EDINBURGH 2019: Dave Bibby Q&A

BWW catches up with Dave Bibby to chat about bringing Crazy Cat Lad-y to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Crazy Cat Lad-y.

It's a silly comedy show full of songs, sketches, characters, stand up and a picture of a cat falling off a table. I have 2 cats, Snoop Catty Cat and Bibby Smalls, and the show explores my Peter Pan syndrome and inability to grow up and get a real job or properly see something through like this sentence which was about cats when it first started out.

Why bring it to Edinburgh?

Each audience is completely different and I use that to keep me on my toes. One day you may have 25 drunken women from a hen do and the next a load of pensioners. I get people up onstage to play characters in stories and constantly bring the audience into my shows.

Edinburgh brings in people from all over the world so I perform one show every day for a month, but no two shows are ever the same. I love honing my material under that kind of pressure, I think that's when I'm at my best. Plus the landlords are lovely and the rent is just so cheap*

Where else might we know you from?

I've turned up on all sorts of things down the years and I've written for other comedians and several shows. I was in the hidden camera show 'Public Eye' which was fronted by Stephen Fry on Channel 4 and also turned up in things like 'The Push' by Derren Brown on Netflix.

I speak a lot about LAD culture in my show and how working-class men are stereotyped in this industry. You will have seen me on your TV screens playing a builder advertising crisps, a Kwik Fit mechanic, a painter and decorator, delivery drivers, LAD on a stag do, betting ads and even a particular flavour for another crisps brand (I don't know what it is about my face that sells crisps!).

And Edinburgh audiences will know me from my sketch group, Lead Pencil, we did 3 years at Underbelly and followed that up by working with Comedy Central, BBC Radio 4 and loads of crap gigs but I tend to bang on about the TV stuff for some reason.

What are the benefits of performing at the Free Fringe?

Audiences are probably more open to experiment and, to be frank, expectations are a bit lower than paid fringe so there's that feeling of winning them over and surprising people. People talk about 'The Spirit of the Fringe' and I think they mean the buzz, the sense of creativity and the excitement of discovering someone/ something new. I think this is slightly easier to achieve on the Free Fringe. Unless they're talking about a ghost? Shit bit scared now actually.

Who would you recommend comes to see you?

Anyone. Some people do musical comedy, some do sketches, some do improv, some do stand up. I do all of these things in one show. Oh also bring your cat.

*Naaaaaaaat!

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/dave-bibby-crazy-cat-lad-y

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