comedy feature
Dark Knave
Seth Ewin talks to comic Andrew O’Neill, goth of Fringes, past, present and future.
TW: How many times have you performed at the Edinburgh Fringe before and what’s been your best experience?
AON: This will be my sixth year up here. Although, it’s only my third solo show. Probably the best experience was doing a two-hander with James Sherwood, who is possibly the nicest man on the planet. His show this year is excellent, by the way.
TW: What is the worst experience you’ve had at the Fringe?
AON: Well, last year my girlfriend got really ill and had to go to hospital. So, I did a show having had no sleep and having done no flyering (she was doing that) and it was the first one to get reviewed.
TW: Some performers find it difficult to handle just one show. How will you be coping with two one-man shows?
AON: I will be coping by having no social life whatsoever, eating lots of fresh fruit and veg and listening to brutal death metal every chance I get, to relax myself. My only real worry is losing my voice. So, I may not speak at all when not on stage, like a pretentious actor (which is a tautology, by the way).
TW: Have you ever split an audience with a joke?
AON: Of course. I did a show about Jack The Ripper two years ago, which I have since toured. Some people were offended when I began talking about murder. Erm... the clue was in the title, no?
TW: One of your shows is part of the Free Fringe. Is this a stand against the increased commercialisation of the Fringe?
AON: Not really. I actually think the biggest issue as a performer is simply the sheer number of other shows with whom you’re competing for audiences. Now, obviously this is a bit like someone sitting in a car in a traffic jam blaming all the other car drivers for being on the road. I think PBH’s [Peter Buckley Hill] Free Fringe is a fantastic idea, though - he makes an effort to programme really good shows and it works wonderfully.
TW: With increasingly tech-savvy comedians, what do you think the stand-up routines of the future will be like?
AON: I think stand-up will largely remain a purely one-person-with-a-microphone thing, but the cheapness of technology that five years ago would have been completely out my reach means I can do stuff in my one-man shows that hopefully is a bit different. I think there will be more virtual double-acts, like Howard Read and Little Howard.
TW: Margaret Thatcher gets a mention in your history of industry show. There’s been talk of a state funeral, how do you think her passing away should be handled?
AON: Class War have long talked about a party in Trafalgar Square to celebrate her death. I think that’s a fine idea. She represented almost all the things I most hate about the world and her death will hopefully bring some cheer to the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives she ruined.
TW: If you were a machine not a person, what machine would you be?
AON: A sex machine.
TW: Who or what, are you yourself looking forward to see at this year’s Fringe?
AON: ‘Eric’s Tales Of The Sea: A Submariner’s Yarn’, at the Holyrood Too. Eric has the funniest stories of anyone I know. I’ll be recommending it to everybody this year.
TW: Sum up your shows in six words.
AON: ‘Andrew O’Neill’s Totally Spot-On History Of British Industry’: Britain was awesome, now less good.
Andrew O’Neill’s Hour-Long Stand-Up Comedy Show’: You will laugh until you shit.
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Andrew O’Neill’s 'Hour-Long Stand-Up Comedy Show' appeared in the Free Fringe at Nicol Edwards, while Andrew O’Neill’s 'Totally Spot-On History Of British Industry' was performed at Underbelly.
published: Oct-2008
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