EDINBURGH 2023: Eden Sher Q&A

BWW caught up with Eden Sher to chat about bringing I Was On A Sitcom to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about I Was On A Sitcom.

I Was On A Sitcom is a deeply personal story about my relationship to the show I was on for nine years, The Middle, and the character I played, Sue Heck, and how that experience has coloured all subsequent experiences in my everyday life. From the birth of my children, to life postpartum, being on The Middle is this inescapable part of my life that presents a really unique set of challenges in trying to figure out my own personal identity, and the show (I Was On A Sitcom, not The Middle) really goes into how being seen as a different person can not only be just kind of weird, but genuinely unsettling when it happens when you're in some of the most vulnerable positions a person can be in, i.e. literally giving birth. 

Why did you feel stand-up was the best way to tell this story?

The script is actually loosely based on a TV pilot that I had written a while back, and I couldn't figure out why I never really connected to it in that format, but I realized that the story is so personal, the only real way to give the full impact of the journey I want people to go on is to tell it as myself, onstage, live, in person. It's really a story that is best told when I'm able to connect with people face to face in a much more intimate setting, and I think it's way more effective when it really feels like we're just friends hanging out.  

Who else is involved in the creative process?

My directors Sara Rejaie and Charlie McDermott (who played Sue Hecks brother on The Middle) were HUGELY involved in the creative process, and went above and beyond their directorial duties in helping me shape the show into what it is today. They didn't just direct my acting, or come up with fun blocking, they really made me delve into what kind of show I was trying to write. We spent basically all day every day together for almost 2 months, and every day we would have hours of discussion and they would basically give me homework - which sections to edit, cut and/or entirely reformat. I can't imagine what nonsense the show would be without them. 

Who would you like to come and see it?

Everyone! Obviously if you were a fan of the The Middle, I think you will especially like it, but the response from the (sold out!) preview shows I did in Los Angeles was shockingly, overwhelmingly positive from people who I had no idea would relate to it in any capacity. I had a feeling it would resonate with moms, or anyone who has given birth, but people of all ages and genders, fans of the show and people who have never seen a single episode, have told me they were thoroughly entertained, and also moved by it, so I encourage everyone to come on out!

What would you like audiences to take away from it?

I mean ideally I would like for audiences to feel seen in at least some capacity, as the themes (I think at least) are pretty universal, even though they're told through a super specific lens (I don't know how many people are coming to see it who have been on a sitcom for nine years and also had a traumatic birth to twins). But all I really want people to take from it is how insane it is that identical twins are a thing that exist IN REAL LIFE, and also have a full understanding of what goes down during a cesarean section procedure, because that, too, is WILD. 

Eden Sher: I Was On A Sitcom will be performed at 8.20pm in Gilded Balloon Teviot (Turret) from 2nd – 28th August (Not 14th or 15th)

Booking link: https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:4940/

Photo credit: Joseph Canoza

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