EDINBURGH 2016: BWW Q&A - Penny Arcade

BWW speaks to Penny Arcade about her 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show Longing Lasts Longer.

What can you tell us about Longing Lasts Longer?

Longing Lasts Longer like any Penny Arcade show is an experience. That is why my shows are hard to explain. You laugh, you cry, you dance in your seat to the hands down best soundtrack in the world.

Longing lasts longer offers a rare opportunity to laugh and think at the same time. My motto could be "Make Comedy Useful" because you can walk out of my show having had an experience that entertains AND resets your personal clock! And it CONTINUES to support your individuality for months!

What was the inspiration behind the show?

I got tired of people making excuses for how f*cked up the world is and I got tired of being told I was being nostalgic If I complain about how the world has changed through gentrification and media. Individuality and authenticity are brands now. You are supposed to purchase them instead of live them. I felt I had a responsibility to give a debriefing on where we are now and how I think we got here from my vantage point of the past 50 years. I tell the absolute truth from my point of view.

Some people are magic and I am one of them - I am the antidote to mediocrity. I have been young for a long time! I am that rare person who matured without growing up. I am the person for the job!

What have you been up to since you last performed at the festival?

I have been nonstop touring Longing Lasts Longer across the globe. I just toured Australia for three months and we rocked that continent from Sydney to Adelaide from Melbourne to Brisbane to Alice Springs to Hobart! I participated in Theatre of Change at Dublin's Abbey Theatre and went back to Melbourne to appear at the ISPA Conference.

Tip: never fly back and forth to Australia from the USA twice in one month - head spinning! I did two great TV specials in Australia. I closed Laurie Anderson's Brighton Festival in the beautiful 900 seat Theatre Royal. I performed at Norwich, Norfolk, Manchester, Cork and Midsummer. I haven't stopped - I am on a major roll! And the show has kept reinventing itself!

Who would you recommend comes to see Longing Lasts Longer?

Longing Lasts Longer is for everyone. People who are under 40 feel supported by it and people who are over 40 feel vindicated by it. You have to love edgy comedy; you have to be willing to go on a ride. It's a real ride through someone else's consciousness; through mine. Teenagers love this show because they are constantly confronted with bullshit and I and my shows are NEVER bullshit.

Look, I did the good drugs. I saw the great bands. Nobody can out rock me and that is a fact.
The funnier you are, the funnier I am, the smarter you are, the smarter I am, the sexier you are, the sexier I am.

What's next for you after Edinburgh?

We go to Mladi Levi Festival in Ljubliana Slovenia immediately after Edinburgh, then Noordzon Festival in Groningen Holland and then the venerable Abbey Theatre in Dublin for Dublin Fringe, then a short season in London at Soho Theatre before going to Lublin, Poland, Liverpool and Belfast. Then, the cherry on the cake, we make our American premiere on December 1-11 at the beautiful St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.

Timings and ticket information for Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer are available on the edfringe website.

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