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!

Love’s a Beach

Location:  Pleasance Courtyard – Baby Grand (Venue 33 )

Dates: Jul 31st Aug 1st-12th, 14th-26th

Time: 12:45

Price: £14.00 Concessions £13.00

Ticket Link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/love-s-a-beach

Hello! Tell us about yourself?

Hello! Our names are Katie and Will, and we are the writers of Love’s A Beach. We met in a school drama production where we both had to wear a lot of blue camo (and acted very badly indeed) and have been writing together ever since. Will is now in a writer’s room for Netflix, and Katie now writes for BBC television, but our best work was definitely a short-lived plan to make a mockumentary about our hometown that would “really put Sutton on the map”. Needless to say, it was never made, and Sutton is definitely not on the map.

Tell us all about your show!

Love’s A Beach is a satirical comedy about what happens six months after your five minutes of fame. It follows Ben and Cyrus – the first gay winners of a L*ve Isl*nd style reality show – as their celebrity begins to dwindle and they have to try desperately to cling on to fame. When we first meet them, Cyrus has just agreed to become the face of adult nappies, and Ben is spending most of his time promoting vegan dog food for Pets At Home…. then they get offered an influencing deal in Dubai, and have to decide how much they’re willing to compromise on their morals to continue pursuing their ambitions.

We were inspired to write it after seeing a genuine headline about an ex-L*ve-Isl*nder cutting the ribbon on the grand opening of a kebab shop in Coventry. Everyone seemed to be finding it funny – but it seemed to us to be quite a modern kind of tragedy; normal young people are coming of age in the public eye and then being chewed up and spat out by the machine six months later and left with nothing. But we promise it’s a comedy! That was the inspiration but the play itself is just jokes jokes jokes.

The show debuted at VAULT last year, and has also previewed at Soho Theatre.

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

It’s supposed to be a twist on the sort of awful/ genius (depending on your interpretation) kind of pun names that dating reality shows have these days (naming no names but cough cough Ex On The Beach, cough cough Love Is Blind, etc etc). The idea is that Cyrus and Ben won a fake reality show called ‘Love’s A Beach’ – and then we discover them in the aftermath having to deal with the consequences.

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

So many! We will be haunting the Pleasance Courtyard like over-excited ghosts, but have to give a special shout out to a show that one of our cast members, James Akka, is doing. It’s a one man show called “Sorry I Broke Your Arms And Legs” in which James plays a Y8 prefect desperately trying to become Head Boy. We’ve been told it “combines the thrills of World Book Day with the hilarity of the Maths Olympiad” – what more could you want?

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? 

Katie – I did the Fringe as part of a student comedy troupe in 2019, and it would be fair to say it didn’t go incredibly. Student comedy is marmite at the best of times, but at 23:30 at night, people don’t want a desperately clever (read: not clever at all) satirical take on the 12th amendment, they want some cheesy chips and their duvets. It was a victory for us if the audience managed to stay awake at all, but I remember our last show with particular horror because it was my 21st birthday, and the last Saturday of the Fringe. At the end of the hour, one of the other actors asked the audience if they would sing me happy birthday. They refused. Which was fair enough.

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

Flyer, pinot grigio, flyer, gin and tonic, flyer, tequila, flyer, sleep, repeat!

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

See as much stuff as possible! It’s so easy to get in your own head if a show doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped, or (to give a totally hypothetical random example) the audience hate your appalling student sketch comedy so much that they refuse to sing you happy birthday on your 21st and you have to hide in the toilets until everyone has left.  Seeing something brilliant will always cheer you up, and there is so much mad and amazing stuff at the Edinburgh Fringe that whatever time of day or night it is, there will always be something to lift your mood.

And also, vegetables.

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

Happy memories of late night macaroni cheese out of the back of a van. Was it hygienic? Possibly not. Was it incredible? Definitely yes.

Best thing about performing at the Fringe?

The other shows and getting to see so much brilliant and mind blowing stuff.

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

Everything always takes ten minutes longer than you think it will!

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

A sturdy rucksack, an umbrella, and vitamin tablets.

What’s the secret to successful flyering?

A mix of genuine passion and unhinged desperation

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

The show is online at @lovesabeachplay everywhere on socials.

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

Funny! We promise!