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!

Kinder

Location: Billy Belly – Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

Dates:  Jul 31st -5th, 7th-12th, 14th-19th, 21st-24th

Time: 18:40

Price: £13 Concessions £12

Ticket Link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/kinder

Hello! Tell us about yourself?

Hello! I’m Ryan, or Ry (one syllable is just so much easier). I’m from Melbourne – born and raised – and have been working in theatre and film over the last decade, which puts me at the sensible age of at the end of my Saturn return.

I like reading (books and people), swimming, and living under the assumption that everyone deserves direct access to the things that have their basic human needs met, though the current political climate isn’t very conducive to that one, so I generally stick with books and pools.

Tell us all about your show!

KINDER is the first ever show I have created, performed, and produced, and is the debut of my drag clown, Goody Prostate (yes you saw me dancing with the devil, NO we are not romantically involved!!). We just closed an award-winning season in Adelaide Fringe, and will be making our international debut at Underbelly this Edinburgh Fringe, which is a bit exciting.

The show follows Goody as they find out that they have grossly misinterpreted the gig that they’re booked for that evening, and now have less than an hour to scramble together a new act for their actual audience. From there, it’s a spiral into interrogating our ideas of parents, children, queerness, memories, stories, and books, and why drag has become the new scapegoat for a powerful contingent of lawmakers who don’t want to take any accountability for their personal contribution to the state of the world right now. It’s fun! I promise.

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

I’m definitely looking forward to catching shows by some other very exciting Australian theatremakers who are also touring to Edinburgh, including three incredible new works; Em Tambree’s Altar, making its premiere at Underbelly, and Beth Paterson’s NIUSIA and Hayley Edwards’ S****ag over at Summerhall, where they are both also making their Edinburgh debuts!

That said, as this is going to be my first Edinburgh Fringe as well, I’m just really keen to see a whole bunch of international acts that we so often miss out on the Australian Fringe circuit, given how difficult it is to justify touring so far. So mostly I’m just very excited to do the classic ‘take a chance on a random Fringe show from someone I’ve never heard of before’ over and over and over again, until they’re begging me to leave the city because the festival is well and truly over.

If this is your first time – what are you looking forward to?

Definitely seeing the city when it’s in Fringe mode. I’ve had people asking me in the leadup to the tour ‘have you ever been to Edinburgh before?’, to which I respond, ‘yes, but not during Fringe’ – and their eyes light up as if they know some secret that I don’t. They’re always so incredibly excited for me, and so I’m looking forward to experiencing something truly unexpected and, at this stage, still incomprehensible to a lil first-timer like myself.

So I’m most looking forward to being able to hopefully also get that sparkle in my eye, and catch that Edinburgh bug that everyone talks about that keeps them coming back year after year.

OH and definitely also getting the opportunity to perform in another country for the first time! You only get that opportunity once hey, and I’m incredibly excited that I get to say it was in Edinburgh that I got to finally do that.

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

I’ll always try to start a Fringe day with a walk, a fresh homemade coffee, and a chapter or two of the book I’m currently reading. That is an incredibly idealised version of how I want my day to start though because if we’re being realistic, it’s probably more like a roll out of bed, a groan as I scan over my body to figure out what muscle group has decided to make itself known to me that morning, and then maybe a consideration of a walk.

I’m excited that Ed Fringe has a whole program of shows that also spans the morning and early afternoon, which we miss out on having in Australia, so I’ll definitely try to include a couple of early shows in my daily schedule. About 3-4 hours pre-show, I’ll then start the process of getting into my Goody face, which can take anywhere from 1.5 to 2 and a bit hours depending on how amenable the makeup is to my level of dexterity and focus that day.

Then I’ll mince about in costume for a bit of pre-show flyering and yapping, run to my venue and set up the show, and I reckon that’ll generally bring me up to the 5-10 minutes before we open the doors for a performance. Post-show? Whatever shenanigans the night wants to offer for me to indulge in.

And then rinse and repeat!

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

I’ve only been to Edinburgh once before, and that was for a very short trip – so I am very keen to discover what eateries will be best for me to frequent for a post-show treat. Or a pre-show treat. Or maybe even a mid-show treat, depending on whether or not my director will allow me to take 2 snack breaks during the show (because yes, we already have one).

Whenever I head to a new city though, I always have to quickly find what is considered the crème de la crème of kebab joints, because if there’s one thing that I like to pair with a cheeky vodka soda, it’s a cheeky kebab. And what’s a Fringe Festival without a spiral potato deep fried on a stick at a reasonable cost of $15 (double it for you UK folks) per potato? LOVE those potatoes, even if they do bankrupt me.

Best thing about performing at the fringe?

The unpredictability of how and where your day is going to end up! Particularly with regards to the audiences you’ll get to perform for that day. I’ve stopped trying to anticipate what sort of crowd I might get and just go with the flow instead; sometimes you might have the tiniest but most attentive and reactive group of people ever, and sometimes you might have a packed house full of people who really have you questioning whether or not you need to pull out the venue’s emergency defibrillator, they’re that unresponsive.

Also, just trying to cram in seeing as many shows as possible either side of doing your own performance. That creative osmosis is real, and sometimes seeing the most unexpectedly brilliant show gives you that burst of creativity or inspiration to try something new in your own. And if you see something that… well… might leave you wanting a bit more? GREAT burst of confidence to feel good about your own work!

What is the hardest part about performing at the Fringe?

Also, the unpredictability of how and where your day is going to go tbh. Trying to muster up the energy to spend a couple of hours getting into makeup when you’ve only got 3 tickets booked, or persevere with flyering when everyone’s giving you that vacant, glazed look, or knowing that your body is trying to fight a bug (not the fun Edinburgh Fringe-style bug, but the a-comedian-definitely-gave-me-this-at-the-artist-bar-last-night sort of a bug) when you have 4 more performances to smash out that week.

Also, last Fringe I had in Adelaide, I got a bunch of my costumes stolen from my hotel’s laundry on the same morning I found out I won a weekly award and received a ★★★★★ review – how do you even begin to reconcile all of those conflicting emotions??

And if you’re just having one of those days, sometimes it really helps to be able to cling on to a bit of predictability, especially when you can often be so far away from home, your support networks, and your own bed.

Do you bring anything special from home to make it feel more special whilst you are away?

Ok so the home comforts that I like to tour with range anywhere from bringing my own pillow or one of my favourite plants on the road with me, to setting up an air fryer in the hotel bathroom; but given I have a very limited luggage allowance on top of the costuming and props that I have to bring over, and I’m not sure customs will allow me to bring foreign vegetation onto UK soil, I feel like I’m going to have to be a bit more creative with my special choices for Edinburgh.

One of my set pieces in the show already includes a collage of photos, memories, and personal trinkets that definitely helps keep me anchored to home during each performance, but in a similar vein I always travel with my film camera and my journal, which also has lil notes and keepsakes stowed away between the pages that I like to revisit now and again.

What are your best hacks to save money whilst at the Fringe?

Huge fan of taking a nap. Can’t spend money if you’re not awake right? Though we must eat. So with that in mind, on my last trip to the UK, those Tesco lunch meal deals really went down a treat, so I will undoubtedly be making the most of those once again over the course of the festival.

There’s also always the classic ‘you should meal prep!!’ and ‘share collective meals with the people you’re living with!!’ hacks, but as someone who suffers from a large case of being seasoned with a little too much neurospice, advice like that truly does not go far when you’re dealing with a Fringe show schedule at the same time.

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

A 750ml (minimum) water bottle which is capable of holding a bottle of wine if needed

A bottle of garlic and echinacea tablets

A jar of Laoganma crispy chilli oil

And (maybe this is cheating because you only asked for 3 but I feel like you should also have an option which doesn’t involve some form of bottle); a banana and a carrot, which is a perfectly paired on-the-go snack.

What’s the secret to successful flyering?

Let them come to you. I think we’re all a little too conditioned from refusing food delivery service voucher hander-outers that whenever a piece of paper is thrust in our faces on the street, we revert to that lil automatic ‘no thanks’ hand raise.

But give someone a reason to come over to you, inspire a bit of intrigue. Give them a reason to be interested in what you’re touting. It’s a tough lesson to have learned across many years of touring shows, but people don’t actually owe you anything; even taking your flyer. So make them want it.

That is a little easier said than done coming from someone who has the benefit of walking around in a face full of drag clown makeup, but hey – it’s never too late to incorporate a bit of clownery in your show.

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

For show-related stuff, I would love to keep in touch with folks through Goody (@goodyprostate) or our company’s (@arypresentation) socials!

If you want to stay updated on the mundanity of my government-name life, feel free to check out what’s going on over at @ryanstewart.au.

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

I’m going to pull the classic parent card here and say because I said. But nah let’s be honest, that never really worked for me and I doubt it does for you. So we’ll go with; it’ll get silly.

Thank you again for all your support in reading and engaging with the website.

If you want to help support the website then you can! You can buy Holly a cup of tea (and a biscuit!)