Ctrl Alt Dramaturgy: Neil Delamere @ Edfringe 2016

Neil Delamere: Ctrl Alt Delamere

Gilded Balloon at the Museum

Aug 8-12 9.00pm

The Gilded Balloon, Lisa Richards and Off The Kerb present Neil Delamere in Ctrl Alt Delamere at the National Museum of Scotland from Friday 5 (preview) to Friday 12 August as part of the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Neil Delamere, one of Ireland’s stand out comedians and TV stars, promises a comedy hour brimming with hilarious tall tales from both TV filming and married life when he returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after a two year absence.

The quick-witted Dublin-based comic, famous for his banter with the audience and razor sharp observations full of style, smooth delivery and near-perfect timing, can’t wait to make the National Museum of Scotland his home in August.

“I’m looking forward to performing in a museum. The good news is the show finishes at 10 and if I’ve learned anything from films, the museum will come alive shortly after that. I’ll have a pint with Teddy Roosevelt and Genghis Khan if it doesn’t go well.”

Having taken time out from the Fringe to film death defying and scary and unpleasant stunts for a TV science panel show and history documentaries, Neil Delamere will be going behind the scenes with some rib-crackingly funny moments that never made it to air.  Expect tips on how to how to use a sword, survive a bobsled ride as well as how to stay conscious in an astronaut training centrifuge or pretend to enjoy weightlessness in a plane that is plummeting to earth.

Having taken the marriage plunge in 2014 Neil’s eventful honeymoon, climbing mountains in Peru, will also take centre stage in Edinburgh, hopefully a process of catharsis for both Neil and his wife.  

With stellar reviews, sell-out stand-up tours and platinum-selling DVDs to his name, award-winning comedian Neil Delamere is one of the top acts working in the Irish comedy scene today. His 10 part science series Eureka was recently broadcast on RTE 2 and he is also back in the hot seat with the 11^th season of BBC’s The Blame Game, at the end of 2016.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I haven’t been to the Fringe for a couple of years and the current show is about what I’ve been up to in the interim. It’s been an eventful couple of years. I got married, fired machine guns on my honeymoon (because what screams romance more than an AK47) and made two TV series. The second TV series was a science comedy show that featured me doing various stunts that were meant to demonstrate a scientific principle or invention. I bet no-one else’s Edinburgh show will be about surviving a centrifuge used to train astronauts in Poland or which way to lean when hurtling down a bobsled track with the German youth bobsled champions.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

There is no team. As with most stand-up shows it’s all dreamt up by the one, possibly deluded soul.  A few friends of mine have recently collaborated with directors on their Fringe shows. That is definitely something I would like to try in the future. I think it depends largely on the sort of show you have produced. Obviously the closer to theatre a comedy show is the more sense it makes to have a theatre director’s input. That said, it always good to have a second pair of eyes look over a project.

Of course the fact that I’ve said there is no team entirely ignores the elephant in the room, that is previous audiences. Really, they are the other people who have shaped the show long before it arrived in Edinburgh. It’s the only art form that I know that is formed like this. Other shows/exhibits/installations are usually presented fully formed. Sculptors don’t do a work in progress sculpture, assess the audience’s reaction to it and modify it and present it again the next night for the crowd’s delectation. Sculptors rarely flier too.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I was always attracted to the idea that one person can entertain a group of strangers using nothing but words and their (the audience’s) imagination.

I have presented radio and television shows and massively enjoyed the collegiate atmosphere working on them because they are in marked contrast to the largely solitary process of creating stand-up. However, their limitations also become evident. If I want to do a sketch on television about a green elephant suddenly an entire production machine has to swing into action. Where will we get this elephant at this short notice? Do we really need it? Can we get a normal elephant and paint it green? Can we use CGI?  Would a hippo work?

If I decide to talk about a green elephant in stand-up I’m only limited by my imagination and vocabulary. I find that idea amazing and intoxicating. It is so limitless that I sometimes fell guilty for only talking about normal things.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

I think so yes, in that you have ideas, get in front of people and try them and chip away. It can be different if you have a more thematic structured show as I have in that past with various elements of video and audio. This show is looser and allows more room to manoeuvre.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

It’s a very simple aim, distraction and escapism for an hour. I just want the audiences to laugh and enjoy themselves for an hour. There is no underlying aim, no larger more noble goal. It is not an hour seeking to shed some light on the human condition. It is an hour or jokes and stories.  If they laugh a lot I’ve succeeded.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

 Nothing out of the ordinary.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

That is probably easier for others to decide. I have noticed that Irish comedians tend to be grouped as storytellers for whatever reason. I don’t disagree with this at all. Whether that happens because of something endemic in our culture or because the smaller population results in comics tending toward a mean I don’t know. We would have fewer very niche comedians if you get my meaning. I do think there are subtle differences in Ireland versus the UK in their appreciation of certain aspects of humour but discovering those minute differences is very interesting.

Dramaturgy, Suspensions, Detentions and Summer Vacations: Orlando Baxter @ Edfringe 2016

Orlando Baxter: Suspensions, Detentions and Summer Vacations

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

Aug 3-14, 16-29 7.00pm

Credit: Oscar Obregon Jr

Orlando Baxter is America's coolest teacher. In Suspensions, Detentions and Summer Vacations, he candidly delivers his provocative, laid-back brand of comedy in an uproarious debut show centred around his chaotic experiences teaching in American classrooms. Finalist in the New York Comedy Contest and the Boston Comedy Festival in 2010 and finalist at the Montreux Comedy Festival in 2014.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

My life and experiences as a high school teacher.

Credit: Oscar Obregon Jr

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

I put a lot of trust into Mick Perrin and his team so luckily I don't have to think too much about it.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I saw comics last year at the Fringe doing their first hour show and I was inspired to write my own.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

Yes, I approach this the same way I approach writing stand up comedy material. I spent a lot of time working out the show on stage in front of an audience.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope they laugh and enjoy the performance, and walk away with a glimpse of what my life was like as a teacher from the US.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I had no strategy, i just figured if I'm honest and funny, people will get the message.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

No.

Credit: Oscar Obregon Jr

Soixante Mirth Dramaturgy: Charmian Hughes @ Edfringe 2016

Charmian Hughes – Soixante Mirth

Cowgatehead (Venue 32)

Aug 6-14, 16-27 3.30pm

Fun-filled frolic through fate, flimflam and filosophy – no effing! Sixth Edinburgh Show! 60th glorious year! 60 minutes! Very Sixy show.

Credit: Paul Stuart

What was the inspiration for this performance?

This is the year I hit 60 after 30 year of doing comedy, going to festivals, feeling I have always been the same person. But have I?

60 is the  age at which we stand at the summit looking down at our own death. Will we roll swiftly down that hill,  fall off or descend slowly ?

Who are we at this age? What would my ten year old self make of me now? Or my 14 year old self? My 25 year old self? All ages where huge changes happened, physically, psychologically and emotionally.

This was the springboard for the show, a piece of stand-up personal exploration where my former selves come to life and challenge the way I have fulfilled or failed their dreams and expectations.

Previews have excited a lot of resonance in audiences, so this is something that everyone thinks about at some time.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

 I was lucky to enlist the help of award winning comedian John Gordillo who worked with me on the writing and structure of this show. It can be a real challenge to tell a story through stand-up: audiences may distrust the truth of anything too standy-uppy looking, or find a true story fails because it doesn’t have the punchline they were expecting. John helped me explore the emotional truth of the material so that the jokes took care of themselves while maintaining emotional authenticity.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I first became interested in performing when I took part in some workshops with Cunning Stunts, the 1980’s all woman clown and theatre troupe. What they did was revolutionary at a time when the LIFT festival was reviving clowning and physical theatre as a viable and popular art form. It all happened at the same time as the emergence of Alternative Comedy. It was a vibrant time and I ran away from my job in advertising to become part of it.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

For this show I had to be really self-disciplined about what was emotionally true and not just go for the surreal or bizarre for the sake of a hilarious outcome. I taped all my meetings with John and played them back while re-writing. It was embarrassing how much resistance I could hear in my responses to him. But If I followed his signposts I usually found he was right.  

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

 I hope the audience will experience resonance. Time is a weird thing. It is the soup we all swim in and yet we are in different places in the stream. This is a poignant and painful realization which is where all the best laughs are to be found.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

If I am faithful to what I feel and think then I will find that connection with the audience in what they feel and think.

  

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

It’s definitely stand-up but I hope it is deep as well as funny.

Mostly Dramaturgy: David Ephgrave @ Edfringe 2016

Mostly David Ephgrave
Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88)
Aug 4-14, 16-28 12.00pm

The back end of comic duo Doggett & Ephgrave turns the spotlight on himself for an hour of solo stand-up. Don’t worry: he hasn’t heard of them either. 'David Ephgrave is as smooth as they come' (BBC). 'Ephgrave is a very likeable stand-up, confident but not cocky, and a lot of fun to spend time with' (ViewFromTheGods.co.uk). 'An eye for the bizarre, the sinister and the downright ridiculous' (CamdenVoyeur.wordpress.com). 'The way he interacts with his audience and gets the timing spot on does reveal he's no newcomer to the comedy circuit' (ViewFromTheGods.co.uk).

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Most of the material started out in my daily blog, which I began three years ago, after being advised by the workaholic stand-up Richard Herring in an interview recorded for my double act’s podcast that it was a good way to hone your craft. Doing this helped me sidestep overthinking what to talk about, and gave me a database to call on when I’m stuck for ideas. It stands as an embarrassing record of the slapstick that haunts my existence; I’m like flypaper for mishaps.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

I eyeballed myself in the mirror Robert-De-Niro-in-Taxi-Driver-style and asked if I wanted to do it. Apparently, I did. Working solo is a relatively new experience for me. I’ve been half of the comic duo Doggett & Ephgrave for a decade, and before that, I was in a band. I wrote most of the songs, but was able to hide this fact by surrounding myself with other band members, which was cunning on my part.

These days, I rely on my wife and my double act partner (who aren’t one and the same) for feedback. I have a friend who’ll often travel with me when I’m gigging and give me notes; other than that, I get my critique from my audience. In a ‘whether they laugh’ sense; I don’t need them shouting out improvements.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’d wanted to perform in some form or other since I was a kid. My mum remembers losing me on a childhood holiday, only to eventually track me down entertaining an ad hoc audience I’d pulled together from the other kids staying at the camp; I was an irritating little git.

I wanted to be a magician initially. I was a huge fan of the Paul Daniels Magic Show and spent most of my time practising tricks. Daniels lit the touchpaper for me becoming a performer. I was lucky enough to get the chance to tell him this when he played my club Mostly Comedy late last year. He was still at the top of his game. It’s such a shame he’s no longer with us.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

It depends on what I’m doing. If I’m writing sketches or scripts with my partner, it’s more rigid and tied to what’s on the page. Stand-up is a lot more fluid. Some of the stuff I say has never been written down; so much so that it can be easy to forget the content, if you have a long break between shows. Thank God for my phone’s audio recording facility.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Spiritual enlightenment. That, or they’ll laugh a bit.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I’m not averse to bribery or threats. Other than that, I tried to make it funny.

As I mentioned previously, much of the content began as a blog post. I then went back to it at a later date and riffed it to myself, to see how it sounded out loud. I might bring the topic up on my double act’s radio show; trying to make Glyn laugh at it. Finally, I’d test it at new material gigs or at my comedy club, before eventually stringing it into a show; then I added pyrotechnics to spice things up a bit.

(NB There are no pyrotechnics.)

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

I see it as a mix of stand-up, slides and story telling, with a lot of self-deprecation thrown in. I reckon it could translate into a contemporary dance; excuse me while I locate my leotard.

Arena Dramaturgy: John Robertson @ Edfringe 2016

John Robertson: Arena Spectacular!

The Stand Comedy Club 2

Aug 4-14, 16-28 3.40pm

Dirty jokes! Nice suit! Sit near the front! It’s an arena show… in a 45-seater. In his sixth year at the Fringe, the Australian wild man and insult comic unleashes 60 minutes of whatever comes into his head. Get ready for a party, and everyone’s the pinata.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I was getting heckled in a large theatre (at Wai-Con, the best anime convention in Australia), and I suddenly had the desire to torture my audience with memories of how hard and unforgiving videogames from the 80s were! It’s a strange desire, but it blossomed into an interactive improvisation that lasted 40 minutes! Why not workshop your ideas with 3,000 people? It turns out fine!

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

Well, after we were decommissioned from the army, we became soldiers of fortune. Hannibal was the one who brought the group together - our muscle B.A Baracus, our seducer, Face and me, “Howlin’ Mad” Murdoch. If you have a problem, and you know where to find us, we are the A-Team.  

Nah, I married my wife. And my old next-door neighbor Jon Hayward is a tech wizard.

How did you become interested in making performance?

Well, my father was an Anglican priest. He had the robes, and THE VOICE and the pulpit and was maybe the last non-zealot priest I’ve known to command a huge audience. A popular preacher is incredibly good fun to watch. Apparently I used to dress in a bedsheet and “do communion” when I was a kid.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

The seat-of-the-pants improv definitely was. The technical side is profoundly atypical of me, though it’s now something I’ve become associated with.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Fear and elation, nostalgia and recognition, joy and community, then more fucking fear.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Well, we worked the show until its rhythms flow through me naturally – The Dark Room was originally an angry taskmaster, now he skews playful, like a sadistic clown uncle. Covered with spikes and body armour.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition? 
Heh! My drama teacher told me I’d invent my own method of theatre, so I did. This’ll be The Dark Room’s fifth Fringe (its world premiere was at EdFringe 2012) and it’s still the world’s only live-action videogame. Maybe there’s shades of Theatre of Cruelty in there, and critics have said it’s reminiscent of Kafka and Beckett, but this is an immersive, low-fi, interactive show that controls its audience and fuses stand-up and clowning with retro gaming and cult behaviour – I turned bad old games into a good, new gameshow. Plus, we only find the show’s plot if the audience manages to find it, by selecting the correct options off the screen. So it’s a play that plays you.

Stand Up & Slam! Dramaturgy: Lucy Danser @ Edfringe 2016

Stand Up & Slam!

Just the Tonic at The Mash House (Venue 288)

Aug 4-14, 16-28 9.20pm

Stand-up comedy: poetry’s idiot relation, right? Performance poetry: comedy’s boring cousin, yes? Let's find out. Six phenomenal acts go head-to-head for your approval as poetry and comedy collide with hilarious results! Our resident team captains are joined by the most exciting comedians and poets from around the UK. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Put simply, the inspiration was finding a way to bring together comedy and poetry nights in a unique and interesting way. We didn’t want to just put on a mixed bill night - we wanted to create a whole new show where the two types of performers interacted with each other and the audience. The reason we wanted to bring the two art forms together at all was because they’re perfect together but have such crazily different audience bases! My co-creator Dan Simpson was a poet and organised poetry nights. I organised comedy nights. We never went to each other’s nights. They just weren’t ‘our thing’. It sounds silly now but to me poetry was a little bit pretentious, a little dull and not a particularly exciting night out. To Dan, comedy was amusing but was quite simplistic and full of dick jokes. Eventually I went to his poetry night and vice versa and were completely blown way. He saw a ton of intelligent, hilarious poets tackling all types of subjects and I laughed and cried my way through incredibly performed, exciting poems. We both realised the overlap between these two different but similar spoken word art forms in no way correlated with peoples’ preconceptions of them. And we wanted to smash that! So we set it up as a battle: Poets Vs Comedians. The show takes place in rounds and the audience pick the winners: but really everyone is excellent!

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

The show has resident hosts representing Team Comedy and Team Poetry (you’ll get one of each per show) and then we have a core team of acts who join us for different shows and one-off guests as well. We developed the show with Dan hosting for Team Poetry and Paul Sweeney hosting for Team Poetry and had a residency at the Comedy Cafe in Shoreditch. Then Paul went to become a barber for a bit (find him at @sweencutscomedy) and we did lots of playing around to find our perfect team. For Team Comedy I wanted to work with comedians I had an existing professional relationship with and who’d bring something unique to the job. So our comedy hosts are Rich Wilson and Rob Carter. Rich is an excellent experience MC and appeals to the die-hard comedy fans. Rob is a very funny act who also does character and musical comedy so he’s always bringing something new to the show. For Team Poetry Dan is joined by Oliver Forsyth who has been involved in the show since the very start. He’s an experienced poetry performer who’s also an excellent writer and actor (his play Happy Jack is on at The Pleasance this year) so he’s got a real upfront cheeky chappie sort of persona which joins poetry and comedy fans together perfectly!

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’ve always been interested in live entertainment. I grew up in London, seeing a lot of theatre and went to study Drama at the University of Kent and Indiana University. Originally I wanted to write and act, but when I started working with comedians a whole new world of options opened up with me in terms of how to make different types of performance. I enjoy working with comedians and poets because projects can come together much more spontaneously than theatre can and make the journey from page to stage much faster.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

I suppose that depends. For theatre projects I’ll spend a lot more time alone or interviewing people to make a script come together. This was a lot more interactive. Dan and I put the format together over copious amount of coffee in various Pret a Mangers and then we threw our first show together at the Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green without very much idea of what exactly we were doing. So I’d say that making a show this way has been a lot more interactive and has meant that we’re always developing and changing it. We brought it to the Fringe last year but return audiences will see a few changes from that show. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Mostly we just want them to have fun. It’s a comedy show with a difference, but it’s comedy nonetheless! We've discovered that some people come firmly to represent one art form - so obviously in that case we’d like their preconceptions about the other quashed! Our favourite audiences are when people find their vote changing from the beginning to the end of the show - that means we’ve introduced them to something new. But, yeah, we just want them to have an excellent time, to laugh, listen, shout and go out feeling that they’ve had a great EdFringe hour! 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We discussed different options for how the audience would vote from Ready, Steady, Cook style signs (remember the peppers and tomatoes!?) to fancy electronic applause meters. But in the end the best way has turned out to be the audience shouting and applauding and the hosts directly responding. We don’t force too much of a participatory atmosphere because you always have different audiences but we do encourage the audience to be involved as much as they want to be throughout. Our favourite shows are where we have quite a responsive audience and we found Edinburgh to be the best for that last year! Our favourite strategy that has really been developed in this year has simply been to really create the atmosphere of a battle in a much more heightened way than we have before. So although it’s clearly tongue in cheek we use music and humour to bring the audience into this idea of a high stakes battle. 

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

It’s a pretty unique show - there isn’t anything like it at the Fringe or anywhere else we’ve come across. However it does tie into those acts who crossover the comedy/poetry art forms in their work - specifically people like Tim Key, Phil Jupitus, Rhys James, Tim Minchin and so on. 

A Billion Days of Dramaturgy: Taylor Glenn @ Edfringe 2016

Taylor Glenn: A Billion Days of Parenthood

Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88) ​

Aug 4-14, 16-28 21:20

 

Honest, unflinching and delightfully dark: the award-winning American comedian tackles everything from prenatal pandas to postnatal depression in a tale about surviving the never-ending. Parent or not, this show is for you.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

My experience of post-natal depression and general experience of parenthood was the catalyst.  It started as a hashtag on twitter #ABillionDaysofParenthood which was just a way for me to vent how I was feeling, and before I knew it the whole thing evolved into a one-hour stand up show.  

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

As it’s stand up, the team is just me really- but a lot of fellow comedians, family, and friends have supported me along the way and encouraged me to do it for sure. 

 

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’ve been drawn to the stage since I was a kid and I did local plays and musicals.  

I started doing improv and sketch comedy in New York City and then finally took the plunge and did stand up for the first time in the UK after I’d moved over here.  Also, I used to be a psychotherapist so I’ve always been drawn to understanding how the human mind works (or doesn’t. . .).

 

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

This show has been very different than my comedy before.  I took a break from stand up after my daughter was born, and when I started putting the pieces together for A Billion Days of Parenthood I was using very personal, sometimes raw material which was much more vulnerable than things I’d used before.  I think that’s led to a stronger response, but also means it isn’t your typical club set.  

 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Above all, finding it funny - but also thought provoking.  It’s not a therapy session for me (although i’ve gotten a lot out of doing it) and it should, and has, appealed to a wide range of people.  I want them to laugh at things which maybe aren’t always joked about.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Being honest, and telling my story through the routine.

 

Do you see your work within any particular tradition? 

Lots of comedians have paved the way for me for sure - when I saw Tig Notaro’s documentary about dealing with her breast cancer on stage that definitely had an impact on me, and made me feel brave enough to get up and talk about post natal depression - and to discover that you really can make anything funny.