list.co.uk/festival Comedians Writing Plays | FESTIVAL FEATURES
AVALON PROMOTIONS PRESENTS
harder to put down that instinct for “please like me”’
fourth drafts – I’ve written a novel for Christ’s sake – but I’ve never ever had to throw something in the bin before and start again, and I had to with this. It took two full drafts and I’m very, very glad it did because it’s much more interesting and confusing.’ Kane plays Solly, a violent psychopath who tells the audience about his crimes in the style of a victim closure session, though there won’t – as the programme description hints – be any audience interaction. ‘It’s what Lock, Stock with a degree would sound like,’ he says. And he’s realised in rehearsals that he’s had to tone down some of his stand-up impulses: ‘Nichola explained to me that the main difference between stand-up and an actor in a play is that a stand-up goes to the audience to seek approval and needs the laughs. Whereas Craig Solly doesn’t – he just needs to be compelling enough for you to watch through the mess. The moment I turn to you lot, emotionally, and say, “Please like my writing,” it’s fucked. And that is why it’s harder if you’re a stand-up to do a play. It’s harder to put down that instinct for “please like me”.’
Kane’s Fakespeare sketches – think Shakespeare in an Essex accent – have seen him dabble with caricature, but he wrote Craig Solly specii cally to showcase his acting talents. ‘I’m not, like, Robert De Niro or anything, but I can act,’ he says. ‘I want to see how far I can go if the audience get behind me because I still don’t know. This’ll be the i rst time I’ve done it.’ It’s never been a better time to try. ‘As a performer,’ Porter says, ‘you don’t feel that the genre boundaries are so closed any more. Unless
they’re coming to see someone they know is a proper gagsmith, a one- liner merchant, I think audiences quite like it if you do something a bit different that they weren’t quite expecting.’ And if it goes badly, we can always blame that natural recklessness. ‘1.30 in the afternoon in Edinburgh?’ laughs Kane. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’
The Fair Intellectual Club, Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, 1–24 Aug (not 11), 11am, £10 (£9). Preview 31 Jul, £9 (£8).
My Obsession, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 2–16 Aug, 2.30pm, £7–£9 (£6–£8). Previews 30 Jul–1 Aug, £5.
I Killed Rasputin, Assembly George Square, 623 3030, 2–24 Aug, 3.35pm, £12–£14.50 (£11–£13.50). Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £10. The Closure of Craig Solly, Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 18–24 Aug, 1.30pm, £12.50–£14.50 (£10–£13.50).
Cuckooed, Traverse, 228 1404, 3–24 Aug (not 4, 11, 18), times vary, £19 (£14/£8). Preview 2 Aug, £13 (£7). Kim Noble: You’re Not Alone, Traverse, 228 1404, 20–24 Aug, 11.15pm, £19 (£14). Preview 19 Aug, £13 (£7).
31 Jul–7 Aug 2014 THE LIST FESTIVAL 19