Hello!
Hello!
Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
Reader, I married him. Sorry, reflex. Reader, I am Rory O’Keeffe, a stand-up comedian taking my first storytelling show to the Fringe this year.
Tell us about your show?
‘The 37th Question’ is a comic storytelling show about a couple (Stuart and Zoe) who met doing ‘The 36 Questions’, a psychological experiment designed to make strangers become intimate. It’s about what happens 4 years later when they approach the ‘37th Question’… It’s about choices, jealousy, miscommunication. It’s also slightly interactive as the audience can choose which way the narrative goes at certain points, including choosing between a happy and sad ending. This style was inspired by Love Island: The Game, which is made by the company I write scripts for.
Why do you want to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and is it different from other festivals?
Want to?! I am forced to return here year after year by a deluded monster I call ‘my dreams’. Please make it stop.
What first motivated you to enter the industry? Who were your inspirations?
My parents were brutally murdered by a Fringe audience who didn’t find them funny. Since then I swore I would avenge their deaths by being regularly amusing.
Do you ever feel any pressure to be a social commentator, or constantly update material to respond to events?
Sometimes I feel if your work hasn’t got any social commentary or something approaching that, then it is a bit purposeless. But this year, I have enjoyed shifting from stand-up to storytelling, where any social commentary I make is more subtle and embedded in the story and characters. I also don’t have a Trump joke this year, which feels like a giant orange weight off my shoulders.
Equally, do you feel there has been a shift in public sentiment that has affected your work?
In 2016, I had a joke involving wearing a pair of Jeremy Corbyn underpants. The joke was in favour of him but public sentiment towards him (at least in my particular porter cabin in the Pleasance) shifted almost daily. Sometimes there would be mild boos, sometimes whoops of appreciation and, as the month dragged on and people realised I only had one pair and wore them every day, there finally came vomits of disgust.
Describe the last year in 5 words or less?
Moved in with girlfriend. #smug
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take a show up to the fringe?
Please don’t. We don’t need more competition.
And what advice do you wish you’d been given when entering the industry?
Please don’t. We don’t need the competition.
When and where can people see your show?
‘The 37th Question’, 1.20pm at Banshee Labyrinth. 4th to 26th August because days off are for cowards. Also, I am doing a show called The Bucket Speech at Voodoo Rooms on August 14th, 6.15pm. It’s just me, doing the Free Fringe bucket speech. For an hour.
And where can people find, follow and like you online?
My Twitter is @RoryOfKeeffe, don’t forget that cheeky f in ‘of’. Some bastard with the same name beat me to it. Also, I co-host a podcast called Apocalypse How?! where a scientist explains end-of-the-world scenarios to me. We’re @apocapod.
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