Vile Blog Interview Full Text
Why the fringe?
I could list the known facts about the Fringe concerning its size, history, variety, diversity, etc ... what's astonishing and attractive to me about the Fringe is the combination of those things with the democratic nature of the event. There is a real opportunity for unknown talents to distinguish themselves ... and this goes deeper than getting good reviews or awards. There is an access available at the Fringe -- a setting in which any artist who can get himself into the festival has the opportunity to work with the best performers in the world -- which doesn't exist elsewhere. Presenting one's own material in this context is its own honor and challenge, but in many ways, the best part of the Fringe is the chance to do unplanned gigs ... I did an open spot on the Set List last year, and Rich Hall had gone one or two spots before me. A lot of the booked performers stayed to watch the open show, and people stayed after and talked about comedy -- not careers -- but comedy qua comedy. A real global community coalesces for three weeks, offering incomparable opportunities to cultivate one's creativity.
What influences your storytelling?
My life. I don't want to give anything away about my show, but the general rule is: "when Ashley suffers, everybody laughs." More specifically, I like to be transported into someone else's experience of an event when I go to a show. And because I'm a pathological over-thinker, I process things at a different speed than most people, which is to say, more slowly. If I restricted my stories to major plot points, they'd barely fill five minutes, but the style of delivery is elaboration to the point of distraction ... which if I do it right, puts the audience in my head for a little while, and how I get myself into those situations suddenly makes a crazy kind of sense. Richard Pryor's work was underpinned by a profound vulnerability and an unflinching emotional honesty ... he's my comedy hero and my biggest influence.
What will make this show stand out this year?
I think as a cross between stand-up and storytelling, what I do occupies a territory that hasn't quite been defined yet. I really think that my show can work in a club, concert, or theatre setting. Someone just has to let those different audiences know they have some likes in common -- me, I guess. For people who find comedy too frivolous and drama too heavy, I think my show will be very rewarding. I actually tried to enter under the theatre category this year, because last year I found myself having to warm the audience up with jokes before launching into my stories. Comedy audiences generally need quick gratification up front to have confidence in a performer, whereas theatre audiences are accustomed to delayed gratification. My request to enter under the theatre category was declined, however, along with a very helpful definition from PBH: "three (or however many) stories by themselves aren't theatre section; a play with a plot and action would be." I briefly considered asking him for his definition of "fringe," and whether any part of it contained the notion of "a place to experiment with form and presentation," but then I thought, "why waste a comeback on an email, when I can save it for an interview ...." In other news, German Expressionism has been banned from the Free Fringe theatre section.
Why work with comedy rather than a more serious emphasis?
Since when is comedy not serious? Have all the colors of human emotion, expression, and experience been ranked in order of seriousness and I wasn't told? Have we also decided that "seriousness" is the measure of a thing's value? Gee, I've missed so much ... so what came in first? Interpretive danse? Opera? Are we sick of Hamlet yet, or did tragedy win again? Ooh wait, I know, is it something intellectual and self-aggrandizing like Tom Stoppard? Did the people who like to congratulate themselves for getting all his references vote Stoppard into the top spot? Kabuki? Is it Kabuki?
Is there anything in your work that reflects an American aesthetic?
Vascularity. It's not a thing in the UK, as far as I can tell, but it's really become the name of the game in the States in the past few years, and personally, I can't get enough of it. I LOVE it. MMM-MMMH!
I could list the known facts about the Fringe concerning its size, history, variety, diversity, etc ... what's astonishing and attractive to me about the Fringe is the combination of those things with the democratic nature of the event. There is a real opportunity for unknown talents to distinguish themselves ... and this goes deeper than getting good reviews or awards. There is an access available at the Fringe -- a setting in which any artist who can get himself into the festival has the opportunity to work with the best performers in the world -- which doesn't exist elsewhere. Presenting one's own material in this context is its own honor and challenge, but in many ways, the best part of the Fringe is the chance to do unplanned gigs ... I did an open spot on the Set List last year, and Rich Hall had gone one or two spots before me. A lot of the booked performers stayed to watch the open show, and people stayed after and talked about comedy -- not careers -- but comedy qua comedy. A real global community coalesces for three weeks, offering incomparable opportunities to cultivate one's creativity.
What influences your storytelling?
My life. I don't want to give anything away about my show, but the general rule is: "when Ashley suffers, everybody laughs." More specifically, I like to be transported into someone else's experience of an event when I go to a show. And because I'm a pathological over-thinker, I process things at a different speed than most people, which is to say, more slowly. If I restricted my stories to major plot points, they'd barely fill five minutes, but the style of delivery is elaboration to the point of distraction ... which if I do it right, puts the audience in my head for a little while, and how I get myself into those situations suddenly makes a crazy kind of sense. Richard Pryor's work was underpinned by a profound vulnerability and an unflinching emotional honesty ... he's my comedy hero and my biggest influence.
What will make this show stand out this year?
I think as a cross between stand-up and storytelling, what I do occupies a territory that hasn't quite been defined yet. I really think that my show can work in a club, concert, or theatre setting. Someone just has to let those different audiences know they have some likes in common -- me, I guess. For people who find comedy too frivolous and drama too heavy, I think my show will be very rewarding. I actually tried to enter under the theatre category this year, because last year I found myself having to warm the audience up with jokes before launching into my stories. Comedy audiences generally need quick gratification up front to have confidence in a performer, whereas theatre audiences are accustomed to delayed gratification. My request to enter under the theatre category was declined, however, along with a very helpful definition from PBH: "three (or however many) stories by themselves aren't theatre section; a play with a plot and action would be." I briefly considered asking him for his definition of "fringe," and whether any part of it contained the notion of "a place to experiment with form and presentation," but then I thought, "why waste a comeback on an email, when I can save it for an interview ...." In other news, German Expressionism has been banned from the Free Fringe theatre section.
Why work with comedy rather than a more serious emphasis?
Since when is comedy not serious? Have all the colors of human emotion, expression, and experience been ranked in order of seriousness and I wasn't told? Have we also decided that "seriousness" is the measure of a thing's value? Gee, I've missed so much ... so what came in first? Interpretive danse? Opera? Are we sick of Hamlet yet, or did tragedy win again? Ooh wait, I know, is it something intellectual and self-aggrandizing like Tom Stoppard? Did the people who like to congratulate themselves for getting all his references vote Stoppard into the top spot? Kabuki? Is it Kabuki?
Is there anything in your work that reflects an American aesthetic?
Vascularity. It's not a thing in the UK, as far as I can tell, but it's really become the name of the game in the States in the past few years, and personally, I can't get enough of it. I LOVE it. MMM-MMMH!