Tag Archives: Just the Tonic at The Caves

+3 Interview: Pity Laughs: A Tale of Two Gays

Posted in EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features, Written Interviews by

“Ultimately though, an unfavourable imbalance of talent and arrogance can only get you so far.”

WHO: Will Dalrymple & Mark Bittlestone, Performers & Writers

WHAT: “More perverted, more depressed, more jokes… the gays are back! ‘The first true gem of the 2017 Fringe’ ***** (BroadwayBaby.com). Mark’s parents are dead. That’s not a joke, though it is really funny. He and Will are also gay – in the modern sense of course, they’re certainly not happy. Mark’s stand-up about being a gay orphan meets explicit gay parody literotica from Will (think 50 Shades of Gay). Two gays, one orphan, absolutely no limits. ‘Very well written… horrifyingly funny’ **** (EdFringeReview.com).”

WHERE: Just the Tonic at The Caves – Just Up the Stairs (Venue 88) 

WHEN: 16:05 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Mark: It’s our second as ‘comedians’ – we’re hoping to pre-empt any snide reviews with those quotation marks – but we both went up the year before with a couple of plays and Will again the year before that.

It does get increasingly less overwhelming as the years go by but in a way more unforgiving; once you become more aware of how things work you’ve got less of an excuse to not be smashing it. Ultimately though, an unfavourable imbalance of talent and arrogance can only get you so far.

Will: For similar such self-deprecating humour, come see the show!

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

Will: Guy off Grindr. Holy christ.

Mark: I was the runner up in the 2018 Max Turner Prize, a pretty competitive comedy competition in South London, which was great!

Will: Best I could have managed would have been to ‘hobble up’. Seriously, he was HUGE.

Tell us about your show.

Will: It’s something of a sequel to our 2017 Fringe stand-up show of the same name. We’ve both written it and have produced it alongside our colleague Will Penswick, who’s taking his own stand-up show ‘Dank Verse to the fringe (not to be missed!). The three of us came together (lol) last April; Mark and I through Uni and Will and Mark through school and since then it’s been…well, it’s been.

Mark: The last show was put together quite quickly from bits of stand up we’d both done. This time we’ve experimented across several previews in London, Brighton and Bristol and the resultant show is much more exciting; it’s a live gay sketch/stand-up/multimedia comedy extravaganza! There’s a bit of everything in there. We get up on stage and make jokes about being gay in as many different ways as possible. If all goes well it should be making the rounds in London in the months following the fringe.

Will: At its heart it’s an exploration of what it is to be gay…or at least it would be if it had a heart. It straddles silliness, darkness and unsentimentality in a way you might not have seen at the Fringe before.

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

Mark: We actually run several comedy nights in South London with Will Penswick and we can’t wait to see some of the acts we’ve hosted up at the Fringe. To name but a few: Adam Hess, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Ross Smith, Olga Koch, Flo & Joan, Rob Oldham, Ken Cheng, all guaranteed to be well worth an hour of your time and several units of your money.

Will: In addition to ‘Pity Laughs’ and Will Penswick’s ‘Dank Verse’ we’re also bringing up a play: ‘Space Doctor’ at Gilded Balloon. It’s a family-appropriate, hilarious sci-fi spoof complete with time travel and questionable alien outfits, do check it out!

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+3 Interview: Jake Howie: Read My Lips

Posted in EdFestivals 2018, Plus 3 2018 – Features, Written Interviews by

“I never thought I’d get married and technically it’s still illegal in the majority of countries. Gays getting married is kinda punk rock if you’re in Russia or Saudi Arabia, so it makes me feel so edgy.”

WHO: Jake Howie: Writer, producer, and performer

WHAT: “They say a loose pair of lips could sink a ship, but you’ve gotta talk truth to give reality a flip. And reality in 2018 needs the hard word, so there’s never been a better time to get lippy. Reading Comedy Festival New Act of the Year and 2018 NATYS Finalist Jake Howie doesn’t pay lip service – there’s no time for niceties when the world is drowning in disillusion. Join him as he takes you on a journey through the lens of an eternal optimist trying to grapple with this wild moment in time.”

WHERE: Just the Tonic at The Caves – Just the Wee One (Venue 88) 

WHEN: 21:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

YES! I am popping my Edinburgh cherry after a few years of doing comedy. I feel like I may be the first married gay man from New Zealand who grew up in the church of Scientology and whose greatest inspiration is Nicki Minaj debuting at the Fringe? But then again, it’s the wild and wacky Edinburgh Fringe so maybe not…

What’s the biggest thing to have happened to you since Festivals ’17?

I GOT MARRIED. That’s big news because I don’t believe in marriage, I never thought I’d get married and technically it’s still illegal in the majority of countries. Gays getting married is kinda punk rock if you’re in Russia or Saudi Arabia, so it makes me feel so edgy.

Tell us about your show.

I am a relentlessly positive Kiwi who believes in the good of people living in a time where the good of people is questionable and relentless positivity is impossible. I wrote and produced Read My Lips to get lippy, to give the hard word and to mouth off on all of the wild contradictions of the world. There’s also some bum jokes – LOL. And you will leave feeling so happy, and I won’t lecture you on Trump – YAWN.

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

I will be seeing Esther Manito and Ryan Dalton’s Angry Emoji Face, Jenny Collier’s A Few Good Jen, Yuriko Kotani’s Moreish, The Ballad of Sarah Callaghan and all the LGBT+ shows I can possibly see!

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+3 Interview: Russell Hicks: Deadliner

Posted in EdFestivals 2016, Written Interviews by

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“Every night all the freaks, weirdos, drunks, and rabble rousers would congregate around me as I free wheeled nonsense to the kind of passionate reception one can receive only in the supremely inebriated.”

WHO: Russell Hicks – Comedian

WHAT: “Dead’liner’ n. 1. Closing act from the Bizarro Universe. 2. One who exists within the parameters of their own self-made regiment. 3. A hero of the moment. Adj. last, final, absolute >SYNS outlaw, bankrobber, mercenary for truth >ANTS headliner”

WHERE: The Free Sisters (Venue 272)

WHEN: 16:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Oh, no, I’ve been here two whole times before. The first time I did an extremely late night show at the Tron which was very interesting in that it was essentially a drain that collected drunken refuse at the end of the evening. It was great actually.

Every night all the freaks, weirdos, drunks, and rabble rousers would congregate around me as I free wheeled nonsense to the kind of passionate reception one can receive only in the supremely inebriated.

Ever since then I have gone on at 4:30pm/5pm at the Three Sisters where the audience has usually had about one pint so they tend to put money in the bucket at the end rather than mistake it for a courtesy bin for their vomit.

Will you be touring immediately after the Fringe?

Ha. Touring shows after the Fringe is kind of one of those traditions that no one seems to question… I mean doesn’t it make sense to not tour it after the Fringe? It’s done now. I always see the Fringe as sort of the book mark to a chapter of your life. Usually whatever I was on abut that month I have completely expurgated my soul from by the end so I couldn’t possibly continue performing it with any heart. Also, no one writes my shows, including myself.

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

Go see Candy Gigi at the Hive. After that go see anything Bob Slayer is producing at his Heroes venues. Then splash on one big production, that you would never normally go to, something like a circus show or a theatre production.

The best part of the Fringe is going to see something in a tiny little hut somewhere that is off the beaten path, that you only walked into to get shelter from the storm, when suddenly that rare confluence of events happens where performers and audience are on the same wave length and somehow it becomes the greatest show happening at that moment in the whole festival and you just know it.

Those of you who know what I’m talking about, know what I’m talking about.

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+3 Interview: Revan and Fennell: Fan Club

Posted in EdFestivals 2016, Written Interviews by

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“We felt it would be a real shame to put the show that we had worked so hard on to bed before showcasing it at the festival once more.”

WHO: Alice Fennell – Co-creator, writer and performer

WHAT: “Award-winning double act, Revan and Fennell, return to the Fringe after making their critically acclaimed Edinburgh debut last year. 2016 New Act of the Year finalists, 2015 Foster’s Golden Jester finalists and 2013 Best New Sketch Act finalists.”

WHERE: Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88)

WHEN: 12:05 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Nope, we made our debut last year and caught the bug… the Edinburgh Fringe Bug, you understand – not some sort of sickness bug. We enjoyed it so much last year that we had to return, and we’re so glad we have. We’re having a great time!

Tell us about your show.

It’s a comedy sketch show, and we write, produce and direct it all ourselves…what saints we are! We met at East 15 Acting School and decided to become a double act a few years after graduating. Our show this year is actually a very similar show to the one we took to Edinburgh in 2015, as we didn’t really attract the audiences we had hoped to (due to the fact that it was our debut and there are hundreds of other comedy shows at the Fringe!).

So, we felt it would be a real shame to put the show that we had worked so hard on to bed before showcasing it at the festival once more. In September, we plan to start writing new material and working on our next show… Bring it on!

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

Baby Wants Candy! They’re a Chicago-based improv troupe who perform a completely improvised musical on the spot, with a full band. We saw it a few days ago and thought it was hilarious. We had tears running down our face.

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+3 Interview: Banging Fun Stuff

Posted in EdFestivals 2016, Written Interviews by

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“I love wandering around and taking a punt on something I wouldn’t normally see. That’s the joy of Edinburgh!”

WHO: Amanda Kelleher – Performer, Writer, Producer

WHAT: “The Cutlery Crew wants everyone to have fun, feel uplifted and bang stuff joyfully. But a crime has been committed and all hope rests upon PC Pauline, a worrisome policewoman searching for suspects. Don’t let her gangliness fool you. There is a cunning mind buried deep… deep down inside her, perhaps. She’s a crime solving, spoon playing, twirling, clapping, bending, banging maniac. She was shortlisted for the Policewoman of the Year 1999. She has 55 minutes to put things right. Her fate is in your hands… Free spoon for audience members. Features live music.”

WHERE: Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88)

WHEN: 16:45 (55 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

No, we came two years ago with a blues comedy. We learnt a lot and went away with the plan to make a show that we could enjoy after doing it over 50 times!

Tell us about your show.

Amanda ran up a welsh mountain and did some training with Phil Burgers (Dr. Brown). She came down a bit different so herself and Josh started working on Banging Fun Stuff. Amanda wrote and produced it and Josh composed all the music. Josh met Amanda 2 years ago.

He might have Stockholm syndrome now as her stupidity starts to makes sense to him. Banging Fun Stuff toured to Barnstaple Fringe where it was reviewed as: “Fringe theatre at its best…original, quirky, bonkers.” It also won the Pick of the Fringe award at Bedford Fringe this year.

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

After some time spooning, go see Luke Stephen Commit No Nuisance at Venue 383, a very funny stand up! Also Louise Reay whose new show is awesome at the caves called Que Sera. I also love wandering around and taking a punt on something I wouldn’t normally see. That’s the joy of Edinburgh!

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