EDINBURGH 2023: Sofie Hagen Q&A

BWW caught up with Sofie Hagen to chat about bringing Banglord to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Banglord.

I haven't had sex (in the classic sense, I guess) in a while. A while. The kind of while that's tricky to say because you usually have people saying 'awww'. The go-to joke would be to say 'and it's by choice - everyone else's!' but that wouldn't totally be true. I think I'm just really bad at intimacy. But I'm on a journey to figure it all out. And I want to tell people about it. About how I accidentally hired a sex worker and how I tried dating and maybe also about having one or two affairs. 

Is it scary delving into themes that you haven't really heard other comics cover?

I think 'not having sex' and 'jokes' have always been friendly with each other. I can think of many comedians who've done 'oh I just can't get laid' jokes. But either they're lying (I see them at the bars flirting with their fans) or... No, they're lying, they're always lying. But also, my topic is about more than just the good ol' bang-bang (as I think the cool kids call it now). The problem isn't that 'no one wants to do it with me'... It's that I go too crazy. I get too intense. I get scared when people pout their lips. That's what I want to discuss.

Do you feel you're in a place now career wise where you don't have the same pressure to have a completely polished perfect Fringe show that *needs* to be reviewed in all the broadsheets?

Is there still pressure to take a completely polished perfect fringe show to Edinburgh? Yes, that will ALWAYS be there. People are buying tickets and choosing to see me over so many other shows. I very much owe it to the audience to have a completely finished show. But I'm probably at a point in my career where my 90% finished is a lot better than 2015 me's 90% finished. And also - I don't ever see a show as 100% finished. There's ALWAYS stuff you can do better. Always. 

Does it need to be reviewed by all the broadsheets? 

Only if they like it and only for my ego's sake. I think a lot of us see press attention as us being relevant and I think a lot of us fear not being relevant any longer. Or maybe I'm projecting.

Who tends to come and see you and why is that important to you?

I often do shows where the bar or venue staff come backstage and say 'Wow, they're so NICE!' and I love that. Just, nice people. I have people saying they will happily go alone to my shows without fearing being ridiculed by anyone. That's massively important to me. I've sat in shows with a lot bigger audiences than I'll ever have and thought 'yeah but these people are all pricks'. I'd rather have fewer people but they're nice than thousands of people but they're all arseholes. I mean, in a perfect world I'd have thousands of nice people, but let's be happy with what we have.

What are the benefits of performing at Monkey Barrel?

The cave that we use as a performers' space is definitely haunted, which is kind of cool. But maybe more importantly, the staff is paid and treated fairly. The performers get a fair split. I asked them if they could make some fat friendly seats available for my fat audience members and they just did it and thanked me for letting them know it was necessary. There's a reason it keeps growing and there's a reason they have some of (if not) THE best lineups. You can go into any Monkey Barrel venue and spend the entire day and you'll have seen some amazing shows. But the ghost in the cave is also pretty cool.

What would you like audiences to take away from Banglord?

It's a room that seats about 140 people, I think. If I don't get at least 10 DMs after each show offering me sex, I'm going to be livid. I'll, of course, say no to all of them because I'm not a creep, but hey, it doesn't hurt being asked.

Who else are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?

I changed my train ticket so I could go up a day earlier, just so I can be there for the first shows of Daniel Foxx and Jodie Mitchell. They're both debuting and both of their shows (Jodie Mitchell - becoming John Travulva and Daniel Foxx - Villain) are amazing.

I've just signed on to direct Jodie's show, but that was an easy decision because the show is already so good, I don't really have to do much. Daniel was my support act throughout my tour last year and I saw him get better and better up until his first preview where I had goosebumps several times.

I'm super curious about Mary O'Connell's debut show too. We did a batshit crazy TV show together last year and it's my understanding that she'll be talking about it - and as someone who was very much there to observe some of the crazy, I can't wait to hear her side of the story.

I'm also excited to see Mike Birbiglia, just because I've seen all of his shows a million times but only seen him live twice before and never in the UK. 

And I've got tickets for Helen Bauer, Viggo Venn, Celya AB, Janine Harouni and my friend Chris Grace's first solo Edinburgh show.

I also heard about a show called Scaredy Fat, which is about how fatness is displayed in horror films, so I'm watching that too.

This year I'm not gigging on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because I want to see more shows than I did last year. It's my favourite thing about Edinburgh.

So the shows mentioned are hopefully just a small percentage of what I'll end up watching.

Tickets are available here: 

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