comedy

The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2024 – Mark Dean Quinn, Oh No (That’s Not Your Cheese)

August 21, 2024

Season 20

Episode 17

00:23:55

Mark Dean Quinn joins me on the show today to do his best not to talk about his show ‘Oh No (That’s Not Your Cheese).’ He’s found the right level of fame, and doesn’t feel the need to go any further.

Nevertheless, we’ve lots to talk about, including the importance of the Free Fringe and how this can offer more artistic freedom, his work on the Edinburgh Fringe Performers’ Forum, and why he is ready to help people before they get to Edinburgh.

But does he eat cheese?

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2024 – Louise Atkinson, She’s Got The Look

August 15, 2024

Season 20

Episode 13

00:22:22

A fun conversation with Louise Atkinson today as we talk about her show She’s Got The Look. The press release provides my first question (to the light of morning DJs the world over), but we go into more topics on the business and art of being a comic.

How can you make comedy accessible to everyone? How does Edinburgh fit into the United Kingdom’s festival circuit, and why is the Fringe one of the biggest routes into comedy? And if it’s all about rhythm, what beat does Louise work to?

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2024 – John Meagher, Big Year

August 14, 2024

Season 20

Episode 12

00:20:37

John Meagher joins me on the podcast today to discuss his life and Edinburgh Fringe debut. 8 years after starting on his performing career, he has an hour for the Fringe. Big Year is that show, and it’s an opportunity for John to look back over his life, from an island off the coast of Ireland to his own home in England.

We talk about his approach to writing material and why it has to be personal, the various culture shocks throughout his life, finding love and looking back on his life to find the good times.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2024 – Natasha Pearl Hansen, The Right Amount of Wrong

August 13, 2024

Season 20

Episode 11

00:21:31

Today, I speak to Natasha Pearl Hansen. Following her breakout hour and comedy special retelling the moment she cancelled the wedding and turned it into a recording session for a live show, Natasha returns to the Fringe with The Right Amount of Wrong.

It looks at life after that not-wedding day, finding the joy and the win in the day, and the journey that followed. We talk about that, but also the challenge of transferring US comedy to the UK, how to name a show so it can be easily pitched and flyered, and (of course) the weather.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Benjamin Alborough (Absolute Monopoly!)

August 21, 2023

Season 19

Episode 16

00:18:11

The Fringe is not static. Neither are board games, and the classic Monopoly is a perfect example. It’s not a great game, it’s poorly designed, and it ruins friendships and families. Benjamin Alborough not only has the arguments on the dangers of Monopoly, but is also going to reinvent the game with the help of the audience.

Absolute Monopoly is an interactive yet rather chaotic gameshow; from going through the rules through becoming the board to play the game, to deciding the winner. If there’s going to be one.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Emily Walsh (Dad Girl)

August 15, 2023

Season 19

Episode 12

0:21:06

Emily Walsh brings her show ‘Dad Girl’ from the clubs of New York to the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. Emily does not know if she wants kids, but she would like to be a dad. It’s a show about making decisions in a world where others believe the decision has already been made for you by society.

The Fringe offers something that many comics, including Emily, rarely get. A chance to spend an hour with an audience. That allows more complex topics to be addressed, to go into much greater depth, but also a chance to look at a wider picture. It’s an offer that Emily luxuriates in.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Sikisa (Hear Me Out)

August 14, 2023

Season 19

Episode 11

00:20:45

Sikisa’s Hear Me Out is her second hour-long show at the Edinburgh Fringe. During last year’s debut, after reading a passage of text an audience member wondered if she might be dyslexic. To cut a long story short (and not give away any spoilers), Sikisa was diagnosed, and this year’s show is about that journey.

Sikisa and I talk about her performance and how it rarely reflects how she is away from the comedy stage, the importance of music, and how her 2023 show can be summed up in a single question… “why is it so hard to say the right things?”

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Patrick Susmilch (Texts from My Dead Friends)

August 10, 2023

Season 19

Episode 9

00:25:10

Patrick Susmilch has spent time looking back over all the messages, memes, and moments with his friends on social media. Many are still around, yet some have died. Through those older messages, he feels connected to those who have passed on.

Through the medium of PowerPoint presentations, Susmilch introduces us to his dead friends, their impact on his life, the bursts of joy and laughter as well as darker moments. Think Twilight Zone and Black Mirror mixed with Who’s Line Is It Anyway.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Archives – Ismo Leikola (Observing The Obvious, 2015)

December 8, 2022

Season 18

Episode 14

00:11:58

This week I want to head back to 2015. That year the show was broadcast live on Leith FM community radio, as well as being a podcast, with a number of guest hosts joining me – so you’ll hear the voice of WUSB New York’s Emma Backfish – as well as our comedy just… Finland’s Ismo Leikola.

For countless decades, the ‘observational comedy’ routine has been a staple of stand ups… yes we have all seen just how many Cafe Nero’s there are, and how many stamps you need to get a free coffee, but Ismo brought a new angle on this to the Fringe… doing it in his second language.

A laid back Finnish style put me in mind of the razer sharp gentleness of Arnold Brown. Ismo’s skills wasn’t the choice of well-worn topics, is was putting a twist on the resulting points that lifted this show up.

So we return to the Gilded Balloon, we return to the time honoured comedian watching our everyday life, we return to a rather chaotic studio, to Observing the Obvious.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Archive – Celia Pacquola (Let Me Know How It All Works Out, 2014)

November 10, 2022

Season 18

Episode 11

00:13:18

2014 saw Australian comic Celia Pacquola return to Edinburgh for her fourth Fringe Show. ‘Let Me Know How It All Worked Out’ looked at the world of psychics and their promise of foretelling the future; specifically one who said she would never have children.

(Spoiler… congratulations are in order, Celia and her partner had their first child earlier this year,).

Since the Fringe Pacquola moved frequently between the UK Australia, with various apeprances, scriptwriting, and starring appearances in a wide range of shows on the circuit, including radio work on Fox FM and Radio 4, TV work on Would I Lie To You, Live At The Apollo, and Have You Been Paying Attention, and staring in Rosehaven, and The Breaker Uppers.

All that was ahead of her in 2014 when she joined me in the podcast studio to talk about her show. It wasn’t the first time she’d been on the Fringe podcast, so the whole ‘tell us about your show’ quickly descended into discussions of synchronised diving, Tom Daley, Pro/Am contest, and a love of Converse trainers.

This week’s trip is back to the Gilded Ballon, back to a time when the future we live in now was quite definitely not going to happen, as Celia Pacquola asks the audience to Let Me Know How It All Works Out,

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