EDINBURGH 2026: Interview: Rachel Fairburn on VEXY BEASTS

BroadwayWorld caught up with comedian Rachel Fairburn to chat about bringing her new character show Vexy Beasts to the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Vexy Beasts.

I was watching The Salons By The Seaside on BBC iPlayer, which is about these salons in Blackpool. It’s a 90s documentary about the women who work in these salons, and it's just really nice. It’s just people chatting, and it's really gentle, but it's quite dark. I got a bit obsessed with it, and for my next character show, I wanted to set it somewhere. So I’ve got this short story podcast called Harpurvale, which is set in an imaginary suburb of Manchester which I’ve invented. So I’ve set it in a salon in Harpurvale, and the narrator Leanne takes us through the other characters. Leanne owns the Sexy Beasts hair salon, and I came up with the title Vexy Beasts before I wrote the show, so I kind of built it around it.

There’s a new mayor in town who is a rival to Leanne; they used to do beauty contests together. There’s a lot of gentrification going on in Harpurvale. There are posh people moving there, and there are people like Leanne whose business might be going. I like to do a male character who is just a bit of an arsehole, and there’s one of them. Leanne is worried her salon is going to be closed by Julie Noon, who is the new mayor, but there are just loads of jokes. There are themes of gentrification, working-class life and the manosphere. It’s just me doing what I do, set in a fictional suburb of Manchester.

What do you like best about doing a character show?

I find things that normal people say in everyday life funny. When you do a character, you can put in the essence of somebody that you find very funny. For example, the hairdresser that I do is heavily based on a friend of my sister's. There are aspects of me in there. There’s a lot of my sister in there. So you can put all these things that you find funny about people into a character. I like writing horrible characters as well; I don’t think my characters are very likeable. I think there are aspects that you like, but a lot of them are a bit of an arsehole, which I like.

What did you learn from Side Eye?

What I learned from my first character show is that it's good to push it a bit. There are jokes that I was going to put into Side Eye, and I was sort of persuaded not to because someone I was working with didn’t get the jokes. What I’ve learnt is to trust myself more because I left those jokes out that are now in this new show, and two people have come up to me afterwards and gone “I love that bit”. With standup, I always trust myself. Character is a bit different, and for my first show I wasn’t as confident. But if you think something's funny, you just have to go out there and try it.

What about props?

I hate props. People have such short attention spans these days, and they watch stuff on Instagram for a quick 30 seconds. I don’t work like that, I’m afraid. I want people to listen and figure out the connection between things. I think props can take away from that. 

In my first show, each character had a hairband or something, so in this show, each character will have one thing: the hairdresser will have scissors, or the posh character will have sunglasses. She was in my last show, so she’ll have the same sunglasses. The male character will probably have a man bag. Nothing puts the fear of god into me more than thinking “I’ve got five wigs to carry around”. I think when you’re watching stuff like that it makes you panic as an audience member if its not slick. I think keep it simple. The lighter I can travel the better. I think you should be able to get to the essence of the character without a prop. 

A lot of people talk about how difficult a Fringe run is but as someone who has had “normal” jobs and worked a 40 hour week, how does it compare?

I find it very stressful. I think the runup to it is very stressful but when you’re there and you’re a couple of days in and it settles down you’re only doing an hour a day. In other jobs I’ve had where it was relentless graft or sometimes standing behind a reception desk for hours thinking “I’m wasting my time here”. A job that I hated, I sat behind a reception desk and people were just the worst people to me all day. So when I’m in Edinburgh and much as I find it stressful the minute I go “oh god…” I think, you could be back behind that desk with people demanding keys and asking for swipe cards. I appreciate being there but also I wouldn’t say that I enjoy it.

Do you enjoy being in one place for the month?

YES. 

On the run up to Edinburgh you still have to focus on your show and do your gigs and you’re travelling all over. Something will pop up like “can you be in this place at this time” and there’s all these distractions all around. There will be times when I’m away for three days and then home for a couple of days and then away for a week. So bizarrely, being away for three weeks at a time in the same flat is a bit of a luxury. It feels like a home away from home for a month. 

What do you do with your downtime in Edinburgh?

I would love to say that I go and watch lots of shows and immerse myself in the festival but I can’t watch anything before my show- which is at 1.35pm so that’s alright. But for the first couple of weeks I can’t watch anything for fear of going “oh god that’s so much better than me” or “why didn’t I think about that”. So for the first couple of weeks I go to the gym and go back to my flat but what I always do every year is I will go to Stockbridge and look at the charity shops or I will have a mooch around a graveyard. Towards the end of the festival there will be drinks, there will be pubs and there will be other peoples shows. 

The only thing I can do those first weeks is go back to my flat and pretend the Fringe isn’t on. And read my kindle!

What impact has clip sharing on Instagram had? 

Massive. I was so resistant to it for so long because I hate being filmed and I hate listening to myself. Someone said to me that I’m the wrong job and I’m like oh no no the job changed around me. For years I was just doing live gigs and the show existed in that moment and that was it. Now you film a special and put clips out and I was so resistant but it has absolutely brought me a new audience. People are seeing clips and buying tickets. Honestly I am loathed to say this but it makes so much difference. 

The only thing is it would make more of a difference but everything I do is on such lockdown just so you don’t get those negative comments. If you want to insult me you’ve really got to want to insult me. You’ve got to follow me and then try to find a way. But on the whole its been quite a positive experience. I shared one clip and I’ve shared it before but it went viral and its got like two million views now and it keeps going. People recognise me in the street from it and it blows my mind. I hate it but also its very good. 

What do you enjoy about touring?

There are certain venues that I love to go back to. For example, when I first started out in standup Glasgow’s Stand or Manchester’s Frog and Bucket, places that you went to as a really new comedian and then you come back and you’re doing your own show thats a nice little moment. It’s nice to go back to venues that you really like. If I’m somewhere nice and early I do enjoy a little mooch around the town. I enjoy doing the show. But I don’t enjoy the travel. It’s easier to tell you what I don’t enjoy than what I do enjoy. It’s not the long journeys, its because you can’t rely on the trains. I think this time round I’m going to places that I really want to go to. Then there’s places where I might not necessarily sell loads of tickets but I just like the place like Lyme Regis for example or Cornwall because I like going there.

When are you writing a play? I feel like its coming.

This show is quite play like. I would absolutely love to write a play. I would like to write stuff and have other people do it as well. People must be like for this show “oh you’re doing it all yourself you must think you’re fantastic” not necessarily, I’d love to be able to pay someone else to be in it. But the money you’d have to fork out. And I’d never want to take advantage of anyone, I’m sure someone would love to do it but you can’t be having people working for free. In the long run I would love to be able to put something on which has other people in it. Which is a play! I’d love that to be on the cards. 

Anything else to plug?

I’ve got a short story podcast called Harpurvale. We’ve got some All Killa live shows coming up including one at the Edinburgh Fringe. Vexy Beasts is at the Fringe all month and I’m on tour from October.

Tickets for Rachel's tour are available on her website.

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