Richard Todd performs in his new show, We Need The Eggs, at Pleasance Courtyard’s Attic, during August.
- What is your Fringe show about?
It is about the obsessive pursuit of absurd ideals in spite history and experience telling you they will end in failure, and the perpetual resurrection of hope. It was going to be a valedictory show about disillusionment and acceptance (aimed at introverted, navel gazers looking for an icon to replace Morrissey), but then the writing rekindled my ambitions and before I could say 'hang on a second, let me check my bank balance' I had PR, a room at the Pleasance and enough debt to make a pipe dream feel loved again.
- How many times/many years have you appeared at the Fringe?
I have been coming to the fringe since I started comedy: a couple of compilation shows, a couple of double headers and two solo shows. And have always had fun. But this year, being on the paid fringe, it will be harder to look upon the empty seats as a boon to air circulation and temperature, though they clearly are. Like a precious flower, or a block of cheese, my performance requires a carefully maintained temperature to flourish.
- What’s your most memorable moment from the Fringe?
Once, in a particularly hot room, I built a fan during my performance (I had spotted the boxed appliance backstage before I went on). Upon my finishing the construction, and plugging it in, a woman in the audience patted an empty seat alongside her. I sat down and we watched the whirring fan oscillate from side to side. The audience were hugely receptive to his schtick. It was not the performer they wanted, but the one they needed.
- What’s the worst thing about the Fringe?
The cost. Performers are so important to the festival but come back with so much debt. And yet they need it too much to make any kind of stand against it.
- If you were not a performer what would you be doing?
I have never been particularly good a planning. I started stand-up to showcase my abilities as a writer, with the hope of employment behind the scenes, but that opportunity has not transpired, so I continue performing (like most things that are bad for you, it is quite addictive).
- How do you prepare for a performance?
I try to focus on fun rather than the words: a joyous hour with some rough edges is preferable to a badly performed recital. Waddling around outside the venue I smoke a single roll up, like a condemned man enjoying a last request, then I have a priest pray for me and a guard walk me to the stage, whereupon, after an apology to impending victims, I plunge towards the mic. And then things get really upsetting. I mean fun.
- Favourite thing about being in Edinburgh?
Walking everywhere. Living in London most destinations require transport. Sauntering from one end of the city to the other is a joy. Especially when the city is so picturesque. Oh and The Waverly bar, it is now a fringe venue (the owner passed away and it is under new ownership), but it used to be a lovely traditional pub untouched by the fringe. With free crisps. Horrible but free! Nom nom urgh… How much? Ah! Nom nom…
- What’s the most Scottish thing you’ve ever done?
I assisted on several of the Glaswegian pedestrian Alasdair Gray's murals, and while they themselves were not overtly Scottish, they will, hopefully, be part of Scotland's culture for years to come, along with a couple of stylised portraits of me (one, on the ceiling of Glasgow's Oran Mor, as a slightly pantomime-looking Orion; maybe Alasdair was thinking of the Scottish actor Richard Todd as Robin Hood when he painted it. I am clad in tights and neither of my swords looks particularly potent).
- Favourite Scottish food/drink?
Haggis, neeps and tatties, AKA turnip, potato and…and haggis. What is haggis? I faintly recall reading Fuzzbuzz remedial books at infant school, some of which featured a haggis and gave the impression it was a cute living creature living in the Highlands of Scotland. But no, it is not. Imagine my initial disappointment on Burn's night.
- Sum up your show in three words
BIG FREUDIN SLIP.
Show summary
An artist draws the same image repeatedly with indomitable zeal. A convenience shopkeeper eschews convenience to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.
Richard Todd performs in his new show, We Need The Eggs, at Pleasance Courtyard’s Attic, during August. For tickets, please visit www.edfringe.com
You can follow Richard on Twitter at @richardtoddtodd
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