“Witnessing our world's pressing challenges, from climate change to social inequality, I felt compelled to take action.”

With two sellout Fringe shows nearing the end of their run, Xhloe and Natasha sat down with me to discuss their second year at Fringe, their decade-long friendship, and their imaginary billionaire friend, Bippy, who helps them fund their shows.

"Clowning is all about embracing failure and reveling in being stupid and low status, which is the antithesis to what was expected of me growing up."

"It is very important to actively develop and focus one's practise and also build relations with other forms of art in your community. Best wishes, I'm still trying to crack the code."

Vera speaks about the process of putting together the Last Frame Queer Festival last month, and her role in that as Festival Director. We also talk about Last Frame's film club, which is all year round, and their queer horror nights with Token Homo!

"It’s like a diary entry....for me it’s like I’m letting someone in, and it can be very personal."

"The Lorente family trade is artisan carpentry - spanning three generations for the Catholic church. So being a guilt-ridden, idealistic perfectionist is in my blood."

"I don’t come from much- a struggling family growing up, but they were all very serious about me gaining an education and educating myself about the world, its history and my place in it."

"We accidentally performed in a strip club in Canada... We thought it was going to be a variety show. I think we got paid $8 profit share and were slow clapped onstage by a father and son duo who were definitely not our target market."

"People are being priced out, which is disgusting, and it’s increasingly exclusively a platform for posho’s launching their careers. But at its heart it still aspires to give little greebo no-hopers like me a chance. That’s special."

Natasha's new show, 'Clown Sex', will be at Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. 

"A good week on the circuit, you’ll gig 5 times for 20 minutes. That’s just over an hour and a half total on stage and probably 15-30 hours in the car. At the fringe, you do an hour every single day, minimum."