EDINBURGH 2016: BWW Q&A - Maddy Anholt

BWW speaks to Maddy Anholt about her 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show RENT GIRL.

What can you tell us about Rent Girl?

Rent Girl is the brainchild of Maddy Anholt and HarDeep Singh Kohli. It is a fast-moving, multimedia smorgasbord of a comedy following my life from tween to teen and beyond. We discover the places I could have afforded to live in if my life took a different route.

What inspired you to write Rent Girl?

It all started in 2009 when I first came to London from a remote countryside town to try and build my empire. I put up an advert looking for work: "Young, fresh girl seeks any part-time work... excellent typing and oral skills". You can imagine the responses I got.

After ten years renting, £136,000 worse off and working as many jobs as possible to make ends meet I began to wonder what my life would be like if I'd answered those dodgy job responses.

Rent Girl is Sliding Doors meets Pretty Woman... was I better off taking the job as a children's entertainer ending up with two broken toes, or should I have sold my underwear for £800 a pop to pay my rent?

Rent Girl is co-written and directed by HarDeep Singh Kohli - how did that come about?

Hardeep came to see my show last year, Diary of a Dating Addict, we have a mutual friend. As is the beauty of the Fringe you run into people and make connections that otherwise you may not have made.

We've been working together on various projects ever since.

What advice would you give to someone making their Fringe debut?

Be ready! It's a bit learn-as-you-go the first year. There's loads of things you wish you would have done differently but you learn from it and take it to your next show. You have to seize every moment and talk to as many people as possible. It's all about networking and growing as a performer.

You had a sold-out run last year with Diary of a Dating Addict - are you feeling any pressure this year?

A lot! We had some fantastic press last year before we arrived so I was very blessed with pre-selling a lot of tickets. I haven't let that give me a false sense of security, though. It's tough every year so it's all about working smarter and praying to the Edinburgh Fringe Gods the audiences are plenty!

Ticket information and timings are available on the edfringe website.

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