Festival Insider: Frisky
In this weekly series, we ask Edinburgh Festival veterans which shows or performers have touched their hearts or pushed their buttons. This time around, cabaret singer, MC and comedian Frisky spins the wheel to tell us which things...
Made me cry: I remember Stick Man, an adaptation of the Julia Donaldson book, reducing me to absolute rubble in the Cow. It was before I was a parent, so probably just being awake for a 10am show may have been a factor. But man, that stick really wanted to see his family again… not for the faint-hearted/hungover.
Made me angry: Dangerous Goods at last year’s Fringe was a powerhouse of feminine rage. Incredible, high-skilled variety acts, delivering searing political commentary, covering colonialism, misogyny and the state of the world. It was impossible not to join their primal scream and leave ready to (figuratively) burn some shit to the ground.
Made me laugh: There are so, so many, but a really memorable one would be Jason Byrne around 2005, before I was doing any comedy myself. He got my then 23-year-old and 6ft tall brother on stage, and attempted to lift and weigh him like a baby. Jason is the absolute master of making you feel like the audience are the ones who are insane and that this performance is the craziest he’s ever done. I don’t think I’d laughed like that before, or maybe since.
Made me think: Around 2011, Ruby Wax had a show called Losing It with songs by Judith Owen. It was one of the first that I remember really honestly diving into mental health, both anecdotally and discussing the science of it. It was characteristically packed with bristling wit, but the songs were very raw and moving, and it really made me think about my perspective on mental health at the time.
Made me think twice: I watched Stewart Lee do a spot at Spank! where he did no material but simply commentated on the reaction of the room, splitting them into two halves; it became a tennis match of the human need for approval. I learned almost everything I needed to know about comedy, crowd work and audience psychology in those ten minutes. Ta, Stew.
Frisky’s Remix Roulette, Assembly St Andrew Square, until 30 August, 8.30pm.