EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Stoph Demetriou
By: Natalie O'Donoghue Jun. 30, 2017
Tell us a bit about The Dunning-Kruger Effect.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect (as in the real life psychology principle) was
outlined in a paper called "Unskilled and Unaware of It", and it goes
into detail about how and why very dumb people think they're geniuses;
because basically they're too stupid to realise how stupid they are.
understand why everybody hated them, but in the end the idea of being an
idiot and unaware, yet full of confidence about it, seemed to have a lot
more going for it. The thing about people suffering the Dunning-Kruger
Effect is that they have an imbalance between their self confidence and
their paranoia, which is a major theme of the show that I think everyone
can relate to - getting stuck between those two voices in your head.
Plus, since Trump was elected and the age of "fake news" we've suddenly
found ourselves in, it seemed a pretty pertinent topic.
This is your solo debut- do you think you know what to expect from the
Fringe?
I was part of a sketch show in the 2016 Fringe, so I've got a fair idea
what to expect: I am going to haemorrhage money that I don't have, but
manage to haemorrhage it anyway; I'm going to be very cold and wet at
various times throughout the month; I'll probably end up phoning my mum
pretending that I'm not in tears.
I did an absolute tonne of research for the show. I first became aware
of the Dunning Kruger Effect after arguing with strangers on the
internet (yeah I'm not proud) who were adamant that the Earth was flat,
and I'd show them evidence from experts that it obviously isn't, but
they would totally reject that - like expert opinion doesn't mean
anything compared to a confident fool's opinion... so I ended up reading
the papers by Dunning and Kruger, watching lectures on youtube and just
reading about everything to do with stupid people being over confident
and various psychological effects. It actually got to the point where I
started to question everything and that doing and that this show was
just a case of me being overconfident but I was too dense to realise...
is the earth flat??
Well the show is quite different from a lot of the mainstream man-mic
comedy. I'm deconstructing and explaining a field of psychology about
being unskilled and unaware, while my character explaining it is
basically deconstructing his own lack of skill and awareness. Plus I
think one interesting thing that's come out of the preview I just did is
that I'm basically giving a massive peak behind the curtain - how comedy
and writing works and how awful the whole creative process actually
makes you feel. There's that saying about explaining a joke being like
dissecting a frog... personally I think cutting a joke open and peering
at all its tiny guts is hilarious. Although to be honest I only have
about four jokes in the whole show (I can't really write jokes, which is
why this is more of a narrative show) - but the one at the end about
ice-cream is, and I don't want you to think I'm exaggerating or being
big-headed, probably the finest joke anyone will ever come up with ever.
So watch out for that. Who would you recommend comes to see you?
I think if people are looking for traditional jokey standup then it
might not be for them... except for that ice-cream joke. God it's so
good - it will make up for it if you don't enjoy the rest of the show. I
think despite the whole lecture-y style of the show it's actually pretty
accessible for a lot of people. I don't want people to think that the
show is just for intellectuals... in fact, the best audience for this
show is people who will occasionally ask themselves "am I actually the
one who's a complete idiot?". I'd much rather those people come in than
people who arrogantly think they're brilliant... the show is about those
people so they won't get it.
Timings and ticket information for Stoph Demetriou: The Dunning-Kruger Effect are available on the edfringe website.
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