Tania Edwards talks about NOT MY DOG coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Name: Tania Edwards
Name of Edinburgh show: Tania Edwards: Not My Dog
Venue: Just The Tonic at The Mash House (The Snifter Room)
Performance time: 1 hour
Show length: 1 hour
Ticket price: £5 in advance or Pay What You Want at the venue

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your performing background?
I’m a stand up. I tell jokes to buy more talking time. I’m from a family of talkers. If you pause for breath (or wine) someone else leaps in. We can be destroyed by three monosyllabic answers in a row.

Tell me about your show, what’s it all about?
It’s about the space between the truth and its telling. I’m interested in how we build narratives, especially now that everyone is constructing and reconstructing themselves for social media. It’s good to have a witness to your life. But it also makes you vulnerable. Vulnerable is funny. Losing control is funny. Life is trial and error, or if you’re a comic, trial and material.

How long have you been working on this show and what is it that makes it relevant to audiences in 2018?
I’ve been testing my material on audiences and unsuspecting friends for a while. It’s in this year’s programme which makes it very 2018. It’s funny which makes it relevant for anyone looking for comedy. Or anyone looking for tragedy I guess: there’s nothing more tragic than being stuck in the wrong kind of show for an hour.

Do you have any top tips for surviving the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – both for performers and visitors to the event?
If you’re a performer – come and see my show. If you’re a visitor – come and see my show. I’ve never actually been to the Festival as a punter. I can’t even go to the circus without wanting to creep into the ring.

What has been the funniest or most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you on stage?
Anything funny or embarrassing you use. It’s a free laugh. Genuine humiliation only comes with death. Dying is agony. It feels more painful the less it happens. Maybe that’s not true, maybe you’ve simply forgotten. When it comes there’s always a moment of hope – that the mic is broken, or the audience has been taken hostage – but you’re never that lucky. You know you’ve made it when the audience has no idea you’re dying and just figures you’re shit.

Who are your biggest inspirations in the industry and why?
I love Luke McQueen. He really does not give a ****. I’m a whore for a laugh. I’m impatient. He can play the spaces between laughs for laughs. That’s really great. There was a double act called Toby, I once saw them split a room so masterfully I laughed till I cried and lost a contact lens. Great writers like Sara Pascoe, Julian Deane and Katherine Ryan. Acts with something to say, like Tiff Stevenson and Reg D. Hunter. Comics with real charisma like Lou Sanders and Danny Ward. Tom Allen. I’m crazy about Scott Capurro. How much room have you got?

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
I’ve had them all. I wasted months on lucky t-shirts. I wasted a year on lucky socks. I’m still wasting time on the idea of luck.

What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at Edinburgh Fringe?
Danny Ward, Katherine Ryan, Reg D. Hunter, Lou Sanders, Lazy Susan.

Why do you think people should come and see your show over the thousands of others on at the Fringe?
I don’t – I think they should come and see mine first.

Catch Tania Edwards brand new show ‘Not My Dog’ at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe at Just The Tonic, Snifter Room at 3:15pm from 2 to 26 August (not 13).

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