EDINBURGH 2025: James Trickey Guest Blog

James Trickey guest blogs for BroadwayWorld ahead of bringing Don't Count On Me To the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

I've sometimes felt that I'm two different people who have been stitched together in some haphazard way. There's a risk-averse, spreadsheet pusher and a fun-loving performer who are constantly fighting each other over every decision I make.

My Mum is from Cambodia and, I have to be honest, she tends to fit some of those strict Asian mum stereotypes that get thrown around. She was hyper focused on making sure I got as stellar an education as possible and was really on top of when I would do my homework and what exam results I would get. It helped that numbers came quite naturally to me, but that was an opportunity my mum saw to push me down that path quite early on.

There'd always been this pressure from my mum to make a lot of money and have what she regarded as a traditionally good life. She also told me when I was about 15 that she was FULLY intending to move in with me well into her later years. So her intent wasn't only to push me into a certain direction so that I would set myself up for a decent life and whatever future family she imagined for me but also so that I could give her a luxurious retirement too!

My Dad is a really old British man, he was 57 when I was born. He's also had quite an interest in my education but in a more "cultural" sense. He used to take me to all the pubs around town, he taught me how to play darts, he introduced me to Rock 'n' Roll specifically from the 50s (because that's when he was a teenager!!).

He also introduced me to comedy. My Dad had quite a collection of old jokes he used to pull out at dinner or in the car, but he also would put me onto his favourite comedy shows or films like 'Laurel and Hardy', 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' or 'Some Like It Hot' to name a few. It's fair to say that he had quite an impact on my sense of humour and taught me an appreciation for comedy.

Now, I've been interested in performing since I was around 10 years old when I'd convinced my parents to let me sign up to this performing arts club in Uxbridge. From as early as that, I'd been pretty determined to get on stage in some capacity with the eventual dream of trying to make a career out of it.

But there was always this uncertainty in the back of my head which used to nag me and basically say, "Mum is right, this is an insanely risky path. The chance you actually make it is super low, you should probably keep going with the maths stuff so you'll have some money when it all goes wrong". So at every point I tried to compromise with myself, my A-Levels were Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Economics and Drama.

I ended up going to university to study Mathematics, not drama school. This time, I allowed myself to join as many performing arts societies as possible and I immediately resonated quite strongly with the Sketch Comedy society, 'The Bristol Revunions'. This was my gateway into deciding I wanted to be a comedian. I did my first ever Edinburgh Fringe with all my friends and was blown away by how much fun I was having and also how much comedy there was on offer. I realised immediately that this was something I had to keep coming back to.

From there, I pivoted into stand up and pushed as much as possible in my final year, but with graduation looming and my mum's voice in the back of my head, I frantically started to apply for graduate schemes. I got an offer from KPMG to spend three years with them, which would then culminate in me being a fully chartered accountant. It seemed like the perfect solution, pin down a qualification before I really give comedy a proper go and if it all went wrong, then maybe I could just go back to being an accountant?

I told myself I would quit when I qualified, but once you start receiving a regular way to make rent, its quite hard to justify giving that up for, what some would consider, a pretty long punt. So that's where I am now. I qualified in 2022 and have since been trying to balance both careers. Accountant by day, Comedian by night. Ideally there'll come a time when I can make the leap into being a full-time comedian who moonlights as an accountant and I'll finally know exactly what to say when someone at a party asks me what I do, but until then, I'll be both.