Interview: 'Everything is Over The Top and Self-Indulgent!' Archie Henderson of Jazz Emu on Bringing Two Shows to the Fringe

If you've been walking around Edinburgh the past few weeks, you've probably seen an unusual poster in which a man is holding a bleeding heart. That man is Jazz Emu, and he's bringing his shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. To quote his website, "Jazz Emu is an internationally renowned stone-cold hotshot with a proven track record of concocting unpretentious pseudo-comedological proferrings." 

BroadwayWorld sat down with Archie Henderson, the creator of Jazz Emu, to talk about his two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, You Shouldn't Have and Jazz Emu's Pleasure Garden. We talked about what it was like to create Jazz Emu, how the Fringe has influenced his work, and even how Jazz Emu plays a role in his life outside of shows!

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So how did you first create the character of Jazz Emu?

I think he's been with me for a long time! [Laughs]. I was looking at pictures of myself recently when I was like nine or ten. And I was quite an intensely performative kid, like a big attention-seeking kid, and I found this picture of me doing gun fingers with a really smarmy grin [Imitates picture]. And I was like, "Oh, he's there. Jazz Emu's there!" He's just deeply buried.

I think I went through puberty and had to normalise myself out, try to blend in with other people at school. But I think this has been like a rediscovery for me, my true personality. I always knew I wanted to do something musical and combine music and comedy in some way. And I just loved all these big old comedies I watched when I was a  kid, big American comedies. Watching Jim Carrey and Mike Myers and those guys, I knew I wanted to do something like that because that's also the stuff I find fun. Big, silly, annoying guy. That's my vibe. [Laughs] How can I do that on stage?

How did music play a role in that?

I think, in a way, it started almost separately. I was producing a lot of my computer. I'd always liked doing that when I was at school, making terrible beats like Sims music, intro beats on my laptop. And then when I left uni, I was half-employed, living at home, teaching a bit, and then just spending the rest of my time making these synthy, funky things I just found fun to make. And it seemed to work; this big, braggadocious character with these really intense and annoying funk jams. Just worked! 

What is it like bringing the show to the Fringe?

I've bought a bunch of shows! I did some sketch shows and I did some solo shows. This is actually my ninth Fringe. Yeah, so I did it when I was a uni doing sketch shows. 

As Jazz Emu?

No. I guess some of the characters would have elements of him, but no, it was really just I'd been sketch shows, more traditional sketch show vibes. And then I did a stand-up show in 2019 that had a lot of music in it. I had just done one Jazz Emu video at that point, a month before I came up, and I knew I had a load of fun doing it. So there was one song in the show. And then lockdown happened and I was like, "I'm just gonna do that. It's really fun!" It was by far my favourite bit of the show, doing that more character format. And then it was just two or three years of writing new stuff and then brought it [You Shouldn't Have] here last year.

What was it like performing two different shows [You Shouldn't Have and Jazz Emu's Pleasure Garden] at the Fringe this year?

More brutal than I expected! [Laughs] I was like, "Oh, yeah, I've done two shows before!" But I forgot I did that when I was 19 and more able to bounce back. And then, I had a proper gap between. This is literally back to back - I pack up the show, stuff everything in the bag, sprint over, and then we start in ten minutes. So it's really intense, but in a way it's good. You push through, the adrenaline gets you going. There's no time to get tired.

Do you have a preference for one of the shows?

They have very different flavours for me, and probably for the audience as well! The first show [You Shouldn't Have] is one I've done it dozens of times now, so it's very slick. The tech mostly works . . . Usually! And it's a full story. The latest one is like a work in progress. It's a mixed bill, it's a late night, it's quite chaotic. The band, we jam some stuff out. It's more of that kind of late night cabaret feel, which is fun. It's really fun having the two different tones.

What is it like bringing so much technology into the show? 

For some reason, I feel like I have to do it! Everything I write, it's like "Well, you know that'll need a camera and it'll need loads of video editing . . ."  All of this stuff. All my ideas seem to just happen like that. Maybe it's the stuff I've watched I like. Every time I try and write something I'm like, "This year I'm just gonna write a ten-minute club set. It doesn't need any sound, any tech . . ." I just feel like it loses all my USP stuff, everything that I've done that makes me different. I've always been like, "How can I make this feel really different than other shows?" 

What is it that you think attracts people to the Jazz Emu shows?

I think I'm still working that out! [Laughs] I don't know! I resisted putting the character on stage for a while because I knew that the songs were fun, I like doing those, and I feel like the songs have a different personality for each one. So there was no clear character like, "Oh, this is the guy singing the songs." The only thing that holds them together is that he's obviously mental...He's so unhinged! I think . . . I don't know! I just kind of settled on this guy. 

I think it might be the unhinged aspect that really gets people into it.

Maybe! I think it's a bit of that and the pure commitment to the bit. The character is just so oblivious, he's so unaware of how stupid he is, that there's something weirdly liberating about this! Imagine that you're that dense, that you couldn't even see how much of an idiot you were. Kind of freeing, in a way. That's what I get from it!

Do you ever find it difficult to get out of the character?

I would say he's seeping more into my life! My friends are like, "Oh, you've really started to dress like Jazz Emu!" Well, he has all these cool clothes, I might as well borrow them! [Laughs] I think so! But I don't know. There's also a part of it, almost like being able to perform a bit of myself that's too intense to do in day-to-day life. But there's something about doing the character that lets me exercise it a little bit and become a bit more comfortable with it. 

What's been your favourite scene to perform in You Shouldn't Have?

There's a bit where he's trying to log back into his computer and the CAPTCHA's not letting him log in. And this sequence of CAPTCHAs coming up, and they get more and more insane and more and more difficult. 

The CAPTCHA within the CAPTCHA!

Yeah, "Select all the squares containing correctly clicked squares." It's a really fun obstacle to throw at a character like that because he's so easily frustrated and he's not very good at working his way around this kind of stuff. It's kind of fun to see him suffer a little bit because he's so smug! Anything when you can punch him down a little bit, it's really fun.

How did you come up with the poster design for You Shouldn't Have?

That was actually taken by my brother-in-law, Reiff! He's an amazing photographer, Reiff Gaskell. And he does video directing as well. We did it for a music video about being allergic to my emotions. And at the end of the video, I sneeze out my own heart, and it's covered in blood. So the photoshoot for that was for that video, but I had these photos and it worked with the vibe of the show, of him [Jazz Emu] wearing his heart on his sleeve and trying to redeem himself. It just fit!

What do you hope audiences take away from your shows?

I hope their lives will have changed.

[Laughs] Now that's Jazz Emu!

[Laughs] Yeah! I don't know! I just hope that they're really entertained. I think that's my vibe. I love the feeling of coming out of a show and being like, "Oh, that had a real shape to it!" You feel like a story's been told and and it's relentlessly full of fun stuff. Even if people don't find it funny, which some people definitely don't, I hope that they can't deny that it's entertaining.

And how would you describe Jazz Emu as a character in one word?

Decadent. Everything is over the top and self-indulgent!

Find out more about Jazz Emu here.

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