It is August which only means one thing – it is Camden Fringe time! Over the next few weeks we are chatting to acts that are performing at the festival and finding all about their show and what they would call this years iconic Camden Fringe Pigeon! Today we find out about the show Cornershop Showdown.

Date: 10th-12th, 14th August
Time: 19:00 / 21:30
Price: £10 Concession £8
Location: Camden Comedy Club

Ticket Link:https://camdenfringe.com/events/cornershop-showdown/

---

Tell us a little bit about your style of show?

Gleefully shambolic. It’s a love letter to the dreadful-yet-strangely-compelling gameshows of the 1970s. It’s a working gameshow, with contestants selected from audience members, competing to win awful 1970s prizes. Really, though, the story is of one man attempting to hold an increasingly chaotic show together, and hopefully triumphing against the odds. But it’s anyone’s game at this stage.

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

Crowd Work with President Obonjo looks wild. https://camdenfringe.com/events/crowd-work-with-president-obonjo/

I’m also excited to see some improv – I used to be in an improv troupe when I lived in the states (audiences there were vastly more forgiving) and one of the things I love about my new show (BACK TO ME GUYS) is that finally I’ve found a format that allows me to do a bit of improv.

How are rehearsals going?

Very well. This is a lie. We haven’t done any yet. We’re planning an intense retreat at some point in May. I HAVE done one proof-of-concept performance, which was great. It was in the back room of a flat-roof pub, filled with blokes clutching their pints and staring, glassy-eyed at the sport on the TV. We hadn’t even advertised the show, so suddenly we were clapping our hands together and saying, ‘OK, guys! That’s enough of the FOOTBALL, time for us to do our COMEDY SHOW!!!’ and they looked at us like they were weighing up whether it was worth spilling their remaining lager in order to glass us. But – BUT – we won the room! In the end, they were all shouting the catchphrases, and encouraging on the contestants, and I thought, wow, if we can win a room like that, even with about 85 per cent of the show going wrong, this format is pretty bomb-proof.

What is the best thing about performing at the Camden fringe?

Camden! It’s one of my favourite places on earth. I was lucky enough to live in Camden for a few months once, and I never tired of walking around. It’s such a brilliant petri-dish of people who have conspicuously spent a long time working on their appearance, and then tried very hard to look as if they don’t give a f***. And the market and the canal! I played the Camden Fringe in, er, 2015, and it was fantastic. I have taken a ten year hiatus from live performing, so it’s really exciting to be getting back into it. And I wouldn’t, if I hadn’t landed on this idea. 

London can be an expensive place to perform in – what key advice would you give to performers that is a sort of life hack?

Get an old 1-litre soft drink bottle, add 125g sugar, some lemon juice, and top up with water. Shake until the sugar is dissolved. Add about half a teaspoon of standard baker’s yeast like you’d buy in Tesco’s. Leave for a week, with the cap on but loose, so the CO2 can escape. Refrigerate for 24 hours and you have completely delicious, hard lemonade that’s about 5-6% alcohol, for about 20p a litre. You’re WELCOME. (You should probably google more info on this before you try it and I accept no responsibility for any blindness that ensues)

Who would be your ultimate dream audience member?

For this show? Ted Rogers. He hosted 3-2-1 back in the seventies, and I was obsessed with that tv show. It’s a large part of the inspiration for Cornershop Showdown. Ted was extraordinary. Constantly operating at the absolute ceiling of his ability, and yet somehow still dreadful. And weirdly passive-aggressive. I find him completely fascinating. I am being harsh on him, but I’d like him to see what it can be like if you let go and stop trying to control everything.

 

The iconic image of the Camden Fringe is the Pigeon – if you could call this years pigeon a name to represent its style what would it be and why?

Well, I’ve had a look, and it’s rather full-on, isn’t it? The chain and padlock around the neck. I mean, crikey. What’s going on there. If there’s some sort of sub-thing going on there, I think I’d be more comfortable if it was a man. So I’ll go with Richard Dinnings MP. MP for Camden South.

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

I’m @jakeyapp on Instagram, and the show is @Cornershop_Showdown – thank you! Come and say hello. I am wildly unpopular, so, you know, I’ll definitely notice you.

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!)