Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
I’m Juliette Burton, comedian, writer, activist, nerd and outcast. Sold out total runs at Edinburgh Fringe five times, toured the UK and Australia, had some lovely reviews and awards but most of all I love performing to fellow weirdos.
How would you describe your show?
Stand up comedy with a big heart and big nerdery. All my shows are a safe space. If you’re neurospicy, you’re welcome here. If you feel different, you belong here. If you have ever lost hope, this is the show for you.
What is your favourite part of your show?
The audience! Every show is different because every audience is different. And hanging out with them after the show also is usually fairly special.
If your show had a theme song, what would it be and why?
‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey – because it’s catchy, a classic, hard to not get involved in the passion behind it. But I’d remix it with a bit of a pop-punk vibe like Blink 182. And thus I’ve shown my millennial status, and I’m proud of it.
Are there any particular themes or messages you hope the audience takes away from your performance?
I hope the audience takes away… hope! Cynicism might be cool, and this show doesn’t shy away from critiquing hope. But ultimately I think this show reveals that hope is more powerful than we might think. This show, I hope, proves that.
Why do you want to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe? What differentiates it from other festivals?
There are some other fantastic festivals in the UK and around the world. But Edinburgh… at its heart is the place to go to find where you belong. If you’ve ever felt like you don’t belong, you’ll find your people at Edinburgh Fringe. No matter what show I’ve brought there, I’ve found others who ‘got it’, and got me. We’re on The Fringe of society – the outsiders, outcasts, weirdos, commentators, critics of society.
Honestly, for 10 years now I’ve been bringing shows to Edinburgh Fringe, it’s a way of committing myself to the arts community, to give me a reason to find the funny in everything and anything I go through. Not gonna lie, this year the theme of ‘hope’ was unexpectedly challenging to write about. Turns out my mind is way darker than even I knew. But Edinburgh Fringe, and audiences, help me find my light.
How does performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe compare to other festivals or venues you've experienced?
Internationally, Adelaide is hotter (but not always drier), Melbourne is more Australian, New Zealand International Comedy Festival is seriously arty yet seriously debauched.
In the UK – I add that I usually only do one or two shows at other UK festivals so that changes the experience and I list them here in order of where they come in my show preparation and evolution from Autumn through to summer preview season: Nottingham Comedy Festival is more down-to-earth and optimistic, Leicester Comedy Festival is more raucous and anything-goes, Brighton Fringe is more upbeat and jaunty, Hastings Comedy Festival is more comedy, Buxton Fringe is more ‘green and pleasant land’ loveliness, Guildford Fringe is organised and precise, Bedfringe is like a big cuddle… There are many others.
But Edinburgh is the original, the biggest in the world, the best, the weirdest and more rebellious in spirit deep down. You can discover the best performer you’ve never heard of, you can find your tribe and make intense friendships that last a lifetime, you can rejoin acts you’ve followed the careers of for years whether they rise to fame or not. Since my first visit in 2005, my first performance in 2011, every year it’s the one that always felt like home.
How has your experience at past Fringes influenced or changed your approach to this year's performance?
I’ve learned to keep perspective. I’m going to give my all to this year’s shows but I’m going to remember there’s more to me than just who I am in August in Edinburgh.
What is your favourite thing to do in Edinburgh when you're not performing? How do you relax and look after your mental health?
Great question! I lived in Edinburgh for 4 years, so I love returning to some of my favourite old hang outs. I love getting away from festival crowds and chilling out quietly in my favourite old quiet bars and restaurants, reading. I intend to also go running regularly as exercise does help me feel more centred and means I’m more relaxed on stage too. And I love hanging out with my performer friends, the fact we all tour throughout the year means when we happen to be in one city for a month, it’s a total joy to catch up and support each other through the festival highs and lows. There’s very few people who can truly understand what it’s like and that makes it a really special bond.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone thinking about taking a show up to Edinburgh?
Do it. I mean, save up, plan as best you can, but ultimately, life is short and why not just give it a go? Maybe it’ll be the biggest flop ever, maybe it’ll mean you never do it again. But at least you’ll have done it. Be bold, you never know what might happen. Over a decade later you may have caught the bug and have been doing it as many years as I have and wonder why you just can’t seem to stop.
What is one thing you would change about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
The cost. I want to say something more adorable and upbeat, like “I wish it were twice a year!” or “I wish it were longer than a month!” But we have to tackle the commercialisation that’s pricing so many out of attending either as performers or punters. I pour so much of my hard-earned money into it every year, and so do other performers and audience members. This year more than ever before many of my regular audience members just can’t afford to attend.
The arts need to be accessible to all and that must mean financially as well as physically. Repeated studies have found evidence to suggest live entertainment really helps people’s health; their mental health which then affects physical health. So making the arts available to everyone will help reduce cost to the NHS! If I had a magic wand and could make every venue in the city fully accessible to all people with various disabilities at no cost to the performer or audience? That’d be a utopia - an Edinburgh Fringe that actually demonstrates the principles and values for which, in my view, it is meant to stand. A place everybody can belong.
How has your background, upbringing and education had an impact on your artistic career?
I grew up privileged in many ways, but allergic to that privilege. I’ve turned away from it because I refuse to fit within a system I disagree with fundamentally. I grew up with the message that the arts wasn’t a choice. It was something silly to play with but not devote my life to. But something in me boldly told me otherwise. I also grew up feeling like I didn’t belong, feeling like an alien every day. I felt at odds with everything and everyone around me including those closest to me. I turned that disconnection against myself. Due to mental illnesses I was hospitalised multiple times and fell out of an education system that I feel is broken. I didn’t value the hierarchical system of which I was supposed to be a part. I questioned it to no satisfying answer. The world I was in felt crazy to me, so I went crazy within a system that seemed insane. My rebellion was my mental illness. Life has seemed unstable, I’ve seemed unstable. But the constant has always been the arts. Creativity is the key. The arts is the answer. Everything I repressed comes out in the work I create. My anger, humour, weirdness. I never want anyone to feel as alone as I felt growing up, so now I’m unapologetically me in what I create.
Can you describe your creative process and how you develop your ideas into a full-fledged performance?
I have a great many ideas; some may say too many. I like to have a 5 year plan of ideas. Some of them I bank for future fringes, some I just must get out of my system. I work on the themes, research them, write far too much, most of which is pure excrement. Then I start doing work in progresses alongside year-long new material nights testing out ideas. Come January through to May I’m fitting puzzle pieces together, then usually in May to July I’m refining it. Sometimes I’m ripping it apart and sewing it all back together in the final few weeks pre-Fringe. A vital part of the creative process is fucking it up, joyfully and repeatedly.
What is your favourite thing about performing for a live audience?
The people in that audience. The mixture of that specific audience is like a cocktail full of different ingredients. Attuning myself to that audience is, when I allow it to happen, magical. When it all fits, we can all feel it. That connection is my favourite thing. And the drinks in the bar afterwards.
What is the strangest thing that has ever happened to you while performing?
Feeling like I belong. Existentially speaking, that is bizarre, right? No?! Just me?! Ok then.
What's the most challenging or unconventional venue you've ever performed in, and how did it impact the overall experience?
I’ve performed in tents at outdoor festivals that were filling up with water as I performed, which seemed to alarm the venue staff… but gave me a kind of Noah on the Arc feeling of “I will get us through this!” which I enjoyed. But performing on stages at conventions where the layout and acoustics means I can’t hear the audience is a challenge. Comedy is a conversation between audience and performer – I need the audience’s feedback and input. It’s not TV. So yeah, I’d say that hearing the audience so I can interact with them is a big factor, even bigger than the health and safety risks of puddles forming around electrical equipment… in my view. Not in the view of my technicians or venue staff, however.
Who are some of your artistic influences, and how have they shaped your work?
My biggest influences have been misogyny, ableism, sexism, the 14 years of Tory government… they shaped my work by making me angrier than I’ve ever been and could only cope by making fun of the clear flaws in the system. That and Dawn French, sexy icon that she is. Oh and a bunch of classic Edinburgh Fringe Festival acts like Daniel Kitson, Tapeface, Reuben Kaye and more. They showed me that being bold or experimental, making the audience the heroes and telling a compelling story authentically and unapologetically as myself but bigger than bolder than me in everyday life, an extended superhero version of me, is possible and a beautiful thing.
Is there a piece of feedback you've received from an audience member or critic after a performance that’s stuck with you?
I’ve had audience members come up to me and tell me my mental illnesses are all made up and, in my head, or that I’m very ‘brave’ to talk so openly about them on stage. Those have really stuck with me literally because I’ve written stigma like that into future shows with the comeback punchlines I either said at the time or wish I’d said. The other thing that sticks with me is when audience members tell me how much what I do means to them. That’s the reason I keep going. As saccharine as it may sound to some, it’s true.
Is there a show you’re excited to see when you’re up there?
Always love to see Reuben Kaye and Michelle Brasier, can’t wait to see and take part in The Dark Room. And looking forward to seeing pals like Sooz Kempner and Marc Burrows.
When and where can people see your show?
Hopepunk is at Gilded Balloon Patterhoose from 31 July to 16 August at 7.40pm every day.
Going Rogue is at Counting House Laughing Horse Free Fringe 19 to 25 August at 11.45am every day.
And where can people find you online?
Insta – Juliette_burton, Twitter – JulietteBurton, Facebook – Juliette Burton Writer Performer, website www.julietteburton.co.uk
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