Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
Hi! My name’s Alex MacKeith. I do musical comedy with an acoustic guitar. I’ve been gigging as a solo comedian since 2019 and won the 2020 Musical Comedy Awards in 2021 (delayed due to Covid, like much else). I write plays and screenplays too, and my first feature film script, The Tutor, has just wrapped production. It stars Richard E Grant, Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack, which is insanely exciting, and it should be out in 2023 — keep an eye out! In addition I’m quite tall and very, very humble and handsome.
How would you describe your show?
It’s a musical comedy show featuring me and the aforementioned acoustic guitar. The songs are broadly about things I’m afraid of, so let’s just say the content pool is… Pretty wide. The aim is to make the show feel like a sixties Greenwich Village coffee house spliced with Nirvana’s Unplugged in New York. But funny.
Why do you want to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Because it’s the Mecca of comedians — starting out, rising stars, household names and stadium-fillers. Rightly or wrongly, it remains the place to share an hour of comedy you’ve been crafting and honing to within an inch of its life. There is a warm front of hope banking onto a cold front of desperation that you can’t find anywhere else, and boy does it rain (both literally and in this metaphor. But what is the rain? Tears? Bulmers? I’ll never tell. It’s Bulmers).
What differentiates it from other festivals?
The Fringe has a heritage as an anti-establishment institution (if that’s not a paradox) offering space for experimental, avant-garde and alternative art and comedy. I don’t know how much of that ethos can be carried out in the operation of the festival today. But I reckon audiences who do attend the festival carry an element of that original adventurousness and open-mindedness with them into shows.
What first motivated you to enter the industry? Who were your inspirations?
The Mighty Boosh and Flight of the Conchords. They’ve always been the guiding lights. Then in the 2010’s it was Bo Burnham, Tim Minchin, Flo and Joan, and Bill Bailey. They all still inspire me.
How has your background, upbringing and education had an impact on your artistic career?
My brother and I made silly films on our parents’ phones when we were kids — I guess you could call them sketches if you were being very generous — and they remain possibly my best work. As I was growing up, my Dad shared Spike Milligan’s collected poems, and my Stepdad shared The Young Ones, Blackadder, and The PJs. The Simpsons is baked into my consciousness, as I suspect it is for a lot of comedians. But yes, background, upbringing and education have definitely had a strong influence on me, and all three come up in the show to varying degrees (no spoilers, but in song form).
What is your earliest childhood art memory?
Seeing a production of The Three Musketeers at the Lyric Hammersmith which contained the line “You can’t make an omelette without breaking heads.” Unbeatable.
If you didn’t have your current job, what would you probably be doing?
Teaching, which is my other current job.
Did Covid-19 change the way you create work? Do you approach shows with a different mentality now?
Yes, in that for a long time I couldn’t perform. So I wrote a lot of new material and had a chance to trial it all as gigs started up again, bringing what had literally come from a vacuum into a living, breathing space. I definitely approach shows differently now, but largely from a pinch-yourself perspective of gratitude that it’s happening at all.
Describe the last year in 5 words or less?
It’s good to be back.
Do you subscribe to the idea that art should be exempt from ‘cancel culture’?
Gina Yashere put it really well in an interview where she spoke about how to work out if your material is racist. She said if she’s doing material about a group of people, it bears thinking about how you’d feel doing that material to a room full of those people. If you feel uncomfortable, that material is probably racist. I’d extend that rule of thumb to misogyny, anti-Semitism, transphobia, classism, and other forms of harassment. If you can’t make art without targeting a marginalised group, it’s probably not good art, and your audience should be allowed to tell you that. I try to punch up, but I occupy a position of structural privilege, so I tend to punch myself in the face. That and sing silly songs about animals and trains.
If you could work with anybody, from any point in history, who would you pick and why?
Jesus, mid-late period. I want to see just when it started to get out of hand.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take a show up to the fringe?
If you’re young enough, do TikTok or Instagram comedy, build up a massive following, then come to the Fringe and sell out on your debut. If you’re too old to do that, goooooood luuuck!
When and where can people see your show?
2:45pm, Underbelly Dexter, August 3rd-28th (NOT 15th, don’t come on the 15th, I will not be there).
And where can people find, follow and like you online?
Twitter: @alexgmackeith
IG: @alexmackeith
I look forward to seeing you in the Nethersphere.
Alex MacKeith: Thanks for Listening is performing at Underbelly Dexter at 2:45pm from 3-28th August. For tickets and more information visit edfringe.com
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