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!

Tit Swingers

Location:   Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Two (Venue 33)

Dates: Jul 31st, Aug 1st-6th, 8th-13th, 15th-20th, 22nd-26th

Time: 13:40

Price: £16 Concessions £15

Ticket Link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/tit-swingers

Hello! Tell us about yourself?

Hello! My name’s Abey, I’m one half of the writers of TIT SWINGERS and part of Le Gasp! Productions – I’m a queer and neurodivergent theatre maker, I’m Northern, I have 2 cats and I’m a Gemini

Tell us all about your show!

TIT SWINGERS is a new Queer Punk Gig Musical about real-life pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read (and also Calico Jack is here) – they were polyamorous queer pirates that got the title Hellcats of the Seven Seas for their various vicious and notorious crimes, but you probably know them best as them female pirates that fought with their tits out. Our show is about what would happen if you gave them some guitars and asked them to put on a show – so expect chaos, anarchy and a lot of Hot Girl Pirate S***

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

Originally we called the show ‘Hellcats’ – which is a very cool and mature name, but as a personal joke me and Sam (the other writer) started calling it ‘the Tit Swinging Musical’ ‘That show we’re doing where we Swing our Tits’ ‘Yeah, the Tit Swingers show’ – until eventually one day I had to turn to Sam and say ‘The show’s just called TIT SWINGERS now isn’t it?’, they solemnly nodded their head in return, and thus TIT SWINGERS was born

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

I’m really excited to see something unexpected – I love getting random flyers on the mile and turning up to stuff I know nothing about. Saying that I have also got tickets already to Awkward Prods Diana and Gwyneth shows too

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. And if you haven’t, how are you gearing up for it? 

This is my third time performing at the Fringe, the last time being 2022 with JULIE: The Musical, and it’s always a wonderfully bizarre experience. My advice for Fringe is to pace yourself and look after yourself – you probably will get Fringe Flu at some point, if you’re here for the whole month make sure to take some time out of the City Centre for yourself, and give yourself a flying schedule!

Also if there’s a show you want to see, make sure to check the dates – last time we turned up for a show that had finished 2 weeks earlier…we were confused why the venue was so quiet

Talk us through your daily routine for a day at the Fringe

I am a terrible morning person, so while I’d love to say I wake up with a smile, eat a healthy breakfast and do some yoga in a sunrise, in reality I creak my old bones out of bed, frown into a brew and curse the sun for a good hour in the morning.

Our show this year is at 1:40, so we’ll probably aim to do a bit of flyering at about midday, so if there’s any shows on in the morning I’ll sneak them in beforehand, and then grab some food before we have our mad get-in at 1:30.

Do some Hot Girl Pirate S*** for an hour and then probably have another brew straight after the show.

In the afternoon we’ll have another flyering session, probably about 3:30 for an hour, and then the time is ours to see any shows and do anything else we want to.

We’re staying in a big caravan this year with our 5 person team, which I’m very excited about, and me and Sam are preparing some cast/crew bonding evenings, like themed nights, fancy dress, ice carving classes, Diana The Musical and Glee Season 2 watch parties in the matching PJ sets we’ve got everyone…no-one else is as into it as me and Sam yet, but we’ll bring them around…by force if necessary…

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

Do the things you want to do, not what you think you should be doing – I’ve known people get very stressed feeling like they need to see every single show and be in every single place at once, but Edinburgh is a beautiful place to just be, so take some time to explore, see the shows that you find exciting, but don’t feel like you need to be racing across the city like a roadrunner to squeeze as much in as possible. Also there’s some great pie shops. Take time to go to a pie shop.

Ok, where is your favourite place to eat at the Fringe?

PIE SHOPS! There’s one that I can’t remember the name of, or tell you where it is, but I could walk there from muscle memory alone from the amount of times I go there. They do an amazing MacnCheese filled pie, and something called a Tatty-Dog, which is a sausage wrapped in mashed potatoes and then deep fried…when we’re in Edinburgh we’ll meet up and I’ll take you to it

Best thing about performing at the Fringe?

Definitely the glitz and glamour of sharing a single bathroom with 4 other people in the morning.

Actually, I really love performing at the Fringe and getting to find your audience and community, and be able to interact with people from all sides of theatre. When we brought my last show JULIE to fringe, we ended up creating a cult following of audiences who kept coming back show after show until they could sing along and knew the words better than me, and then have continued to follow and support the show, and we’ve seen them after performances outside of Edinburgh in London and Manchester, and we still recognise them and get so excited when we see them in the audience.

We also loved the tech team from the venue and got all their emails, and they’ve worked with us on different projects since as well, so it’s a great place to find your people and your band – which is what TIT SWINGERS is all about, so it feels perfect to be taking up the Fringe this year!

Top tips for travelling around the Fringe and getting to shows on time?

CHECK THE DATES! I have AuDHD so I have terrible time keeping, so I always try to arrive at least 15 mins early to everything (which usually means I’m there just on time)

I’d travel as light as you can, especially if you’re going to lots of shows in a day – it’s hard carrying heavy things up hills, and some venue seats are smaller than others!

Also wear good shoes, COMFY shoes!

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

1. COMFY SHOES
2. vitamins/echinacea/anti-flue medication of choice – You WILL get ill at some point, I guarantee
3. A nice comfort item from home – it’s a long and intense time at Fringe, so having something to help when it gets hard or tough is definitely vital

What’s the secret to successful flyering?

Honestly – I hate flyering. I’m very socially awkward and a huge people pleaser so I find it very hard to be a pushy salesman. I find having a good flyer is half the battle – I know I’ll collect them over a day and then sort through them later so a good flyer does most of the work there.

Having a catchy tag line is also helpful – I write big gay musicals, and you’d be surprised the amount of people who take a flyer from me when I just stand there shouting like an Ye Olde Town Crier going “Big Gay Musical? Big Gay Musical! Are you Gay? Do you like musicals? Then do I have a show for you! BIG GAY MUSICAL!”

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

You can find out about TIT SWINGERS on Instagram and Twitter (sorry…X) @TitSwingers

There’s also more about us and the other shows we [Le Gasp! Productions] do at @LeGaspProds on Twitter (sorry!…X) or @legasp.productions on Instagram

Our website is www.legasp.co.uk (www.legasp.co.uk/titswingers for TIT SWINGERS shenanigans specifically)

And if you’d like to see pictures of my cat you can find me on all good social media networks @abeybradbury

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

1. QUEER
2. PUNK
3. PIRATES