Sophie Duker on the best and worst of the Fringe

Sophie Duker  is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe with her show But Daddy I Love Her at Pleasance Courtyard  at 7pm.  Here she shares what she can't get enough of at the festival, her most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously…

Fringe Cringe

The most embarrassing I do each year is exercise… in public. Despite pulling off some superhuman feats of strength and agility in The Wrestling back in 2022, I’m not a gym girlie. I like my cardio with a side-order of fresh air and, ideally, free.

If you’re an al fresco Sporty Spice like me, then I promise you this. Unless you wake up at the crack of dawn to drag your overtired meatsack around the Meadows, you WILL routinely bump into literally everyone you don’t want to see while looking and smelling your worst. Frenemies. Telly producers. Exes. 

Whatever you do, do not engage. Do not make eye contact. Above all, do not start a conversation. Even with someone you like.

 I still occasionally have shame-flashbacks to an unhinged mid-run chat I had with a very polite Sam Campbell. If I’d known how excruciating those 90 seconds would be, I one hundy p would have hidden behind a hedge. 

Fringe Binge

What am I going to be eating up this summer? (Apart from my bodyweight in Pad See Ew at Ting Thai Caravan?) Earnestness. 

I’m in full delulu mode with my new show But Daddy I Love Her, which means I need something to balance myself out. I’m thirsty to see shows without an ounce of irony, zero cynicism, just pure feels, art and heart. Bring me your one person plays, your existential puppet epics, your upper-middle-class Gen Z dance shows dedicated to the victims of inner-city knife crime! I’m ready to shed one single, perfect tear. 

Fringe Whinge

My first Fringe was well over a decade ago and although the festival has transformed massively since then, it remains identical in one key regard - everyone is horny as hell and hardly anyone does anything about it. 

My plea to the population of Edinburgh this August is to be bold. Properly ho out for once! (Should go without saying that enthusiastic Consent and appropriate protection are non-negotiables) Everyone’s happier and healthier when humping, so do the right thing, stop stressing about reviews and go get your **** wet. 

It takes a village to get a comic laid, so this is a shout-out to the entire Fringe community. If you’re asexual/unbothered, celibate or in one of those retro ‘closed’ relationships, be a Good Samaritan and devote a decent chunk of your energies to the community cause of helping your friends get their rocks off - respectfully.

Published: 27 Jul 2024