INTERVIEW – LEW FITZ / LEW FITZ: SOFT LAD

Posted on by Amy Rye

Amy catches up with comedian Lew Fitz ahead of his debut solo hour at the Edinburgh Fringe – Soft Lad.

Hi Lew, how are you feeling ahead of the Fringe?

I feel great, really positive, excited to do the show and ready to roll!

This is your debut solo hour – how are you preparing for it?

I brought a work-in-progress to the Fringe in 2019 called Chucky Egg, I’d say maybe half of the material translated over to Soft Lad so that was great to have a base point to jump off from. I’ve been writing this show for three years now and had wonderful previews at Brighton, Falmouth, Ludlow all throughout London, probably around 20 all in all so lots of prep work but knowing the areas where I can be a bit freer and allow myself to play.

What is your inspiration for Soft Lad?

Honestly, my family and my relationship with them and the North West. Like so many people I left home when I was 18 and I haven’t been back since. The show acts as an explanation or reckoning with myself and taking stock from my life so far.

What can people expect from Soft Lad?

An fun show with engagement, joy and hopefully a teeny bit of poignancy too.

What are the key themes / messages in the show?

The grass isn’t always greener, you can’t run from your problems and if anyone can figure out the nursery rhyme that is in the show – please get in touch!

How have previews been going?

I won’t lie and say they’ve all been fabulous; people are hard to get in when you’re relatively unknown but when I have had the chance to perform in front of people, I’ve loved it. I’m really happy with my preparation.

Why do you think the Fringe is so big for comedians?

It is our mecca, it’s a platform to perform all month, get better, meet new people and hopefully get seen by fancy industry types.

You’ve performed at the Fringe before – what is the best and worst thing about performing at the Fringe?

Flyering breaks my heart, this is the first year when I’m taking a little step back from flyering to be able to focus on the show. There isn’t really a worse way to prepare for a show than 5 minutes people standing in the rain with a picture of your own face begging people to come and watch you. It’s all part of the fun and games though!

The best thing? It’s my holiday. I haven’t been on a holiday since I started comedy so my money gets invested in Edinburgh so I can see loads of friends and meet loads of new people.

What shows will you be seeing whilst you’re in Edinburgh?

To be honest I haven’t booked anything in, with this being my first year. I want to be totally focused on my show for now.

With a huge number of comedy shows to choose from at the Fringe, tell people why they should come to yours!

I’m not a comedian that remembers the monologue and performs it to the back of the room every day. I love being in the room and feeding off the audience, as such every single show is slightly different, and I’ve tried to write that into the show, so every show I do will be unique to that audience. I’m not great with self-promotion but in short; it is an honest, heartfelt and hopefully a funny and relatable show.

And finally, where can people buy tickets to your shows and where do people find you on socials?

Gilded Balloon, Teviot, The Turret 7pm (3rd-29th) Not 15th
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/lew-fitz-soft-lad

@lew.fitz (Instagram)
@ThatLewFitz (Twitter)
http://www.lewfitz.com

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