EDINBURGH 2018: Interview: Anna Morris

BWW catches up with comedian and actress Anna Morris to chat about performing Bombastic at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

How would you describe your show Bombastic?

Bombastic is a 'best of' show and its a compilation of my favourite characters over four sell-out shows. That actually goes back to 2012 when I did my first show so I've actually picked two characters from that show because I love those characters.

I did that show six years ago at the Voodoo Rooms and it was so long ago that I decided I just wanted to celebrate all of the shows that I've done.

What I've ended up doing is pulling out my favourite characters and actually adding loads of new stuff. I didn't think I would and thought I'd just take those monologues but I've realised that loads of them are actually more topical now than they were and I've reframed them into different contexts to make them a bit more fresh.

It's basically a show that I really enjoy because I'm doing my favourite characters and I'm having fun with it. I figured that if I'm having fun with it, the audience are having fun with it. It's got a lot of improv in it so it's a little bit different every day.

I read that this is maybe your last show?

It might be.

I don't know yet. I feel like I'm really pleased with my shows but I have been quite burnt out with my live shows. I had this thing in Australia that you might have read about where I did a show in Perth and I lost $5,000 which is about three grand. I only did a two-week run and it sold really well and I worked really hard. I don't regret it because I had an amazing time, met some amazing people and went to the beach so I can't complain because I was out in the sunshine in February.

The company went into liquidation and never paid me. It sort of knocked my confidence because it is demoralising. You kind of go "why am I doing this?". The main problem I have with live shows is that venues take a cut and obviously your producers take a cut and I've got a very good producer so obviously that's fine. Often when you've paid your tech and you've paid your expenses and travel, actually you either don't get that much at all or you make a loss.

I just found this year really really tough. I feel like its just chipping away at me but actually coming back here has been really helpful because I've fallen in love with performing again. My audiences are lovely, I'm having a great time and this is why I do it.

You kind of have to keep doing it to remember why you're doing it. It might well be my last show but maybe I'll take a different direction next year. I love theatre, that's my background and what I studied so I'm thinking of possibly doing a one-woman play or maybe something for someone else. I'm not sure yet but I just think that could be a really interesting direction for me. Just to not have the pressure of constant gags and for people not to come in expecting to laugh all the time. We'll see.

Your tweet about not having PR this year did very well didn't it?

It did really well! I was just sort of at home having a panic. It's overwhelming doing the Fringe for lots of reasons but you start to see all your friends and lots of people getting loads of press and you go "oh shit, I should have got PR". I have had PR a couple of times and it's great when you have it because you get interviews beforehand and you can get coverage during and it feels really nice.

Whether it helps with ticket sales I'm not sure because I don't know if you really can quantify it. This year I couldn't afford it because of the thing with what happened in Perth. I just put it out into the universe and I've had like 300 retweets. I never get that many retweets because I'm not on Twitter a lot and I don't know what I'm doing. It's all just promo stuff and I'm really bad at it.

It just shows how nice people are and how they're happy to help. My audience have been putting reviews on the Edfringe website which is really sweet. I don't get reviewed a lot and when I do its great and I can put them on the poster and flyers but knowing that audiences are doing it is lovely. I think people are just kind.

Advertising as well is just another load of money. There's not one poster of me around Edinburgh. There are only six posters and they're in this venue. If I was paying to have them around the city it would cost thousands and I feel like I have no presence but then I do because I have an audience and they come and they're really loyal.

Twitter @annamorriscomic

Do you know where your audience come from?

Yeah, I think word of mouth is the main thing, they tell me as they're coming out of the show. They'll say that their friends came yesterday and it builds from that. So my audience should start to grow. I get loads of people I recognise now. I'm quite good with faces. Other people get flyered or they're in the venue and they see the posters. It's a really nice mix of people. Most times people have read the flyer and they know what they're in for.

Where do your characters come from?

They start off with voices and mannerisms definitely. I'll pick up on it and start mimicking it and think something is an interesting turn of phrase or way of talking. The Australian character, I've been in Australia quite a lot both travelling and doing shows and I picked up on a certain laid-back way of talking. Then I try and fit them into a world.

So Georgina was based on a conversation I heard in a cafe with a guy who was so posh that I couldn't actually understand what he was saying. He was so rude to the waiter and I was really embarrassed listening to him. So I found his voice hilarious and put it into a character and then again I was like, where would you put her? I'd been to loads of weddings and it just fitted that everything had to be perfect and she was very passive aggressive.

Has the audience participation ever gone horrendously wrong?

I wouldn't say horrendously wrong.

Most of the time I'm pretty good at picking the right people. Don't ask me how because I don't know if its body language or a smile on the face. The guy I picked at the front today was the right look but when I started interacting with him he looked a bit shy and I just picked up that he was going to be a bit embarrassed but then when I went to the back of the room that other guy I picked just seemed quite confident so my brain just went "him!".

There was one when I was in Australia and it was a weird show because it was mostly women. It was my first week in Adelaide and there weren't many guys to pick from. They were either much older than the Simon character would have been or really young. I picked out this guy who was like eighteen and he was really drunk and I could smell the vodka off him. He was very drunk and quite hard to control and during the first dance, he got quite hands on.

It's actually quite disturbing and not a very nice story but when nobody was looking he grabbed my butt. Its a really weird thing because I didn't know what to do because I was onstage. My brain wasn't working quickly enough to say that was unacceptable. I just got through that bit and then got rid of him. My tech said afterwards that the guy was weird. When I told him he was furious and I said I should have told him and we should have stopped the show but I just didn't know what to do. I did that awful stupid thing of thinking "is this my fault" because I was performing but oh my god no. I've been very wary and I've made decisions about what I'm going to do if that happens again.

Occasionally I've somebody interact and they've been very difficult and I've replaced someone before. Because my characters are so high status I can just go "sit back down". It's hard to tell someone off if you're quite low status but my characters are so high status so you can just go "don't be a dick".

Would you ever do straight stand-up?

I would love to do that, I really would.

I think if I did I would probably do a course to learn structure and do a showcase. If I did a showcase I wouldn't tell any of my friends, I'd keep it really low key. It's such a different form I'd have to keep it separate.

I'd probably have quite a few things I'd want to talk about but I don't know what my style would be. I definitely think I'll do it one day but I'll just not tell anyone because it's too much pressure. I'll probably be rubbish at first and then get better but if I hated it I wouldn't do it again.

Are you touring Bombastic?

I don't know yet! My producer is in charge of that. Because its character comedy I don't tend to do a lot of tours because I don't know where to fit my stuff. If you're doing stand-up it is much easier to tour. My shows aren't always easy to sell to venues because they're like "characters? what?". So it isn't always easy for me to tour but I do have venues that like me and get my stuff. I'm also not a big high profile name. I have obviously got tv credits now which is great and has helped a little bit but I kind of need to build my profile a bit.

What question are you sick of being asked in interviews?

I'm really sick, and it's not anyone's fault and I understand why they're asking it, but being asked the question about women being funny.

In loads of interviews, there's a question about women in comedy and I totally get that and its a perfectly valid question. I often get a question that is like, "are women on tv enough", "are women funny"- I totally get all these questions but the more that we keep questioning it the more we're not normalising it. If you just interview me like you would a man then you're not making a big deal of the fact that I'm a woman.

I get why people ask me questions about being a woman and I will answer them but I do have this slight problem now with constantly questioning it you're putting it into peoples heads that it's not normal. There's no difference, it's just comedy. It annoys me that my male comedian friends just get asked questions about their comedy whereas I do interviews where the whole thing is about me being a woman but I'm doing the same thing that person is doing. I was actually asked in an interview "when do you think it will be equal for women in comedy" and I said, "when you stop asking questions like that". They didn't publish it!

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/anna-morris-bombastic

Photo credit: Karla Gowlett