Ele McKenzie to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut With BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
The comedian's Pleasance debut explores arrested development, inspired by moving back in with her parents.
Royal Television Society Breakthrough Award winner and Pleasance Comedy Reserve alum Ele McKenzie will bring her debut stand-up show Bringing It All Back Home to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer.
The show title nods to Bob Dylan's iconic album, and Ele has, quite literally, brought it all back home. At 30, she found herself moving back in with her parents (they're thrilled!), a recognisable and relatable modern predicament: reaching a milestone in adulthood only to end up back where you started. She's grateful for the safety net, but painfully aware of how far reality has drifted from the plan, a feeling sharpened by friends, and a twin brother (an unhelpfully direct comparison), whose lives appear to be progressing nicely.
As such, Bringing It All Back Home leans into the idea of 'arrested development,' conceived in the liminal space of Ele's childhood bedroom (now, once again, her present), where teenage paraphernalia sits uneasily alongside adult expectations and progress feels uncertain at best. It traces the slow realisation that growing up is not a clean transition, but something messier, stranger, and more circular than we're often led to believe.
On stage, Ele embodies a persona she describes as 'a sort of horny teenage boy in the body of an adult woman'. The result is a show that is candid, chaotic, laced with a level of tragic pathos, and unafraid to overshare.
Ele McKenzie is an RTS award-winning actor, comedian and writer. She is a Pleasance Comedy Reserve alum and can be seen in Dave's Live at the Moth Club, Channel 4's Finding Father Christmas, BAFTA-nominated Peaked and Everyone Else Burns, and BBC's Funboys.
She originally trained as an actor through youth theatre across London, including the Lyric Hammersmith's rep company, where she was introduced to comedian Ellie White, who encouraged her to try live comedy. She began performing at The Paddock at The Bill Murray, developing her distinctive and offbeat voice in a space that embraced new and experimental work, before becoming a regular at the acclaimed Knock2bag gig at London's iconic MOTH Club. The show is directed by Alex Cartlidge and Will Farrell.
Ele McKenzie: Bringing It All Back Home performs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 5th - 30th August.
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