Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: Home Sweet Home is on at Gilded Balloon Teviot - The Turret, during August.
- What is your Fringe show about?
‘Home Sweet Home’ is about being an adult who still lives at home with his mum and dad. 4.3 million people in Britain are in the exact same boat. If I wanted someone to come see it, I’d tell them it was about my parents and my girlfriend. If I wanted someone to go see something else instead, I’d tell them it was about the housing crisis and its effect on the millennial mindset.
- How many times/many years have you appeared at the Fringe?
This is my fourth year in a row doing a show at the Fringe. In musical terms, the years I performed double-handers with Rosco Mcclelland and Ben Pope were split 7-inches, like when Dimmu Borgir and Old Man’s Child shared a record called Sons Of Satan Gather For Attack. Then, the 45-minute solo show I done last year was like an EP, such as The Modern Age by The Strokes or Darts of Pleasure by Franz Ferdinand. This show is my debut album.
- What’s your most memorable moment from the Fringe?
It’s kind of impossible to pinpoint one moment as memorable when you think of the Fringe. It’s got dizzying highs and bends-inducing lows. How can you choose between the amazing shows that sold out and the nights you performed to two people? How can you choose between sharing a stage with your heroes and a whole night spent whiteying into a bin? I remember all of those things.
- What’s the worst thing about the Fringe?
I think the worst thing about the Fringe is how expensive it is. Not only because it puts a dent in my overdraft, but because the financial hurdle is only really an obstacle for people on the working class end of the social spectrum. I’ve been really lucky to have a lot of help and support from companies like Gilded Balloon that have allowed me to perform at the Fringe and develop as a comedian, but a lot of my friends haven’t been quite so fortunate. Marc Jennings once said to me that young English middle-class people go to the Fringe the same way people like me and him went to Magaluf in our teens, and I think that’s very true, very funny, and very sad.
- If you were not a performer what would you be doing?
Rotting in a skip, probably. I could never be a real person. I tried it, and I was bad at it.
- How do you prepare for a performance?
I like to stretch my wee legs out. Fix my hair. Clean my glasses. Contemplate the meaningless nature of existence. Go to the toilet.
- Favourite thing about being in Edinburgh?
The cheeky answer is, ‘it’s proximity to Glasgow’. The real answer is, ‘its breathtaking beauty, its international nature, its alcohol problem, and its unconventional use of space’.
- What’s the most Scottish thing you’ve ever done?
I’d say the most Scottish thing I’ve ever done is be born here, and live here for almost my entire life.
- Favourite Scottish food/drink?
I have an unhealthy relationship with Irn-Bru. Even its new recipe, with its slightly cloying aftertaste and aspartame overtones, makes my heart sing. I can gladly drink eight cans a day without flinching, and that is why I’m having a midlife crisis at 25.
- Sum up your show in three words.
“Worth your while.”
Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: Home Sweet Home is on at Gilded Balloon Teviot - The Turret, during August. For tickets, please visit www.edfringe.com
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