EDINBURGH 2026: MEGASQUIRT: FULLY LOADED Q&A

BWW caught up with Ashley Blair & Drew Reilly to chat about bringing Megasquirt: Fully Loaded to the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Megasquirt: Fully Loaded.

Megasquirt is the name of our band, or rather, our experimental comedy music project. Megasquirt: Fully Loaded is our hybrid sketch show/concert/underground rave that combines all of our best material into a single hour that seeks to finally answer the question: how can I fill the hole inside me? The material we've packed into the show crosses several genres including improv, clown, dance, song, theater, and even a bit of life drawing. The result is a bass-thumping exercise in free-associative (dis-associative?) gay brain rot that maybe, just maybe, could teach us something about filling the inner hole in all of us. 

What sets it apart from other shows at the festival?

Megasquirt: Fully Loaded definitely earns its midnight slot. We are playing fast and loose with thoughts you dare not think when the sun is up. The show is stitched together by a sort of dream logic/meme logic that probes the deepest darkest contours of the human experience in a desperate attempt to mine some meaning from the seemingly endless parade of horrors that is contemporary life. Also you might get squirted a little. 

How has your background in comedy moulded the show?

We came up through the Second City theater - an institution that has produced comedy talents such as Tina Fey, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. As part of their NYC mainstage company we were given an open sandbox to create any kind of show we wanted. We have taken that spirit of genre-bending and cranked it all the way up in Megasquirt: Fully Loaded.

How involved do the audience get?

The audience is an integral part of the show every night. As such they are deeply involved, just not in the way you may assume. It's less about bringing people on stage to be a part of the show and more about bringing the show itself into the audience so that we are all having one communal experience together that is completely determined by the specific energy of that group of people in that room on any given night. Also did we mention you might get squirted a little? 

What would you like people to take away from the show?

Life is never fully loaded. But maybe it doesn't need to be. Protect your hole <3.

Photo credit: Ashley Leisten Blair

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