Fandan Dramaturgy: Larry Dean @ edfringe 2017

Larry Dean’s new stand up show ‘Fandan’ will be at the Monkey Barrel Basement for the month of August for tickets go to www.edfringe.com

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Content wise it loosely comes from a fear of being deluded. I have such a fear of delusion that by default I'm extremely conservative when it comes to assessing myself. 

At least according to other people anyway. Whereas your typical delusional fool will grossly overestimate their achievements, seeing things as grander than they are, apparently this fool has illusions of failure.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

Yes and no. Of course it's a very flexible medium

that gives you the opportunity to present ideas to a lot of people at the same time. But having a lot of people in the same place can mean that the atmosphere is governed by collectivism.

Which can make presenting any truly progressive ideas quite tough when it's your job to make people laugh. Rather than forming their own opinions, people will tend to make judgments based on what they think other people will think, for fear of being too far away from what's acceptable. 

All of which means, with the sensitive issues we're dealing with as a society at the moment, I'd rather do jokes about poo-poo. 

How did you become interested in making performance?

A mixture of incredibly low self esteem and a desire to prove certain people wrong.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I record all my gigs and go through them with mates. It's a lot easier to write when you're having a laugh with someone else. Then it's a case of rewriting it, memorising it, rewriting it and memorising it over and over and over again. Simple.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

It's not finished yet but i'd say it probably will. I have more ambitious ideas for the future but for now I'm concentrating more on material and performance. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

A lot of laughter. That's about it really. I don't usually feel the need to generate a take home message for the audience. It seems disingenuous to try and synthesise a bit of feely-feely-good-good, or a message, so I don't try. If it happens it happens but otherwise don't expect anything but a daft Glaswegian displaying his inner idiot for 50 minutes.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

First I imagined what it'd be like to be a member of the audience at the show. Then I rented out a 200 seat venue and actually sat there imagining what it would be like to watch me. Then I imagined what it would be like to be me, on stage, watching myself in the audience watching me on stage. Then I wrote some jokes.