Binge Fringe Magazine

INTERVIEW: A Digital Pint with… Karl Taylor on //BUZZCUT// Double Thrills, Access, Activism, and Live Art

Next week Glasgow will play host to the opening performances of the newest edition of //BUZZCUT//’s Double Thrills festival. Focused on elevating marginalised voices in live performance, strengthening and broadening communities, and bringing new audiences to Live Art, a series of exciting developing work is being shared over the coming few months in the city’s performance venues.

We caught up with the //BUZZCUT//’s Organisational Director Karl Taylor for a pixelated pint to talk all things access, activism, and live performance. Join us in the Binge Fringe Digital Pub to delve into the programme.

Read the full programme for Double Thrills and purchase tickets on //BUZZCUT//’s website here.


Jake: Hi Karl, on BUZZCUT’s website you say that the festival believes in strengthening and broadening communities – tell us a bit about that mission and how its influenced the programming and direction of this year’s edition.

Karl: Hi Jake! BUZZCUT Festival was set up due to the loss of National Review Live Art & Double Thrills set up due to the loss of The Arches. Both spaces generated and sustained a vibrant community of makers & people interested in experimental performance practice. The Arches was really a cornerstone of the whole sector in many ways, and they supported artists throughout their careers.

In all the work we do we aim to reinvigorate this community, both to bring incredible work to the city and support local artists; but our events are about the social connection, the space between the shows in the bar & foyer.

We believe that a strong artistic community makes good art. We work hard to open this space out to everyone; offering pay what you can afford ticket prices where we can, and developing bespoke access provision for deaf and disabled audiences, like BSL Interpretation or captioning, that’s integrated into the aesthetics and world of the pieces instead of as a dry add-on.


Jake: I’m wondering if you can tell us a bit more about that focus on access – do you develop that integration working with the artists and what is that process like?

Karl: I think we’re really lucky in many ways – Live Art as a form really lends itself to creative access integration, because it’s not like the world of theatrical plays or similar where you might feel like you’re ‘breaking’ something to integrate access.

It’s not something you can ignore in this medium. We’re all in the room together, we can’t pretend accessibility doesn’t exist, so it becomes part of the form. Live artists are very equipped to respond to that, and some of my dearest memories are when its come together. We had an act performing lip sync tracks in Blacklight, so we had the BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter signing in bright white gloves, neon lipstick and glowpaint.

We’re also lucky that Glasgow is a city with a wealth of disability arts championing and training, from the BA Performance for Deaf and HoH Actors Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Birds of Paradise Theatre Company. So to not engage with that amount of talent in the city would be ridiculous for us!

It’s also nice when we have visiting artists or international artists coming from other countries or sectors where access is not as much a part of the conversation. They really enjoy that process of collaboration with the interpreters, who are artists and creatives in their own right.


Jake: So tell me more about ‘Live Art’, what does that term and genre mean for you in practice when you’re looking to programme a festival?

Karl: Live Art has a 40 year legacy in Glasgow; through spaces like the Third Eye Centre (now the CCA), Tramway, The Arches & National Review. Live Art is really a way of thinking about performance that makes space for true experimentation; and space for people, bodies & identities that are otherwise often excluded from more traditional contexts.

Through our other platforms we love messy, one of a kind actions; intimate encounters for one person at a time, spectacular interventions in public space, from the quite abstract to very personal; chaotic, playful & surprising. Our upcoming Double Thrills programme is really focused on ‘sit-down-and-watch’ shows in theatre spaces, but that same energy of experimentation and possibility is absolutely centre stage.


Jake: So tell us more about Double Thrills specifically and how it works.

Karl: Double Thrills normally runs in two halves, the first half being new work from Scottish artists & the second half being a touring show from outside of Scotland. We run it every other year, and we’ve started settling into this routine of running BUZZCUT Festival one year, and then Double Thrills in the other.

As this season is in venues across the city we’re shaking up that format a bit but the spirit is the same. For the Scottish artists we look for performance makers who are working at the edges; of dance, theatre, cabaret, activism, sound, club performance – and want to push their work into new territories. They are all developing new works so it’s a chance to glimpse shows in development & fresh ideas that will be on the mainstages in the years to come. For the touring shows we are really looking to bring a variety of practices and styles that we don’t get to see often in Scotland, where there’s a big focus on plays or new writing. 


Jake: Can you give us a flavour of each of the shows in the programme and what the audience can expect?

Karl: Our first show is Marikiscrycrycry’s Goner on the Tramway mainstage. It’s an attempt to establish a black tradition of ‘dance-horror’; thinking about what the field of horror and offer the field of dance and vice versa. Lots of fake blood and booty shaking. The artist has shown in Glasgow a bunch of times and I think there’s a real buzz about seeing their new work.

Then in April we have three programmes; the first will be at the CCA and will be a completely different vibe; a queer cabaret from local artists Craig Manson, Femme Castratrice & Jess Paris and we’ll be inviting Austria based performance maker Alex Franz Zehetbauer for a dreamlike piano concert. I absolutely love Alex’s work; they are an incredible singer but the piece is very deconstructed, funny and playful; playing the piano with their feet, gurgle-singing with a glass of water & chatting to the audience. This is their first intro to Glasgow and I think everyone will love!

Next we’re heading to Platform in Easterhouse – Katy Baird is a Glaswegian artist whose been down south for many years. Her latest show Get Off has toured all round Europe so it’s nice to be bringing it back home to Glasgow. It’s an extremely funny, existential look at the human need for distraction; over consumption, partying & trying to enjoy life in a chaotic world. Katy is such an incredible & charming performer & it’s impossible not to fall in love with her. We’ll also be showing two extracts of some really exciting local works from Kirstin Halliday & Althea Young; both of those projects are going to be everywhere before long so you’ll be glad to see a sneak peak!

Then we’ll have one more programme in May as part of Dance International Glasgow Festival, which will be announced soon – but it’s going to be very special!


Jake: Tell us a bit about working with Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh for the festival’s bonus performance, thisegg.

Karl: We caught thiseggs’ show at the Fringe last year and thought it was talking about such important and timely things, that when we heard the Traverse where going to show it we just were keen to encourage everyone to see it. It’s a real story about a show that was cancelled whilst in development, due to an extreme backlash from right wing protestors.

This is unfortunately becoming a much more common occurrence, including in Scotland with highly organised transphobic & right wing organisers targeting queer & trans centred work, so we felt it was an important conversation to include in our programme.


Jake: Is that something which BUZZCUT has experienced first-hand as an organisation? And I suppose, if I can ask, what do you think the end result of this stint of queerphobic backlash will be?

Karl: It’s tough. Buzzcut has avoided specific backlash I think because we make the focus on inviting people to Live Art, to experience something new and see new work. So we don’t normally put front-and-centre the messaging of individual projects.

So many artists that we’re associated with have experienced it though. And we’ve tried to support, mentor and guide them through that. I’ve never seen anything like it – it’s so easy to de-contextualise an action in this field just to generate shock and sell papers to fuel a culture war, ignoring the fact that it is completely removing what’s happening from the context. It’s just a really easy target to try and prove how ‘degenerate queers’ are ‘wasting public money’.

As for what the end result is… I’m concerned it will make funders and venues more risk-averse, because they might not have the capacity or knowledge to manage those shitstorms. It takes a network of people, so they might avoid programming or funding certain work because it is seen as too risky. Which is itself, a form of quiet discrimination. What they need to recognise is that these loud voices will move onto the next thing very quickly. What we need is a preparedness to to stand in solidarity with each other, and hold the line.


Jake: That’s a very powerful message, thank you for sharing it with us Karl. You’re stepping down as Organisational Director at the end of this year’s festival – looking back, what are you most proud of in your tenure of leading the festival’s organisation?

Karl: Yes! It’s very bittersweet as I’ve been working at BUZZCUT for 10 years but I’m so excited to be passing the torch to Nene Camara who is brilliant. Outside of Double Thrills we run a Festival, which is much more concentrated over 5 days featuring around 20 shows.

I would say my proudest moment would be bringing the Festival back in 2023 after a 6 year gap. I hadn’t fully realised how much I missed the feeling of being around such a vibrant & up for it group of people, all hungry for new & unique experiences. There is such an appetite for risky, weird art in Glasgow but it’s rare to see that community manifested in one place, and it’s such a nice feeling to be part of that.


Read the full programme for Double Thrills and purchase tickets on //BUZZCUT//’s website here.

Image Credit: Maria Baranova

Jake Mace

Our Lead Editor & Edinburgh Editor. Jake loves putting together reviews that try to heat-seek the essence of everything they watch. They are interested in New Writing, Literary Adaptations, Musicals, Cabaret, and Stand-Up. Jake aims to cover themes like Class, Nationality, Identity, Queerness, and AI/Automation.

Festivals: EdFringe (2018-2024), Brighton Fringe (2019), Paris Fringe (2020), VAULT Festival (2023), Prague Fringe (2023-24), Dundee Fringe (2023-24), Catania OFF Fringe (2024)
Pronouns: They/Them
Contact: jake@bingefringe.com