It is festival season and that means that in the next month there is so many great comedy festivals to look forward to! This month we are looking at some of the great shows that you can see at the Edinburgh Fringe. So take note because we are going to give you all the information you need for just a handful of some of the great shows happening this year! We have also been able to interview some of the acts that are heading up to the Fringe as well.

Cordelia Butters Investigates

Location: Laughing Horse @ The Counting House – The Attic (Venue 170)

Dates: Aug 4th-18th

Time: 12:00

Price: Pay What You Can

Ticket Link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/cordelia-butters-investigates

Hello! Tell us about yourself? 

Hi! I, Sarah, spend most of my days shut in a small booth talking to myself….put the phone to the police down I’m fine. I’m a voiceover artist specialising in gaming and audiobooks. I’m also an actor and improviser so I do get to go out and talk to other people sometimes, but only if there’s an audience watching.

How did you come up with the name of your show that your taking to the fringe?

Well….you know that pornstar name game – name of first pet and mothers maiden name?? This is mine!! It occured to me it would be a great name for a character.

Tell us all about your show!

It’s a comedy true crime documentary. I realised I’d accidentally become a massive true crime fan when I talked at a friend for several hours about big moments in multiple docs. He looked confused and sightly scared. I knew too much. I realised it was either create a show enjoying the madness of this or live a life of crime. So we’ll see how well the show does.

What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at the fringe?

Any weird immersive stuff – I’m in, throw any recommendations my way, I will go. Also my pal Richard David-Caine’s show ‘Tall, Dark and Anxious’ (he’s the funny one off of tv shows like Horrible Histories and Classed Dismissed’) and Tatty Macleod another pal who has about a billion followers on insta and tik-tok, she’s a hilarious bilingual stand-up. I always go to ‘The Darkroom’ it’s an event, an experience, a comedy show, it’s so weird you’ll all love it. I’m a big Buffy fan, so I’m very excited to see ‘Buffy Re-vamped’.

Have you done the fringe before? What are the key pieces of advice you have been given or would give to new groups or people performing at the fringe. 

This will be my 6th year, it’ll be my 5th with improv show ‘CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation’ – because I thought it’d be a laugh to do two shows. A real laugh. Advice – the cheese toastie hut is incredible, don’t go until the end of the fringe or you’ll have scurvy by the time you leave. See random shows, they can be amazing or the worst hour of your life but either way it’s funny. As a group it’s really fun to do something not Fringe related, it gives you a welcome break and you can have some bonding time. With CSI we’ve done dinner parties, visited St Mary’s Close, done numerous escape rooms and found a pop up cocktail bar squirreled away where we sampled the entire menu. And, of course, don’t do 2 shows.

What have been some of your favourite shows to date and why?

I saw a show called ‘Office Party’ in 2008, it was an immersive office party event – it was absolutely incredible, full of surprises and weird fun stuff. Adam Riches I just watch with utter glee on my face. Tim Key, beautiful comedy poetry and it’s Tim Key. Bourgeios & Maurice are just fantastic beautifully camp, hilarious cabaret. There are so many…this is making me very excited to go back!!

What is the best way to enjoy yourself at the fringe?

Watch a show at 12 midday to really get your juices flowing. I hear there’s one on at Counting House called Cordelia Butters Investigates. After that just run around like an excited child on sugar seeing what scrapes you can get into.

The best thing about performing at the fringe?

Getting to be a part of something so unique, there is a palpable excitement to being there that you can’t find anywhere else. I dare you to.

The most challenging thing about performing at the fringe?

The old burn out. It’s really hard doing a show up there (or two) so that’s enough to contend with, plus add in the marketing, flyering and running around with sheer joy at a massive festival and burn out can hit hard. I literally have to allocate sit quiet and rest time for myself now….I did this in 2019 and it did work guys, I recommend.

What would be your top three items every performer must take to the fringe?

Electrolytes – game changer. Rain coat. An enormous trust fund.

What’s the secret to successful flyering? 

Exit flyering shows that may have a crossover audience. I’m a big fan of quality flyering over quantity.

Who would be your ultimate dream audience member?

Someone thinking “I just want to find a mid 30’s woman with dark curly hair and take her play on tour for millions of pounds and then probably put her in every tv show and play in the country”

If people want to find out more about you where can they follow you on social media?

@skempton on Twitter and kemptonsarah on Instagram.

And Finally in three words – Why should people come and see the show? 

(AN) EXCITING INTRIGUING EXPERIENCE