Visiting American comic gives us a status report on his first Fringe

We asked some Edinburgh Fringe debutants about their expectations of the festival before it kicked off. Now we’re midway through, we wondered how reality had matched up. Here are both sets of answers from Ike Ufomadu:

What do you hope to get out of the Fringe?

How it started: I’m looking forward to the veritable feast of stage time that awaits. This will be the first time in my life thus far on ol’ Planet Earth that I’ve been able to run material so frequently and at such length. I hope to further develop the show in advance of an upcoming run in New York this winter, and also grow as a performer.

How it’s going: I'm very grateful to be gorging myself on this feast of stage time, however I'm starting to feel just how taxing it can be to perform a full hour-long show every day, in addition to hopping on to various line-ups for comedy shows. On top of this, I somehow feel like I'm always walking uphill, no matter which direction I go. The show is definitely developing, and I am learning more about myself as a performer, but I also think I will get very strong, muscular legs from all the time I'm spending standing and walking. 

What's your biggest fear going into the festival?

How it started: I’m afraid of references in the show not being understood. I’ve never performed my material outside of the USA before, and a piece of my brain is now investigating each line and bit of the show, wondering if it will still make sense once it’s crossed the pond (Case in point: People in the UK also casually refer to the Atlantic Ocean as ‘the pond’, right? If you are reading this and have an answer, feel free to email me).

How it’s going: After almost two weeks of shows, I feel reassured that most of the references seem to be understood well enough to not hinder the show's comic potential (though I still don't know how to gracefully refer to what we in the states call ‘Kindergarten’). Among my biggest fears now is making a mistake in walking somewhere that results in me having to unnecessarily walk up a really big hill.

How are you feeling about the state of your show?

How it started: I feel good about its current state and am hopeful that I will feel great about its future state. Working on it has been an enjoyable challenge. Something akin to working on a puzzle where the pieces are constantly changing in size and shape and where the overall image also keeps morphing into something else. Can you imagine anything more satisfying than that? I, for one, cannot.

How it’s going: The first preview was quite rough, as I threw in a lot of very last minute changes, which included opening the show by leading the audience in singing O Flower Of Scotland while dressed up like a cowboy) After that, I reverted back to a version of the show that I was more familiar with. This has been great. I feel like I have a solid enough base that still leaves me room to play around and discover new things.

What do you hope the reviewers say?

How it started: I hope they say words and form complete sentences, as I think readers have come to expect this from reviewers over the years. Beyond that... I hope for the kind of enthusiastic, effusive praise that raises the audience’s expectations to dangerous heights, leaving me with no other choice but to step up my skills as an entertainer to meet those expectations. Failing that, I hope the show is understood and appreciated and attracts the kind of criticism that could help its continued development. 

How it’s going: In keeping with democratic norms, I hope the reviewers feel free to say whatever they like. I have great respect for those who don't read reviews of their own work, but I can't help myself. While this has made for a rough experience at times, it has been interesting to see how different people respond to the show and what they respond to. Finding points of agreement and disagreement also functions to clarify for myself what exactly it is I'm after in doing the show. There's also a certain generative tension from knowing what's being written about you out there, and finding the will to just do the show the way you want to do it, regardless.  

What do you think your average audience will be?

How it started: Average? Let me stop you right there, my friend, because there won’t be anything "average" about the audience that assembles itself for this show… or any show in the festival for that matter. (Ike then stepped up to a podium that materialised out of thin air) Because let me tell you something: we comedians may be fond of talking about ‘working the crowd’ but the truth of the matter is… (Ike then launched into his increasingly out of date Obama impression) there is no ‘crowd’; no undifferentiated mass to which we speak. No, what I see when I’m on stage are individual people, each with their own unique desires and fears and dreams and hopes. Hopes of a million different kinds that have somehow found expression in a shared desire to be in the same room at the same time with people they may or may not know. What I see is not a crowd, but a community in a state of becoming. (Ike then returned to his regular demeanour) I hope you’ll forgive me, but I don’t really have an ending for this bit.

How it’s going: I still stand by my previous statement. There are portions of the show that have become more interactive than I thought they would be, so I have been able to get to know the audience in small ways throughout the run. Every night, they are indeed unique people. Haven't had an ‘average’ audience yet.

What steps do you aim to take to look after your mental and physical health?

How it started: I have a decidedly unambitious routine of little activities meant to ensure I pay some kind of baseline level of attention to my mental and physical wellbeing each day. The ambitious part of it is that I’m committed to completing the whole list of things every day without exception. It serves as a little diagnostic because the activities take up so relatively little time and are so categorically beneficial to me as a human being that if I skip something, it likely means I need to make a tweak somewhere in how I’m going about my day.

How it’s going: This is still my general plan. Things got pretty loose in my first days here (and honestly in the entire immediate run-up to the festival), but I went easy on myself - which felt like a minor achievement because I don't normally take it easy on myself. I'm now on day three of completing the entire routine which I think signifies that some kind of settling in is taking place. I anticipate needing to stay vigilant in figuring out what exactly I need to stay healthy each day, as this is all such a novel experience. 

• Amusements by Ike Ufomadu is on at 5.40pm in Pleasance Courtyard (not 16^th)

Published: 14 Aug 2023