FESTIVAL COMEDY | Funz and Gamez Go Solo
E V L U J A T R A M
: O T O H P
James Meehan
THE FUNZ NEVER STOPS
As alternative children’s entertainers in the award-winning Funz and Gamez, Phil
Ellis, James Meehan and Will Duggan proved a hit for kids as well as their sniggering guardians. With all three going solo this Fringe, Marissa Burgess
wonders if it will all end in tears
F or the last three years, Phil Ellis, James Meehan and Will Duggan have been sharing the same hot, sweaty dressing room. They i rst teamed up in Ellis’ 2013 debut ‘solo’ show Unplanned Orphan, then for the following two years in the award- winning kids’ show Funz and Gamez. This year, they’re all going their separate ways. But don’t worry Funz fans, there’s no truth in the rumour that both Duggan and Meehan are sleeping with Ellis’ ex, Leanne. They’re all still the best of pals.
Not that Phil’s gone entirely solo as this year he has Mat Ewins and Fin Taylor on board. ‘This is what I do for “solo”,’ he laughs. ‘I always work with my friends. I can never do an hour purely of stand-up. An hour of my stand- up is just too grim . . . ’ However for the other two it will be purely solitary, as Meehan notes: ‘The thing about group shows is if one of the gigs isn’t going as well as others, you can share that sense of defeat. With this, it’ll be me on my own crying into my pint.’
As they’re both performing at the same time, Meehan and Duggan will probably team up afterwards. ‘This is the i rst time it’s just my name on a poster and I’m not dressed as a Dalmatian,’ states Duggan. ‘But when the i rst one goes wrong this year, I’ll miss going for a pint with the others. I’ll have to sit in the dressing room on my own.’ Talking about moving on and crying into pints, Ellis’ whole show this year is devoted to banging on about Leanne again. But he is trying to change . . . ‘I realised that my stand- up and all of my Edinburgh shows always seem to be affected by my divorce with Leanne so I need to deal with it. This one is all about the technique I use in order to forget her, get used to my own company and to get ready to i nd love again. And all of the wacky adventures I had along the way.’
As ever with Ellis, he will l y by the seat of his pants and plenty will probably go wrong in the process. One guarantee is that it will be gloriously funny (somehow it always is). Another is that the 1970s jacket will appear,
an emblem of Ellis’ problem with holding on to the past, standing in for the hair that escaped him. ‘I always wanted to hold onto my Oasis haircut but, as it turned out, I got a receding hairline and it ran away from me.’
Meanwhile, Duggan’s show was still forming when we spoke, literally, as he was taking a break from tapping away on his laptop. ‘It’s called A Man Gathering Fish, which is a clever title that makes me seem intelligent but when I came up with it I had no real theme,’ he confesses. ‘It’s a sort-of love letter to comedy, it’s the i rst and really only thing in my life that I’ve put everything into. I really wanted to be a comedian and the show is basically me going “am I?” Which is dangerous because a reviewer could just say “no”,’ he laughs. As a seasoned Fringe performer, Duggan’s hopes for his solo year are modest and level- headed. ‘If I could make one respectable, distinguished gentleman nod and go “very good”, I’ll feel like I’ve achieved something. And if they hate it, I’ll whack the dog suit on at the end.’
44 THE LIST FESTIVAL 4–11 Aug 2016