Amy chats to Louise Atkinson who is heading to the Fringe with her show Mates.

Hey Louise – here’s your chance to give an elevator pitch, can you give us a brief synopsis?

I’ll give it a shot. It’s my debut hour. Basically, it’s about friendships and how we should talk about them more, using and abusing silly things my friends have done. Can you please press floor 5 since that’s where I need the elevator to stop? Ta.

What inspired you to create this show?

A while ago, I was reading an article about the psychology of friendships, and there was all this stuff about friendships I didn’t know. The article talked about everything from how we categorise friendships subconsciously, to the ultimate bromance being knights fighting and being there for each other so much they wanted to be buried together. It was so interesting, and I thought, “This affects everyone, so why don’t we talk about friendships as we do any other relationship?”. I also feel I should share my mate Lisa’s impressive list of mental, and moronic things she’s done in life on her behalf.

Have you performed at the fringe before? What are the best and worst parts of performing at the fringe? 

So I’ve been to the fringe before, doing a split bill and a 40-minute show. That’s for sure. Like a rollercoaster, you’ll get intense ups and downs, you’ll try to brace yourself when you see a dip coming, and you’ll be around people who’re going through the same thing, so you’ll feel nauseated.

Personally, I use it as a time to discover as much new stuff as I can, it’s great for that. So some of the international comedians I don’t get to usually see, all the music and I will always love watching a man stand on fire whilst juggling 4 chainsaws, which is a weird way to drive a tram, I grant you, but entertaining nonetheless.

What are the main themes within the production, and what can audiences expect?

I’d love to give you some sort of philosophical insight on this and my comedic mind, but it’s just me ranting about how great friendships are, how much I love my friends, how a breakup from a friend is ok, and how you need to watch out when you eat a kebab in someone’s car. My job is to make the audience laugh, so whatever subjective things they want to take away is entirely up to them; if you want to take away that the show was daft, go for it; you want to go on a friend date, I support it; you want to order haddock and chips twice, crack on, I won’t stop you.

Finally, with so many shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, why should people book a ticket to this one?

Because I need to hoof some tickets, mate! Like, let’s not beat around the bush here, I like you guys and everything but the reason I’m doing this Q&A is because ya girl here needs to shovel some tickets so that I can make enough money so I can buy an air fryer. So, you know, if you all want to get a pedal on and book some tickets, that be grand.

Mates is on at Gilded Balloon Teviot from the 2nd – 27th August at 3.20pm – find out more here!

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