EDINBURGH 2019: Tom Taylor Q&A

BWW catches up with Tom Taylor to chat about bringing Tom Taylor: Is The Indie Feel-Good Hit Of The Summer to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Tom Taylor: Is The Indie Feel-Good Hit Of The Summer.
This is my first hour of stand-up at the Fringe and the culmination of working very hard for the last year and working in sporadic bursts for the few years preceding that. Essentially it's an hour of short jokes, some of which I say, some of which I sing. The key is that I really love the jokes, it's the sort of stuff I find funny and I think that helps create the feel-good, joyful vibe I'm going for. Plus there are loads of them, about three a minute.

Where else might we know you from?
I've been lucky enough to pop up on Radio 4 a few times as part of their New Comedy Award. Two-time semi-finalist. Always the bridesmaid, never one of the six brides who make the final. I've also done two one-man plays, the Charlie Montague Mysteries, which I brought to Edinburgh in 2016 and 2017 and then toured. Plus my day job, so to speak, is to perform stand-up at comedy clubs up and down the country so you might have seen me peddling my wares at one of those? I really like it when an audience member who saw you try and contain a stag-do on a Saturday night in Nottingham comes along to Edinburgh to see what your prepared jokes are like.

How are you feeling about making your standup debut and do you expect it to be different than bringing comedic plays to the festival?
I'm excited! I've always been a stand-up first and a comedic-player / actor second so this show has been brewing for a while now and I'm really happy with how it's turned out and where I am as a comedian right now, it definitely takes a good few years to find your voice. The main difference and (enjoyable) challenge has been structuring the show. The plays were both murder mysteries so the narrative structure was very clear. Somebody's dead, who did it? Nobody dies in this show - at least that's the intention - and I'm not telling a story so I've been working really hard on flow and rhythm to help create the best show I can and not just a disjointed jumble of jokes. Though a disjointed jumble also sounds fun.

Who would you recommend comes to see it?
Anyone! If you like jokes, some of which are very silly, I think you'll like it. There isn't a sad bit, there's no politics, I don't want to offend anyone, I just want you to laugh for an hour.

Are there any other shows you're hoping to catch in Edinburgh?
I try and see as much as my fairly hectic schedule allows. I was part of four shows last year and I'm doing Indie Feel-Good plus two others this year. My top three faves from last year were a play by husband and wife team Rob Rouse and Helen Rutter at Gilded Balloon, plus Lou Sanders and Jen Brister who are both at Monkey Barrel. They're all back this year so I'm excited to see what new mischief they're up to.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/tom-taylor-is-the-indie-feel-good-hit-of-the-summer

Photo credit: Steve Ullathorne

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