Interview: Your Aunt Fanny of MUFF SAID Talks Writing, Mansplaining And Getting To The Edinburgh Fringe

Good God. Your Aunt Fanny.

BroadwayWorld attempts to present to you their chat with three members (Katie, Matilda, and Lydia) of this all-womxn sketch group from the Northeast of England. It's a tricky task, transcribing the interview recording: they are so funny that half of it is an almost unintelligible symphony of giggling, honking, and snorting.

We spoke to them in their rehearsal space at the Live Theatre, Newcastle, where we were not-so-gently eased into their hilarity with an anecdote about how their lighting designer had to suss out how to flood the stage with a 'clitoral wash', as per the group's stage notes.

The troupe of seven - including absent members Izzy, Brogan, Emma and Jackie -have known each other since childhood and craft character-driven, quite naughty sketches informed by their experiences of life and womxnhood. They took their debut show Minge Unhinged to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015, have a podcast (Match Made in Seven), and frequently perform to sell-out audiences on their home turf in Newcastle.

Their new show Muff Said appears as part of Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe for the whole of August.

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Who's Your Aunt Fanny?

Katie: Your Aunt Fanny is an all fxmale sketch group. We write [that] with an "x" to identify as non-binary but we don't know how to say it. "Laxes"? "Fixemale"? We are "wimmixin" [womxn]. There are seven of us and this is our second sketch show and the first one we did [was] in 2019. This one is Muff Said, which we had planned to take to the fringe in 2020... which obviously went tits up.

Now finally we have written it and made it and we are taking that to Assembly in the Front Room.

What's Muff Said about?

Matilda: It's basically about people that we have encountered and stuff that we've seen [like] experiences that we have found funny, annoying, or bizarre. Much of it comes from personal experiences. A lot of our characters are realistic - it's a sketch show with some more absurdist moments and some surreal - but a lot of it is just people that you absolutely know and how they go on.

Katie: We did a run yesterday and I think if we were to name it after we had made it [it might be different]. It's quite mansplainy-heavy. In a good way.

As in you are mansplaining?!

Katie: No! The characters and how we talk about something that's made us angry or [that] is really funny.

Lydia: I'm conscious of saying the word political, but [the show] feels slightly more... charged? It feels like active commentary and has observations that feel current. I think it's really forward-thinking as a sketch show. It's got such good, fun humour in and so much heart and love from us. It's a joy to watch and to be in.

Matilda: We just want people to come and have a really good time. With that being our ultimate agenda, we can then sneak little things in which think about the world. But we are not trying to push that on anyone or make it heavy or depressing. We are just silly!

What's your writing process? Do you just put yourselves in a room and mess around or sketch something out first and then work around that?

Katie: This time we had two weeks of research and development. We would all meet in the morning and have a chat. Each of us might want to write about particular things, then we would split off and have a go at different ones. We swap them around after the first draft and someone else will edit that or write more of something. By the end, most sketches will belong to all seven of us.

Matilda: That gives [us] the confidence to know that it's solid material. It's passed through all seven of us before we've put anything on stage. It's a pretty good screening process.

What's Your Aunt Fanny's origin story?

Lydia: We met in 2012 on a youth theatre programme. We all got an email from Live Youth Theatre [in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne]. They thought there were a lot of funny women in The Youth Theatre... so we went along to auditions [they held]. I was maybe sixteen. [Member] Brogan was fourteen. A child!

So we went to this audition, and we had to sing some songs and the theatre thought we would get along well. Then we had a process where we worked with a director and had two other people write for us. Then we worked together in that way. We were very much the actors, and the roles were very clear. We did that for two or three years until we went to the fringe in 2015.

Seven people is a lot - is that challenging, or do you think because you've all known each other so long is it easier?

Matilda: Because we are all really good friends, we can accidentally be on our lunch break for three hours. Especially when we are rehearsing in the summer... which we keep conveniently doing. Like whoops! We've just gone for ice cream! Or we'll say 'shall we just get a pint?'.

Lydia: We've known each for ten years and I always think it shows on stage. Also [it affects] how we resolve conflict ... there's such an underpinning of utmost respect and love. We've seen each other go through some really dumb shit. We know each other so well and I think when people watch it they will see how authentic the material is to us. The ownership we have over the work.

Who do you think your shows are for, audience-wise?

Matilda: Initially, I think because of the demographic of us, we expected young women to be our primary audience. But we are always so surprised... we can't anticipate who is going to laugh at what or like which things. We had a show at Washington Arts Centre, and we had these two blokes sat on the front row and one of them had a t-shirt on that said 'all in a Dave's work'. Now they come to ALL of our shows and tag each other in the comments when we put events [on our social media]. Our grandparents have also come and absolutely loved it.

Katie: There was an older man who came to see the show once... maybe in his late sixties. He lived down the road and saw a poster. He wondered if he would not be welcome or would be intimidated and he was like 'I was so glad I made the effort to leave the house. I had an absolutely lovely time'. Then I talked to him for about two hours afterwards.

Is it a good show to take a date?

All: YEAH!

Have you felt affected by the way that the fringe is organised? You've staged a pre-pandemic fringe show before; what's your experience in planning Muff Said?

Matilda: More than anything, it's just been so expensive. [When it was initially postponed due to the pandemic), we had a few things set in place, like the venue. Assembly carried our deal over and has been great about keeping in touch with us. So, we waited until this year [rather than performing in 2021]. But the cost of everything is so much more. Particularly things like accommodation and travel.

Katie: I could rant on about it forever. It's so close to being impossible.

Matilda: We were saying we feel like it's been a community project. Everybody we know has helped us...

Katie: One boyfriend has been taking photos, another doing our music.

Matilda: My dad's driving the props up for us! A flatmate has made a website for us. It's like Billy Elliot where everyone is chipping in their 50ps.

Why do you think people should come to see the show?

Matilda: Simple... people will have a really f**king nice time. It's what everybody needs at the moment. We've had a really hard couple of years (and a really hot couple of days)... and who knows how long that will go on for. Come have a drink and bring your pals!

Katie: People tend to hear 'sketch comedy' and underestimate you massively. We are underestimated in how observational and clever and satirical our work is... but you will just have a lovely time after a hard week at work. Come and laugh at the same things with us.

Lydia: All I can say is it's phenomenal. It's f**king phenomenal. It's f**king brilliant. It's phenomenal.

Your Aunt Fanny will be at the Assembly Rooms for the duration of the Edinburgh Fringe

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Photo Credit: Jessie's Whimsical Photography

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