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Laughing Horse Free Fringe Festival

Online Zoom

27^th – 28^th Aug, 2021

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Grab your friends and loved ones for this stand up hour called the untimely ‘Absolutely Theme less’ introduced by Colin Etches, Rachel Morton and Jaleelah Galbraith as precisely that; theme less. I was online again for this one that had me in tears from the get go. These three met online during the lock down and had never met in person. This was a blessed meeting of comedic entrepreneurs who felt it had turned into a very special relationship.

In a punk rock shaky camera atmosphere a long haired Colin sent his rhapsody at us of humour that reached the very bone. His performance was self revelatory about really gut wrenchingly sad stories about his life ever since he could remember. This introduction was very clever as he could create his own scope of jokes having total control.

His long lists of sufferance had taken his humour on strange and mysterious journeys into his vivid enactment of comedy. With sensory distortions that made him unable to cope with lights and loud noises. A favourite of his was to devour the Bible, dissecting it into a kind of repetitious story telling that has happened over time. So he set the scene for an open field for his new found compatriots to take on.

Well warmed up and in the mood for laughter we were joined by the second performance of the evening the show stealing Rachel came to pass.

Now this girl was funny. She had an air of hilarity in her very expression with eyes that looked so funny as to hurt us with laughter (side split). Did anyone enjoy lock down? She stirringly asked with a touch of secret hilarity, using her methods of ask then receive as in telling us what she went through during it. As with so many chats right now the world compares its achievement during this long period only to state her non productive time of it.

In only 20 min each act was filled to the brim with subject of concern that was also very well paced as to lose none of its potency for their small but tight audience. With the height of wit in her expressions and eye movements (she often laughed with us) she procured a performance of a comedic life time (to be repeated until the end of time).

This three point show was very much a work of all of them together, which set them apart. The comradery of this show came at a time that enhanced the work into something special and worthy of a following. And for the third and final exhibition of humour came Jaleelah.

She started her screen show with a powerful joke about not being able to find her cervix. From which she cleverly sculpted all that followed. What did follow was a high octane cavalcade of personal humour and jokes, made all the more real in a one to one interaction bringing closeness and offering the opportunity for laughter.

As with the others she covered a great many things from random thoughts to sanitary towels to platonic friendship. Jaleelah was charmingly without graces when she mentioned online dating and preferences for jewellery. All said with a great smile and a cutting wit that took care of everything from the most serious to the most strange and insightful things.

The evening was the stories and past times of each actor (stand up) woven together well and came across as a tightly bonded group of acts. All were well established comedians making their 2020 introductions something of a phenomenon. They portrayed their jokes with the gusto of nothing but jokes, with no difficulty and no flaws; just an easy interaction between friends who find things incredibly funny. A group to make you laugh, sympathise and even be aware of. Lets laugh about these things and then laugh some more

Daniel Donnelly

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So its back, the Edinburgh Fringe, tho’ not as we know it, Jim! Wandering the streets of heartland Edinburgh in August is usually met with an avalanche of humanity, colour, flyers & foodstuffs. Not this Covid-hit year, tho’, when its all a bit like going to a nightclub before 10 PM when it was free entry, a few ghostly figures scattered about the tables & no-one dancing to the DJ whose just been given a half hour on the decks before starting his glass-collecting shift.

For me, who has run the Mumble since 2013, when during the Fringes has risen my senses of appreciation & creative faculties to such a pitch, I could bang out 4 or 5 pretty snazzy reviews a day – for this Fringe I thought I’d just pop mi ‘ead in for a few hours & see some funny stuff at random.

My Fringe began in Arran with a visit from m’lady to the bookshop I’m opening there – a base to create some musical theatre on Robert The Bruce. With m’lady taking a turn for the fluey worse, I drove us all the way to East Lothian, & on the next day bobbl’d into town on the bus in bright all-day sunshine to see my first comedy show in nearly 2 years – Deathbed Confessions of a Hypochondriac by award-winning sketch comedy troupe, UCL’s MDs Revue.

I found the experience more philosophical than funny. University sketch comedy is a staple of the Fringe & watching the team go through their topical satires on the vaccination wars & the decline of the NHS, roll’d out via a stream of entertaining characters was, well, unoriginal. There were no orgasms of hilarity, only a feeling of titterflies assembling in the belly. But that’s not the point of university sketch comedy in general, its meant to meet minds & mould possible future icons of comedy. I’m not sure if I saw any Hugh Lawries or Dawn Frenches, but none were unlikeable, & no sketch bomb’d, & it was a fun way to start my day wandering the Thalian temples.

The second outing began with a drift down to the Cowgate where hardly any puntersouls did wander. I was taken by a big sexy poster of Ollie Horn, whose excellent Japanese stuff I’d reviewed a couple of years ago – a funny guy & nice to see him full size. I’m sure his posters are going to continue to get bigger over the coming years, he’s quite a talent.

As I was passing Opium nightclub I was flyered by a tall American-sounding gentleman & I said, ‘sure bruv, I’ll see ya show.’ Running about like a mad ‘ead during the Fringes, off to review performers who’d paid for their review, I never get a chance to see random stuff on the spot. That’s why people buy a Mumble reviewer, its the only way to cut them a swathe through the teeming seas of prospective shows.

“Would you be friends with yourself if you weren’t you?”

Gary Bird

This year no money’s changing hands so I felt freed up to be flyered, & I’m glad I did so. Gary Bird was the guy’s name, who soon transformed me into a patient & himself into this Groucho Marxean, cigar-puffing maniacal doctor for a lovely monologue of word-perfect delivery – every slightest nuance of accent was issued into the room without flaw. His stuff was funny too, comblended together under the title of Psychoanalyzing the Audience, it sees Dr. Hoppenbopper, from the Geneva Institute for the Technically Insane become almost an intimate friend so full of insight-scented warmth is Bird’s creation.

After pottering about town a bit, dining with the pigeons of Nicholson Square, & watching the operatic mating of a couple of slugs, I came to the second half of my day oot! Gary Bird had given me the Free Fringe booklet, so I had some choices on where I went now.

After seeing sketch comedy & a phantasy monologue, I opted for straight stand-up & a biocom, the latter being a comedian humourising real-life events. The stand-up was Alistair Barrie, whose show Unfurloughed was played out to a full house at Whistle Binkies.

It was my first stand-up comedy for nearly two years & I found him proper funny for a bit – he was smashing it & the room – a sizzling set of lockdown anecdotes & Tory bashing all of us could connect to in some way… but then the novelty was soon wearing off. I mean, the world has changed during the ‘Great Reset,’ it really has. I want more from my comedians, now, I’ve decided. The cliche-quiches of Sketch Comedy & Stand-Up are reliques of the past & from on I’ll only see them if I’m paid to do so, a sentiment triply confirm’d by the excellent Kate Smurthwaite, whose brilliant show ‘The Last Mayor of Fihalhohi’ I honoured with its own review. For this I’d had to queue up outside Banshee Labyrinthe for my token, given out an hour before her show started – this was 6.20. I then dash’d up the road to watch Barrie at 6.25, then snook out before the end of his show to see Smurthwaite at 7.20, a mad Hamster like dash to end my Five Percent Fringe.

So, a big shout out to all those who made it & made it happen this year. I’m glad I’ve done my bit & I must admit the next day I was ready to go again. But then I’m like, nah, that’ll do for this year, m’lady needs her lemsips, & settl’d content knowing the Comedy Gods have stay’d alive thro’ the lockdowns – some just surviving & some thriving majestic.

Damian Beeson Bullen

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A MESSAGE FROM GARY BIRD

Dear Mumble

Thank so much for your generous review of my son’s performance in “Psychoanalyzing the Audience”.  Just one correction, however: His name is Gabriel — the performer.  I am his father Gary — the author.  I admit to having had second thoughts about pointing out the error, as I took some pride at having my name in the limelight, however, briefly.  Alas, though I felt no compunction at receiving praise I did not deserve — I have, admittedly received such little praise throughout my life that I will take it in any form — I could not do so at the expense of my son.  (Although the money we spent raising him and the sacrifices we went through, I really DO deserve the praise!)

My wife and I have not seen the play yet, but are flying to Edinburgh tomorrow from Geneva to see it this weekend.  Cheers and thanks again 

Gary Bird (the author)

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Edinburgh Fringe

Banshee Labyrinth

Aug 18-29 (19.20)

New times Added

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After eight straight years of reviewing Fringe comedy, it was a weird feeling to wander Edinburgh last August, with the subterranean ghost city having moved upstairs. This year’s not much better – I call it the ‘Five Percent Fringe,’ & having relocated elsewhere in Scotland on a trip that needs ferries & loads of driving, I’m like I’m just gonna have one day in Edinburgh this year. So, after spending my solitary stint at the Fringe paddling in the soft pools of not-so-funny, what an absolute Big Top delight it was to end my day in the company of Kate Smurthwaite at the Banshee Labyrinth’s salubrious Cinema Room. The Spirit of the Fringe has survived after all – that of innovation, orchestration &, most of all, celebration.

In the case of the self-trumpeting international tourist/temptress, Kate Smurthwaite, we are given a detailed & vigourful account of her narrow escape from an English lockdown in January, & subsequent months-long domicile in a 3 star resort on a tiny Maldives island. To keep Alive one must Survive & Thrive, & she spent several months living the show a full house was eager to witness. Into the monologue come all the characters – good & bad – she met along the way, erupting into a lifesize convocation in part from Kate’s vivid storytelling, & in another because they are all real people. At the start of the show Smurthwaite set out her stall by saying every step of her account happened as she describes – & of course with truth being stranger than fiction, we will be more entertain’d in the hearing.

But why did I enjoy the show so much? For a start I connected with her – I escaped lockdown myself, spending months in 2020 in Greece & Malta. On top of that Kate’s zest for living is very likeable, a daring wee buddha for people who think & act not quite like her, but along the same lines. She’s a trailblazer, a guru, something like that. So much so, she gave a fascinating insight into the comedic vocation, explaining how she has to politelty shrug off the many, many people who identify with her subjects at the end of each performance. That’s because she connects so well – but at the same time thrills us all. The combo is what won me; cute & sound; entertaining & inspiring – Kate Smurthwaite’s a profoundly inspiring performer.

It turns out I’m not the only admirer. Word is getting out there’s something genuine in town – a Hollywood blockbuster set on an exotic island which is enticing a travel-starv’d Scottish populace to take a looksee, as if Byron’s Childe Harolde was rampaging effortlessly across Napoleonic Europe. New show times have been added due to demand, so it will also be on at 15:20 from the 18th-29th and at 20:40 from the 20th-29th (not 21st). Yes, she will be doing three shows a day, & I genuinely would go & see her all three times, so nuanced & smart & just so plain cool is her story: the ultimate warm & cozy holiday slide show – with laughs!

Damian Beeson Bullen

Photography: Niham Mohammad

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Edinburgh Fringe

Free Sisters

Various Dates / Times

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Over the last 18 months, time, for many of us, has taken on curious new properties. At points, existence has felt as if it possessed the surreal properties of a Looney Tunes cartoon, days and weeks speeding past us in a Roadrunner-esque blur. Whilst pop-cultural events, and ‘historic moments’ in our – and society’s – lives, sit frozen in an ever present stasis at the front of our minds, a carbonite Casket in which Bobba Fett has accidentally placed Joe Exotic, instead of Han Solo.

It’s to Nathan Cassidy’s immense credit that he has managed to distil precisely this experience into an hour of well crafted Observational Comedy, and some tantalisingly brief glimpses of a Physical Comedy masterclass, which had the post lockdown, multi demographic, full house of a crowd engaged, laughing, and emoting throughout it’s entire length.

Framed around Mr Cassidys recent brush with an amateurish burglar; driven by Covid related unemployment into an ill-fated life of crime, he links together the moments which whizzed past his eyes whilst giving chase down the street, soundtracked by ‘Flight of The Bumblebee.’ Comic, and semi-tragic, memories from childhood are blended with a Charlie Brooker style take down of the villains of politics, economics, and Social Media, from the last 12 months. Billionaire Astronauts, over-efficient home schoolers, social media spite competitions, “Cuntservatives”.

There was as broad a demographic in the room as you could imagine, and laughs from every corner, with knowingly chuckling students, guffawing pensioners, and even a 6 month old baby (who gave a small, but vociferous, attempt at heckling near the end of the show, which Cassidy managed with confidence and panache).

Like the show’s title, and the oft referenced Rimsky Korsakoff piece, Mr Cassidy buzzes around his subjects, little flashes and bursts of reminiscences from 80’s pop culture, political landscape, and his home above the wonderfully monikered ‘Lettuce and Letters’ (A greengrocers cum Post Office, as if you had to ask).

Throughout, it’s hard to define precisely what is and isn’t strictly true in the areas of his own life discussed. There is a feel of ‘post truth’ comedy to it, and Nathan seems to present an explanation for this ¾’s of the way through the show, with the revelation of an ill family member, or is there? This, as with a number of the short, neatly interlocking Lego style segments is slightly rushed. A few sections suffer from this lack of clarity, and more time, and care, spent at the beginning of the set in laying out ‘the premise’ of the show would aid this greatly.

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I love Edinburgh, and having come for over 10 years on the trot now every street has a different memory, good, bad and wonderful, every nook and cranny sets off a different feeling inside me, it’s a magical place. 

READ AN INTERVIEW WITH NATHAN CASSIDY

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To avoid some of the 80s references falling flat with younger sections of the audience, these were all neatly picked up, or ‘topped’, by adding in a topical lockdown reference to counterpoint. This tactic however was not required for his joke about televisions historic 9pm ‘watershed’. Such a perfectly crafted thing of beauty it was, that it overcame any potential crowd prudishness about it’s own X-rated punchline, and delivered a comically apt torrent of expectorated laughs from representatives of every age group in the room (6 month old baby aside). The presence of a child that young, hearing this kind of material deep in the bowels of the perma-beer soaked Three Sisters, seemed fittingly surreal in the context of our current reality.

The flashbacks to his childhood, or “stuff that flashes before your eyes”, could work better in first person. Cassidy excels when delivering as Cassidy, not so much when he segues into a narrator role. How he actually ‘feels’ about the memories he describes is slightly lost in the storytelling, when his obvious physical comedy prowess could serve him better. This is particularly evident in his delivery of some U2 themed punnery which doesn’t land as well as the set up deserved. Likewise, a section which could have neatly skewered the audiences hypocrisy in terms of individuals who they have considered to be ‘Heroes’ over the last 12 months, didn’t land as well as it might due to his use of the word Police, instead of Policemen/Women, asking the audience to compare apples to oranges and in doing so losing a moment of the joke’s momentum.

The physical comedy is very tight, and a talent for delivering observational comedy is best highlighted in moments such as poignantly, and very entertainingly, illustrating his step fathers character through the manner in which he grasped CD’s, or the tactically deployed cheeky facial asides and knowing looks to the audience as he mimes his minimalist heroic sprint after the escaping burglar. A performance of the recent Matt Hancock ‘smooch n’grope tape’ is nauseatingly spot on, and I can only imagine that there must have been some Pop Art therapeutic process at work in his performance of his step parents super hero themed sex games.

When the lights came up the audience lauded the performance with extended, warm applause recognising, it would seem, that here was someone who like them had lived and survived the travails, large and small, of these unprecedented recent times. If it felt somewhat as if Cassidy hadn’t quite figured out what it all meant yet, then that was possibly the greatest gift he gave the audience to take away with them as they emerged from the darkness of the venue into a surreally cold, quiet Cowgate in August, free of flyerers, performers, and sociable 3pm drunkards. For a stand up to create something which united the entire audience in laughter, oozed pathos, and in an almost tangible sense ‘connected’ the whole room, and for it to have been written in the isolation of a post-burgled house in London, is no mean feat and testament to a very exciting talent indeed.

Ewan Law

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That the ineffable Nathan Cassidy survived the lock down & is returning to the Fringe is no surprise to the Mumble

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Hello Nathan – your comedy career has survived the lockdown I see, how did you do it?

I think many comedians quickly realised that live comedy was only one of many outlets for us so it was just about switching to those others for a while.  So my podcast Psycomedy went daily and did huge numbers as well as being really therapeutic for me and I know many of the comedians involved, I had some remarkable, funny and revealing conversations with comics all around the world at such a difficult time for everyone, I’m really proud of that.  I also like nearly everyone else in the world wrote a book and recorded an Audiobook called Resurrection: Post Covid Diaries which is a spoof 3-month Boris Johnson diary, available on Amazon!  I did a weekly piano Facebook live thing…

…as well as carrying on learning piano (currently grade 7!) and now I’m doing a daily piano/comedy podcast Daily Notes which is charting all round the world.  And I did live comedy where I could, I was the first live show back after lockdown at the Buxton Fringe and the only live show at the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe – whilst all the other stuff is fun my first love is live stand-up, and the lay off certainly made me and many other comics so much more appreciative of being able to do this for a job.

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You’re coming back to the Fringe – what made you decide that & how has the process been?

As I say, I wouldn’t miss the chance to do live stand-up anywhere but the Edinburgh Fringe is so special to me, particularly after what happened at the Fringe in 2020.  Alex Petty at the Free Festival is similarly passionate about mounting as many shows as possible so it’s a no brainer to do a few weekends up there with my new show Bumblebee with the Free Festival at the Free Sisters.  I also wanted to get out and do shows for people who for whatever reason still didn’t feel comfortable coming inside to a Fringe venue this year so I’m doing this thing called the Edinburgh Fringe Fringe where I can bring the show to you if you’re in Edinburgh or anywhere I can get to easily from there – I’ve already had a possible query in to perform the show on the Isle of Arran(!!)  I loved the experience of what I did in Buxton Fringe last year which was doing the show in a park and on the streets of the town, so doing this new show when and where I can if people can’t get to the places they would usually go to will be a pleasure – you can request the show comes to you at www.edfringefringe.co.uk

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So what’s on the menu for this year?

My new stand-up show Bumblebee is about me coming face to face with a burglar in my house at the end of 2020, and then chasing him down the streets while (because I’ve been jogging, and listening to classical music because of learning piano) ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ played in my ears. My life flashed before my eyes so this is the story of the burglary, the key moments of my life, how the last 18 months has changed us all, and the quite remarkable thing that happened when the burglar got to a high wall and turned to face me.  Before and after Edinburgh I’m doing the show at various places around the UK and it’s being filmed for a special.  On top of my podcasts I’m writing a new book which is top secret at the moment and doing a few exciting things on the side that I never thought I’d do.  After the Pandemic I started saying yes to a few more things and it’s opened up a few random doors, watch this space!

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Has having had such a huge amount of time off performing live helped your creative content?

What it’s done is given me more time to create something every day for this new podcast I’m doing ‘Daily Notes’.  In this I tell a different 10 minute or so story every day, often one from my life (many flashed before my eyes when I was chasing the burglar), others from world events or thoughts that come to me based on the song I’m playing on the piano.  It’s really interesting having (although no one is forcing me!) to come up with a different 10 minutes of comedy every day, so that’s going to be more than 70 hours by the end of the year.  I talked with Alice Fraser on Psycomedy and she’s someone that puts out lots of content every day too and she describes it well – when you think the well is dry, you keep on digging, and that’s when you’ll uncover something different, something that will surprise you. Some of the things I’ve talked about on Daily Notes I would never have talked about if I hadn’t been granted this time.

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OK, cool! Now’s the time for a little blatant self-trumpeting… for someone who has never seen you perform, before, what have they to expect from Nathan Cassidy?

Ah man I can’t do that.  Watch some clips, read the reviews, come see the show.  I’m better than Bill Hicks.  Look, that’s just what one review said, I’m just quoting the review.  ‘Having seen Bill Hicks, I can honestly say he’s better than him.’  That’s the whole quote, I’m just quoting the review, that’s all I’m doing. Anyway I’m joking, I’m not, I’m better than Bill Hicks.  This show ‘Bumblebee’ anyway I love, I think you’re going to love it.  It’s funny obviously (it’s better than Bill Hicks) but being true life crime it’s exciting too.  Fuck I love real life crime, it’s better than Bill Hicks.  Anyway you get the idea, think Bill Hicks.  Actually think Bill Burr with my face and my voice and my material. 

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So you’ve made it to this year’s Fringe, but how are the rest of the English comedy world handling this year, especially those London based?

Well I don’t think London has reacted any different to anywhere else really, apart from we’ve realised how much money we can save by not doing anything.  If you drive in London now you’re charged for opening your car door.  During lockdown in most of London those sneaky fuckers closed virtually all roads to cars so there’s now one route you can travel to places, in gridlock, and if you turn down the wrong street you’re fined £65.  In my first gig back I kid you not I was earning £130 and I got two of these fines for travelling to the gig.  Basically what I’m saying is we’re skint here in London, comic are skint.  On a serious note huge huge thanks to NextUp and the LCA and many others for supporting a lot of us during the Pandemic, and please get out there and support us live when you can.  Or let us come to your house and perform, as I’ve clearly got so desperate I’m now doing that.

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What three things are you looking forward to most when you finally get to Edinburgh?

I love Edinburgh, and having come for over 10 years on the trot now every street has a different memory, good, bad and wonderful, every nook and cranny sets off a different feeling inside me, it’s a magical place.  And this year I think will be even more wonderful as I think there will be no or very little flyering.  Imagine that, heaven. And finally I hope that the spirit of last year lives on.  When I managed to do a live show in Edinburgh last year, in the people that came there was a real spirit of togetherness, a different feeling than before, that we won’t ever take for granted again that we can come together for live shows.  What I’m saying is I think there will be fucking in the streets. Let’s play!

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www.nathancassidy.com/bee.html

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Brighton Fringe

28^th May – 27^th June, 2021

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I’m sure if Shakespeare were here he would congratulate this play/movie made for the Brighton Fringe 2021. It worked as well as any adaptation since the time of the bard and I was glad when the credits included the playwrights name. The dynamic duo of Ian Renshaw and Helen Manners created every facet of the show from multiple characters to a great many costume designs.

It all came together as ‘The Travesty of Richard 111’ unravelled its unscrupulous plot to kill for a place on the English throne. In a performance to envy the war of the roses in the 15^th Century was oddly represented in this play as an age of war made hilarious from strikingly well conducted acting.

The comedy aspect as it was written so long ago had the laughter was coaxed out of us, merging us with the modern world and the life of the 15^th century. And so with only a cast of two; the scripts unfolding majesty which was about to unveil an insane plot for the throne through the devious developments of the Duke of Gloucester’s plan for King Edward’s demise. Any other obstacle to Richard claiming the throne of England was to be crushed with inane pleasure from Richard III.

He (Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was one of a long list of characters, played by Ian Renshaw) had a compatriot in Elizabeth 1st (played by Helen) who strongly desired for the Duke to become King, not least because he tricked her into it. It was his most flattering charm and words that had her in the throes of his arms.

The exclamation brought about by the side of this play was in its element as an event made for the screen which gave the actors anther language to play with.

It was in good conscience a story of the screen with scenes of unearthly colours and make up, where Richard always looked a little grey but certainly no less charming. It created modes to revel in the characters in a modern and attention grabbing effects delivering the jokes of the century.

In its entirety the theatrical nuances seemed ahead of its time, dreaming of a perfect play made possible by technology. But no less an enthusiastic appraisement of Shakespeare’s work, a lyrical master stroke to stir our senses.

Without the atmosphere of live theatre, an audience, they clasped the chance to free up the medium and focus on a much wider aspect to come from. The Duke’s full face seemed to fall from grace. As happened when Richmond who had returned from campaigning to take the crown slayed Richard in battle

I say this in all seriousness but my funny bone was hyper active and I felt a natural high with my guilty laughs for what was a catastrophic passage of time. Richard’s aura and his black bob haircut, was thrown in with certain confusion for us, did we support his aims because he made us laugh? Whose side were we really on? Entwining us to all the characters was a revelry and interesting interaction performed by Ian and Helen both shown to bring with every blow, a transformational theatrical spirit. It was a tragedy of epic proportions that had the tempo to line the historic events.

Daniel Donnelly

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Samantha Pressdee has been lookin’ for Lockdown Love

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Hello Sam – so how are you finding the lock down so far?
At first it was really tough, then I came to an acceptance after I asked the archangel Michael to cut my energy cord to the mainstream media. That’s when I got back to being creative. I started an online study group of The Artist’s Way. With some lovely people I met at clown school – I was attending Ecole Philippe Gaulier before the lockdown in Paris).

I managed to get a bit of spring cleaning done and started an online course in Jungian Archetypes. In a way I am grateful for this pause. I feel like I have been running really fast for a long time trying to keep up with everyone in the comedy world. I think I needed to catch my breath. I was exhausted after last Edinburgh.

How do you feel the comedy world in general is being affected by the Lockdown?
It’s like a reset button has been pushed. Everyone has had to stop what they are doing and some files have been lost. Stand up is all about flying by the seat of your pants, but now we are all lounging around in our pants. Although there is nothing like performing for a live audience, some people have gone online. Some people have got proper jobs and some people are just taking this time to reflect. I feel when live comedy comes back it will be with a renewed energy and be more enjoyable than ever!

 

The lockdown has been a bit of a cooking cauldron for the creatives, what have you come up with yourself?
I am now a series producer. As I couldn’t do my live show and all live work was canceled I have turned my energies to the online world. I am currently producing, writing and performing in a reality dating series called Love In Lockdown. It’s about trying to find love in these strange times, rather desperately. This character has emerged who is slightly aggressive, mischievous and more than a bit bonkers. Nothing like my actual personality.

What was the moment of inspiration, the eureka moment, when Love in Lockdown was born?
I was writing my morning pages (An exercise from The Artist’s Way) when I came up with an idea. I am recently divorced. I’ve been single and celebate for a year and half. People have been asking me when I will start dating. I have always said I would start dating in April. I thought it was funny that after 18 months of no sex, we got to april and the option to date was no longer there. So I made a joke dating profile video and posted it to my facebook page. People loved it, it had thousands of views. They were saying things like “I needed to laugh.” So I decided to turn it into a series. People have been really enthusiastic and I am reaching an audience who may not have found me on the live circuit. I hope to meet them in person at a gig when all this is over.

So are some of your new fans asking you out on a date?
Yes but I am only accepting submissions via Plenty Of Catfish, only one person has had the courage to send a video submission so far. I don’t trust people on the internet, I would never have turned to online dating had it not been for the pandemic. At least with a video I can read their energy by gazing into their eyes, and I know they’re not a catfish!

 

What goes into making an episode, from inception to editing?
I take inspiration from what has happened during the week. It could be that something has happened politically, or there is an interesting news story. Or maybe my fans have been chatting me up and I screen grab their comments and politely reply. Then I choose two or three topics for joke writing exercises and free writes. I always write at least 3 pages on A4 paper when free writing. I underline anything funny, or interesting then start making it into a script. I have been writing 2 or 3 drafts before finalising. After that it’s into hair and makeup, while my dog sets up the camera, sound and lights. Then I film about 3 takes and spend hours and hours editing. It’s a lot of work for a few minutes of comedy, but I usually drive for hours to get to gigs, so it’s worth it.

What are you learning about yourself from doing this series?
I am learning that I have to be creative. It’s who I am. That’s probably why my last marriage ended. My husband wasn’t happy living in the UK and I couldn’t be happy living in Kos, Greece and working on the beach because my only creative outlet was karaoke. I am also more aware of how hard I work, I’ve actually been working too hard and trying too hard. I knew something had to change after last Edinburgh because I was exhausted as soon as I got there and couldn’t perform at my best. I was mentally and physically exhausted after the run, it went ok with a few sell outs but I knew I could have done so much better had I felt more prepared. Painful lesson, but it inspires me to keep grafting. Learning to work smarter instead of harder and I have been learning more about physical comedy by going to clown school. I want my comedy to become more universal and appeal to the international audiences we attract at festivals such as The Edinburgh Fringe.

 

The Lockdown won’t last forever, what plans have you got for the series once normality returns?
I have already found a potential husband, so I imagine the series will climax with a wedding soon. Just like the netflix show ‘Love Is Blind’. Unlike the contestants on Love Is Blind. I will marry my husband without ever meeting him. Planning a zoom wedding with comedy blogger John Fleming as the Vicar.

What are the first things you are going to do yourself when full normality returns?
The first thing I need is a massage. After being single and celibate for 18 months and now under house arrest, I NEED SOMEONE TO TOUCH ME.

& finally, Sam, do you have a message for any of your fellow comedians struggling during the Lockdown?
Just keep writing, we can’t perform on stage yet but you may find your writing suits a blog, a screenplay or a masterplan. I heard Shakespeare wrote a few plays during a quarantine. That didn’t turn out too bad for him.

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LOVE IN LOCKDOWN

WATCH THE ENTIRE SERIES HERE

www.lovemuffin.org.uk