EDINBURGH 2023: Drew Michael Guest Blog

Drew Michael: Drew’s Adventures - Making a difficult and uniquely personal experience relatable.

Relating to people has always been one of the hardest things on earth for me. Growing up with an untreated hearing loss, I was isolated across the board. I harboured an intense desire to relate and to connect, but failed for so long to create a meaningful pathway between myself and the rest of the world. My desire to connect was seen as intense, because it was, and that was alienating, which furthered my sense of isolation, which increased the intensity, and the cycle continued.

This inability to connect has continued throughout my career. The insular nature of my existence has created a sort of barrier around me which has left people feeling like voyeurs to a single experience rather than a part of it, and that has been a struggle for me on - as well as off - stage.

This show, Drew’s Adventures, is the most personal story I’ve shared in my entire career (and life). It’s about what growing up and living this way was really like, at all of its depths. Part of the challenge here is how to take something intensely personal and also quite sad at times and make it funny and entertaining but, more importantly, inviting. I am collaborating with an insanely gifted person (we’ll keep them unnamed for now) who has been instrumental in building that very bridge. We are undergoing the process of staying conscious of how the audience might feel at any given moment and continually trying to let them know they are in good hands. The ways in which we do this I’ll leave as a surprise for anyone who attends, but it has been a learning process for me. 

When you grow up and live inside of your own head for so long, the concept of other people’s experiences is an abstract theoretical rather than a tactile component of reality. And so, while my instinct is to sort of continue the learned solipsism from my past, the challenge, and the goal here, is to keep the channel between me and the audience wide open. We want to invite them to come along for the ride and, yes, some of the journey might be heavy but they should know they are always safe. And as we navigate our way through, the hope is that they are rewarded the same way I was when I lived these experiences.

The show doesn’t require that anyone have any specific experience in order to connect to it as the themes here are very human. Our hope is that people leave the show feeling moved, seen, thoroughly entertained and inspired. It’s a very funny show, it’s just not “only funny.” We are interested in evoking so much more than laughter to create a multi-dimensional experience for everyone who attends. If you do happen to share some literal overlap with me (for example, if you live with hearing loss or grew up in a similar way) of course some of the catharsis might be even more acute, but I truly do not believe it is limited to those people. It’s speaking to a more general humanity through the very specific lens of my life. I truly hope we accomplish our goal and created something people want to step in to because I am so excited to share that journey with people.

Please Love Me will be performed at 8.20pm in Pleasance Dome (Ace Dome) from 2nd – 26th August (Not 7th, 14th or 21st)

Booking link: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/please-love-me

Photo credit: Elizabeth Viggiano

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