Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
Pierre Novellie, South African Manxman and stand-up comedian.
How would you describe your show?
It’s me figuring out why I don’t enjoy things as much as other people or enjoy them in a different way. I started writing the show in 2020 so I’ve had long enough to figure it out.
Why do you want to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
It’s my job and it’s good fun mostly.
What differentiates it from other festivals?
It’s the largest one by size on earth and the only one that lasts a month. Most shows lose money but the ones that don’t do very well, so it’s an art casino, essentially.
What first motivated you to enter the industry? Who were your inspirations?
Enter the industry is a strong way of saying “doing a bunch of open mics at uni”. I gave it a go and I got addicted!
How has your background, upbringing and education had an impact on your artistic career?
I’ve had a privileged enough life that certain elements were much easier for me, though I’m the first person in my family to ever go for “the arts”. I was in the Cambridge Footlights and my current record for being friends with someone and not mentioning that fact is 8 years because people do not like it.
What is your earliest childhood art memory?
Getting obsessed with drawing South Africa’s new flag over and over again, I think.
If you didn’t have your current job, what would you probably be doing?
Optimistically: solicitor.
Did Covid-19 change the way you create work? Do you approach shows with a different mentality now?
Watching impotently as years of work and momentum were destroyed in front of me as I recovered from long covid made me a lot more zen, in the end. There are many ways to skin the cat of success.
Describe the last year in 5 words or less?
I had time to write a novel and a full one-hour pilot.
Do you subscribe to the idea that art should be exempt from ‘cancel culture’?
Art is an abstraction and therefore inherently exempt from real or imagined phenomena. Institutions and individuals may not be exempt from consequences. Turning the nuanced concept of “freedom of speech” into Culture War click bait damages all of society and is intellectually bankrupt.
If you could work with anybody, from any point in history, who would you pick and why?
Bob Odenkirk because I wish I was in Better Call Saul and he seems like a laugh.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take a show up to the fringe?
Prep and fundraise and preview as cynically as possible for as many years as you can stand it. Or, if you prefer, just try to have fun with it.
When and where can people see your show?
18:10 at Monkey Barrel Comedy Club
And where can people find, follow and like you online?
@pierrenovellie on Instagram, Twitter, tiktok etc
Pierre Novellie: Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things?
Monkey Barrel @ 6.10pm
2 – 28 August (not 13, 19, 20, 21)
For tickets and more information visit the edfringe.com website.
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