending techno-dystopia brought about by Artificial Intelligence, Clippy travels back in time to warn humanity in a thrilling adventure through the internet. Will he succeed in stopping AI at its source? There’s only one way to find out… Douglas Widick (Time Out NY’s Top 10 Comedy Show: North Coast; Blank! The Musical; F#%king Up Everything; and Anybody: An Improvised Historical Hip-Hopera) makes his UK debut in this award winning one-person comedy musical. Winner: Best Out-of-Town Show – Tucson Fringe.”
WHERE: The Penny at Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24)
WHEN: 22:20 (60 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
I’ve been twice to Edinburgh. First time in 2018 and performed at Monkey Barrell Hip-Hop Improv ensemble North Coast and hosted by MC Hammersmith. The second time I came as a punter and saw 29 shows in 6 days. The thing that makes Fringe so special is the collective spirit and energy of everyone involved. Walking 20K steps a day. Seeing Shrek in a bikini and the saddest thing you’ve ever seen on the same day. It’s too crazy to describe, but when you’re there, it’s all encompassing and intoxicating.
A great festival has a thoughtful line up, eager audiences, and a food truck serving pizza with haggis on top of it ready at all times.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2024 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
The big lessons I learned are:
- Get over being cringe, market your show consistently and aggressively.
- Market saturation creates a sink or swim atmosphere that requires everyone to become expert copy writers, advertisers, and marketing geniuses quickly.
- Get comfortable shoes.
Tell us about your show.
I wrote and perform in the show myself, with expert guidance and help from director Sarah Smallwood Parsons, a long time collaborator and friend of mine. The show had a germination period of one year, which involved various work in progress workshops & preview shows at a non profit theater called The RAT in Brooklyn, in addition to a small festival preview at the Tank in midtown.
My director and I started with a storyboard that built on an existing song I had been doing as Clippy for the full year before it. I have a background in music production & Long form improv, but I had never written a cohesive scripted solo piece. I had done some silly one person cabaret shows as Rosie O’Donnell, but nothing as extensive as Paperclip.
After Edinburgh, I am doing an off broadway run at the Soho Playhouse in the West VIllage, yipee!
The show is about Clippy, yes the crappy paperclip from Microsoft Word, redeeming his reputation by saving the world from AI. How? By traveling back in time to kill Alan Turing and stop machine learning at the source. The show features appearances from Ask Jeeves, a talking CAPTCHA, The flying toaster screensaver, and lots of fun audience interaction moments as Clippy gets his destination: 1954.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
I LOVE Liz Coin’s show Lizzy Sunshine, which is a show that helps shed comedic light on the topic of addiction. Gillian Gurganus is a must see stand up whose rabid fanbase gives her shows the type of unbridled energy I live for. I also love MC Hammersmith with the polished yet posh rhymes, Showstoppers & Baby Wants Candy for narrative musical improv excellence, and King Polish Clown Furiozo for his anything but tepid takedown of toxic masculinity.
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