Hello Chris, so where ya both from and where ya at, geographically speaking?
CHRIS CANTRILL: Hello! I’m from Bradford and Amy is from Hull. We met when we both lived in London but had to move away because they charged £5 for a pint of Carlsberg. Eventually we both ended up in Manchester and there hasn’t be a single day where it hasn’t rained.

Hello Amy, when did you first realise you were, well, funny?
AMY GLEDHILL : 12th December 1992. Around teatime.

What exactly is The Delightful Sausage?
CHRIS : We like to think of ourselves as 2 hot babes who are trying our best to boycott palm oil but routinely find ourselves eating it from a spoon. Simply put, we’re a sketch comedy double act. Our style is immaculately shambolic. Our dress code is business casual.

Where did you two meet?
AMY : We were both finalists in the 2013 Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year Competition setting the tone for what has become a famously bitter dynamic.

What are the secrets of a good sketch?
CHRIS : Blood, tears and evermore sachets of salt. If all else fails, we bring in interns. Eventually they’ll throw out some gold and we will credit them as “Chris Cantrill and Amy Gledhill”. We don’t pay them for their time but it’s great exposure.

What’s the comedy scene like in the North West?
CHRIS : Manchester, nothing but a breeding ground for tranks, lobos and zipheads. And we love it. There’s such an exciting community of hardworking oddballs. If you haven’t experienced Birthday Bread Man – cancel your plans for the day immediately.

What is the creative process behind writing sketches for The Delightful Sausage?
AMY : Chris tends to show up to writing meetings with strange spidery notes written on mucky bus tickets which he then reads out before bursting into tears, mumbling about his infant son. Once that’s out the way, we Google ‘The Two Ronnie’s’ and change the character names.

How much time do you guys spend together out with The Sausage?
CHRIS : We tend to have 2 meetings a week plus gigs all over the country with many bitter arguments. Not really! I couldn’t think of a better partner to be doing community service with

What is it about performing live you love the most?
AMY : It could be the adulation, maybe the occasional free Battenberg but its almost certainly the cash in hand.

You are bringing a show to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about it?
AMY : Cold Hard Cache is a sketch comedy show which is loosely about The Internet. So, so loosely. The central premise sees myself and Chris running a free course for those in the community who need a helping hand with modern technology. It’s all just an elaborate structure from which to hang some premium titting about. Also, one of us gets topless in the show. I won’t tell you which one though, as I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t come if you knew.

In one sentence can you describe the experience of performing in Edinburgh in August?
CHRIS : It’s great fun; based on previous Fringe experiences I expect us to clear probably £1 million in the first week. Maybe more if we want it hard enough.

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for The Delightful Sausage?
AMY : We’ve got a lot of crazy projects on the go including starting our highly awaited second hour, plus some pretty radical ideas for phone case designs. Before we start any of that we will be having a little break to water the plants, settle a few scores and work our way through a big bag of amphetamines.

You can have a bite of the sausage at the Edinburgh Fringe

Aug 6-13, 15-27 : The Caves (13.00)

Cabaret Voltaire
Aug 3-27 (19.45)

Material:  Delivery:  Laughs: 

Appearing live in the bowels of Cabaret Voltaire, you twist down stairs, bend around tight corners and finally get to a foyer with a collection off blacked-out vaults. That’s when I came across the Long Room where the Cornish born Comedian Matt Price is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with his hard hitting, in-your-face, stand-up story-telling extravaganza of a show. The man also know as The Weed Fairy takes no prisoners, and it is apparent from the start of the show that he means business. Like an out of control Tornado, he bombards you with joke after joke and tale after tale, playing the audience like a laughing orchestra. Indeed, the audience are an important part of his show as he works extremely hard to involve them in his murky world of dos and don’ts. The energy and continuous eye contact allows no-one to escape from his ultimate goal, to make you laugh like never before, which he did with consummate ease. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Matt explained how he weaves his comedy web;

I can only really be myself on stage. That’s when I think I connect with the audience the best and when I get the best reaction. I also usually end up having a great story as life seems to hand me certain gifts in that respect. So I take a story and make it into a show. And I suppose they are bit different to the norm, but I like that. I’m the sort of person who things happen to and no matter how bad or weird they might be, I eventually turn them into material. 

A trip through Matt’s life is like a roller-coaster that has no way of stopping. Direct, witty and played out with a deep Cornish accent which jabs at us with stitches of laughter, Matt has you hooked with his relentless onslaught of mind-provoking gags. Like a Cornish Pastie bursting at the seams, full of flavour and meat, Matt is here to fill your stomach with Free comedy that will leave you full of joy. When his Father is brought into the fold with stories of Weed growing, you soon become aware that if you want to know anything about pop music you speak to Simon Cowell but if you want to know about Pot, speak to Matt Price and his Dad. This is a true hidden gem of a show that kicks you in the face with life as we know it… Matt doesn’t bite but he will leave you with tears in your eyes.

Reviewer : Raymondo

The Stand
Aug 3-27 (15.35)

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Nick Revell is a master story teller who is able to keep his audience in suspense for his one hour show, Nick Revell vs Lily Evil Cat Queen of Earth Planet and the Laughing Fridge. The story is a surreal mix of sci-fi, technology-paranoia, pop-culture, geo-politics and a cat brought to life by Nick’s swan-flighted oratory. Last year Nick brought us his widely praised ‘Gluten Free Jesus,’ & since then has conjured up an entirely different subject & content from the bubbling factory that is his creative mind. In an earlier interview with The Mumble, Nick told us;

It’s in a similar style to last year’s show – a surreal and structured story which runs for the full hour. And audiences seem to be enjoying it. There’s plenty of jokes, but I don’t do any audience interaction, and very little improvisation. It’s about Artificial Intelligence and robots taking over and specifically about how I saved us from my cat becoming a ruthless global dictator. Entirely true, of course, but the events I describe were so traumatic that most of us seem to have wiped them from our memory.

The most interesting theme of the show to me was the technological aspects. The story involves the growth of artificial intelligence, to where AI could become smarter than humans and try to exterminate us. Nick tells us that his cellphone tracks his own bio-rhythms so it can play music for him in accordance with his mood. I thought this was a fictional spice added to the story but I had to google ‘cell phone sensing bio rhythms’and sure enough there is an app that does sense & analyze our bio-rhythms… if you feel a stomach ache, the app can sell that data to a pharmaceutical company and you might just find an advertisement for a stomach calming pill the next time you are surfing the internet. Then if you bought that pill, the pharmaceutical company would have more money to fund technologies which sense our bio-rhythms and soon enough we could very possibly have a cat overlord.

Like the novel 1984 by George Orwell, which warned us about the dangers of the state gaining too much power over the people, within a wonderful story, Nick Revell vs Lily Evil Cat Queen of Earth Planet and the Laughing Fridge contains genuine warnings about the path we are heading down with technology. This show is not just a wacky title, it is an arena-seated, eye-opening mine of information through which Nick is actually attempting to save the world, while having a darn good laugh along the way.

Reviewer : Michael Beeson

48 Below
Aug 3-27 (22.55)

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There is a certain young lady out there this Fringe called Marina Margarita, a fast-talking, bizarrely brilliant, ‘cleaning lady number seven’ from Australia who you may see flyering in the Broughton Street area of the New Town in the most unfashionable of attire. I mean, she’s funny before she even opens her mouth, & when she does open her mouth, revealing a set of saintly & exceptionally well-polished teeth, she gets even funnier. Her attractive & colorful rapid patter is like receiving a loose fist beating of a really good masseuse, hitting those tight spots of social anxiety & releasing them all like starlings from a trap. Her command over our comedy pleasure-zones is both instantaneous & continuous & I really don’t have any choice to award her top marks. In a comedy world full of jokes & stand-up comedians who think they’re funny, when they’re clearly not, its refreshing to know that ‘clowning about’ & acting silly has the same effect on we moderns as it did, lets say, Will Sommers had upon Henry VIII.

Marina is a brilliant actress, a fantastic singer (tho she uses her sweetly resonating voice quite frugally) & a complete master of the mop, which swept us up into whatever the hell planet her creative genii lives on. In a recent interview with the Mumble, she described her education at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier,  also the origins of Odette;

A mother of 4, my Mum had a lot on her plate when we were kids so Portuguese mother and daughter team, Odette and Erbelina, used to come and clean the house for us every few weeks. When I was first toying with the idea of Odette as a character I recorded several Spanish and Portuguese friends to try and develop a convincing accent but the minute I stepped on stage in character, a broad ocker Aussie voice came out! I’ve had a ball developing the show through trying 10 – 20 minutes at various comedy cabarets across London. She hasn’t always brought the house down, but I’ve kept all the bits that have and woven them into the show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Her snippets of spellbinding audience interaction work so much better than the vast majority of others. I mean, my wife was involved & had a jolly good time of it. The next morning, I’m like, ‘hey, you should do your own fringe show, it was cool’ – shes like nah, then, ‘y’know, I might have to have a think about it;’ this is the power of Marina Margarita. Her mind has been an ingenious rock-cutter that has found a wee niche in the Mount Comedy corpus, a cave of delights we should all take time to explore. Her creation, Odette, represents a rose-like blossoming of her substantial talents, & for anyone in Edinburgh this month, at the perfect time of night between tiddly & pissed, go see Odette at 48 Below.

Reviewer : Damo

Just the Tonic @ The Mash House
3th – 13th August (18.20)

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The RH Experience’s Scribble consists of four young and charismatic cheeky chaps Conor Jatter, Luke Spillane and Tom Webster and Dan Attfield who sprung onto the stage on the first night of the festival with their highly successful improvised sketch show. The comedy quartet, who pull in half a million viewers on their award winning YouTube channel also have a sell-out night at London comedy club The Miller and a regular radio slot on Camden’s Roundhouse Radio.

The show is colourful, witty and dynamic and easily earns itself frequent laughs from the thrilled audience, who decide and pen the topics to be tackled on entering the venue. These ideas are then selected and drawn real time by none other than the Beano’s illustrator Ed Stockham. Add to the mix some beat boxing, guitar playing and comedy songs, and you have your audience captivated on a one hour razor sharp journey.

Their genuine love of interactive, physical comedy is apparent within the group, and pours out in boundless energy and flowing dynamics. They work well together and bounce off each other, both literally and metaphorically, swiftly catching any hesitant gaps with fast paced punchy jokes or a deft steer of the improv around another corner into a whole new territory. Our particular show touched on the random topics of lonely circus life, midget magicians and detective bingo, but given each show will be spontaneous and unique who knows where you might end up.

The quartet have a definite Inbetweeners vibe and would definitely appeal to a younger audience. They introduce some beatboxing, which possibly could have been expanded more throughout the set and the music could perhaps have had a bigger role in the sketch altogether, but all in all, a well delivered, enjoyable show by some talented and rather endearing young guys.

Reviewer: Teri Welsh

Laughing Horse @ The Cellar Monkey
Aug 3-27 (13.15)

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Running through the rain to make it to Jen Wakefield’s Girl In Da Corner, I thought I was going to a standard comedy show. What I found was a truly intelligent art performance which taught me about the experience of being a mixed race person in Britain, 2017. Between tossing out the Grime Outreach program & uncannily natural Indian accents (well, she is half-Indian) her show was completely fun, like flipping through channels on TV; the main character, who is like the host of all of these channels, was the wide-eyed, open-hearted Natasha G-Storm Flex. Through this particular avatar, Jen performs some original Grime songs, whose snazzy couplets are packed full of meaning and melody performed with the startling vivacity of her youth. Through all the characters she presents we see the pressure exerted by society to be ‘normal;’ Jen easily shows that it is best to be ourselves, but it is hard to be yourself when people are constantly asking you why you look different. She is a smart cookie, culturally verteux, a fan of both the Arctic Monkeys & Steely Dan, & one cannot help but notice her intelligence blossoming into a dogmatic sense of humor. In a recent interview with The Mumble, Jen talks about her show as being;

A character comedy show about identity and explores the mixed-race experience that I’ve had. I wrote an article titled Sorry, you’re label has expired about growing up identifying as Anglo-Indian and found it was met with a greater response than expected. Lots of people contacted me to share their similar experiences, so I thought it might be a topical piece to explore in a show, and I hope there might be other people who can identify with the content or it may spark a conversation.

Reviewer : Michael Beeson

So where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?
Born and bred in Sydney I’ve been based in London for the last 8 years. I found myself there by accident to be honest. After finishing two and a half years of acting training in Sydney, I toured the country for a year in a two-hander for high school audiences. When that finished I flew over to the UK for an audition, fell in love with a man and never came home.

When did you first realise you could, well, clown about?
After about 10 years working as an actor and singer on other peoples’ projects, a friend took me to see Peta Lily’s one-woman show, ‘Invocation’, and I was blown away! I was having a drink with her afterwards when she mentioned she was running a clown workshop the following weekend. Never one to run from a challenge I had to check it out! Needless to say I was terrible, but I fell in love with the honesty and vulnerability of the clown. 5 years later I’ve worked with several inspirational comedy directors and teachers, and studied at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier in France. As this is my first solo clown-inspired show, I guess you could say that I’m discovering it as we speak. After all it’s the audience who decides if I’m any good!

What is it about performing live you love the most?
‘Odette!’, has lots of audience interaction which is great fun – you never know what they’re is going to do next! I love that through playing her my natural quirkiness and silliness is amplified, and it’s just brilliant that the audience comes with me into the world of melodrama and American TV glamour. For me, though, the most wonderful things about performing live as Odette are the little games I discover with the audience every night – from the moment I see a sparkle of cheekiness in someone’s eye I know it’s going to be a good show!

What does Marina Margarita like to do when she’s not entertaining the public?
I love travelling! Croatia and Berlin are top of my list of places to go back to and I’m hoping to check out South East Asia and South America next. Another passion of mine is cooking so when I can combine the two I’m in heaven. Throw in summer sun, a jug of Pimms and a picnic blanket and I couldn’t be happier!

You are a graduate of French comedy and theatre school ‘Ecole Philippe Gaulier,’ can you describe the experience of studying at such a famous comedic institution?
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. Nah, just joking, it was without a doubt one of the best decisions I’ve made. I mean it’s not without its challenges and crises of confidence; Philippe says exactly what he thinks and doesn’t hold back when he’s anything less than impressed, but if you’re training to make it in one of the most competitive industries there is, you want nothing less than the truth right? One of the most frustrating moments for me at the school came in the weeks following 20 minutes of success I’d had in the clowning module. Philippe told me to present that same piece every week until the end of term but no matter how much work I put into it, each week I was met by stony silence – no one found it remotely funny. What had happened? What was I doing differently? Eventually after 3 weeks Philippe forbade me to try that particular number ever again, informing me that ‘you are boring, you push too much’ and ‘you are an unreliable clown’ – devastating! I wasn’t allowed to perform in the week-long clown show at the end of term despite presenting a multitude of new numbers and when he finally agreed to let me on the stage to try a cream pie splat in the face routine….it worked! The class was in stitches! Begrudgingly Philippe accepted me into the line up for the public showing that evening – maybe I wasn’t so terrible after all! 10 minutes later, however, he changed his mind, saying he didn’t ‘trust me to be funny a second time’. And that was that. No clown show for me! Thankfully I came back the following term to study farce and it was a different story – turns out pretty dresses, flamboyant characters and running around in high heels is my thing!

Which clowns have inspired you?
There are so many amazing clowns out there – lots of them at the Edinburgh fringe, lucky us! Lucy Hopkins is a dear friend and very much an inspiration both in life and art. (Powerful Women are About’, 5pm, Heroes @ The Hive) You can’t go past Spencer Jones for good old fashioned silliness. (The Audition’, 6:20pm, Heroes @ Monkey Barrel) I’ve also learned a hell of a lot from watching the legends that are Marny Godden (Marny Godden is One Tooth, 3:45, Heroes @ The Hive), Red Bastard (Lie With Me, 9:30pm, Pleasance Courtyard), and The Establishment (The Establishment: Eton Mess, 5pm, Assembly George Square Theatre).

You are also a dab hand at singing, what are the overlapping artistic sensibilities between the clown & that of the vocal performer?
The idea of the clown is that they’re terrible at everything but say a whole-hearted ‘yes’ to every opportunity that comes their way and then make it up on the spot. It’s been lots of fun finding moments for Odette to sing in the show and playing with the fact that she sings well – a little surprise for the audience every now and again! While both the clown and the singer need to be sensitive and generous to their audience, I love playing with the dichotomy of the singer being a genuine professional and the clown pretending to know what they’re doing despite being absolutely clueless!

You are bringing your show ‘Odette!’ to the Fringe this August, can you tell us about it?
Clown inspired character comedy, ‘Odette!’ tells the story of a ballsy, brash, heavily pregnant Aussie cleaning lady with big dreams of romance and stardom on cheesy American daytime TV soap ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’. It’s playful and fun, moving in parts, and unashamedly OTT. Oh, and there are a few songs thrown in for good measure!

How did you select your material for Odette?
A mother of 4, my Mum had a lot on her plate when we were kids so Portuguese mother and daughter team, Odette and Erbelina, used to come and clean the house for us every few weeks. When I was first toying with the idea of Odette as a character I recorded several Spanish and Portuguese friends to try and develop a convincing accent but the minute I stepped on stage in character, a broad ocker Aussie voice came out! I’ve had a ball developing the show through trying 10 – 20 minutes at various comedy cabarets across London. She hasn’t always brought the house down, but I’ve kept all the bits that have and woven them into the show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Can you sum up your show in a single sentence?
Heavily pregnant and hormonal Odette, the Aussie cleaning lady everyone loves to love, floats on soap opera bubbles and shakes her booty to win the heart of super star Ridge at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

What does the rest of 2017 hold in store for Marina Margarita?
As soon as I get back to London, I’ll head straight into rehearsal for ‘By Way of Pain’ at the Corby Cube. I’ll be playing Myra Hindley, quite the jump from the silliness of Odettte! 2018 will be a big year for ‘Odette!’ starting off in Bristol in January and then on tour to Australia.

You can catch Marina at the Fringe this month

Aug 3-2 : 48 Below (22.55)

The Principal
Aug 4-7, 9-14, 16-21, 23-28 (Times Vary)

Material:  Delivery:  Laughs:

The institution that is Faulty Towers the Dining Experience & its nestling itself into the psyches of the Edinburgh Festival goer was established, it may surprise any, only ten years ago. Ten years before that, the show itself was born, so it was clearly time for a big ‘ol party, & so I found myself in the rather swanky main function hall of the Principal Hotel. Our merry geishas for the evening were Basil & Sibyl Faulty, & Manuel from Barcelona, who like missionaries of the sacred genius of John Cleese bring the Holy Sermon on Torquay Mount to all corners of the globe. I’ve seen Faulty in Edinburgh before, at the rather tuna-jammed B’est Restaurant, but moving the show to the Principal is a stroke of clear genius; the chrysalis has cracked, the jack is out of the box, the spaniel is off its leash, because like a student on a gap year this show suddenly has so much more space in which to weave its magic. The overall content is rather much the same as always, with a couple of new gags tossed into the mix here & there, but what is different is the ambience – its just soooooo much better. I mean it was good before, or at least the idea was good, but when the actors are given a chance to express themselves in such a large & lovely room, with better lighting & acoustics, it really is a pleasure to be there. Indeed, Faulty Towers @ the Principal passed my personal litmus test of quality, for I got lost in the moment & suddenly found myself gawping at the proceedings with an inane grin on my face.

All three of the cast were great, Basil was top notch & Sibyl was just the laugh short of perfection, but it was James Heatlie as bumbling Manuel who especially pulled off a cheeky star turn. In a recent interview with the Mumble, he described the key ingredients to a good show;

I think the main ingredient is the audience, we honestly couldn’t do it without them. Seriously though, the audience are really the collective fourth actor in the room and they really make the show with their wonderful sense of adventure and fun. The other ingredients would have to be the other three actors and then some food to make sense of the title.

The vibe at Faulty Towers is great, in your face but gentle, the food rather tasty, & the circular tables perfectly conducive for generating conversation. Hilariously funny, while at the same time paying a keen homage to one of the all-time comedic great shows, Faulty goes from strength to strength, & when your wife’s knickers end up on Basil Faulty’s head (as did mine in the show we attended) you know you’ve had a good night.

Reviewer : Damo

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The Free Sisters
Aug 3-27 (19.45)

Having performed at the Fringe every year since 2010, Nathan Cassidy’s stage presence exudes comedic professionalism and experience. One admires Mr Cassidy in the same way one admires a great boulder balancing on the edge of a cliff, delivering rock-solid hilarity in the same way that said boulder has taken up its space on earth for aeons. In an earlier interview with the Mumble, Cassidy described his show as being, ‘about bravery in a volatile world.‘ Nathan uses the topics of terrorism, pop culture and fatherhood to explore his subject; the humor is subtle, using slight plays of language which may catch you off your guard, but sometimes explores grand themes such as the terrible events like 9/11 – certainly a brave subject to approach – and by shaking us out of our fear of saying the wrong thing about the tragedy, we can gain new perspectives on these historical events and have a darn good time doing it.

Nathan Cassidy is true, vulnerable and genuine & I had a steady stream of laughter going on throughout Nathan’s performance. Afterwards, I have kept thinking about the topics he covered, his show goes deeper than just having a laugh. I think Nathan is an authentic example of bravery for us all because he dares to go on stage and show us what he, in particular, was put on this earth to do. To see Nathan being his true self gives me courage to find my own calling in life and to be who I am capable of being. To gain such life-assuring convictions or to have a good laugh, don’t miss Nathan Cassidy every evening at the Free Sisters at 19.45.

Reviewer : Michael Beeson