Jake Mace
Laurie Magers’ upcoming debut EdFringe hour Do You Accept These Charges? follows her journey navigating a relationship with an ‘incarcerated multi-felon’ from phone sex to prison letters, visitation to vaginal drug smuggling. With plenty to talk about we caught up with Laurie for a pixelated pint to find out more about what inspired the show.
You can catch Do You Accept These Charges from 30th July to August 24th (not the 12th or 18th) at Pleasance Courtyard – Below from 15:10 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Jake: Hi Laurie! Your debut hour explores a relationship with an incarcerated multi-felon. Tell us about what inspired the show and how you found the humour in the story.
Laurie: Well, it’s a true story. I actually did date an incarcerated multi-felon. And every time I tell the story in any amount of detail, I realize just how shocking and insane the series of events during this period of my life really were. From inside the relationship, it felt normal. I had all the common feelings that you might feel with young love. There were highs and lows, there were fights, there was romance. But now that I have a significant amount of distance from it, I experience it almost how a spectator might, and the story is enthralling, frustrating, and oftentimes horrifying.
But another thing the distance showed me is how funny so many parts of that relationship, and my decisions within it were. I was young and dumb. He was young and dumber. Some of the things I did to make that relationship work and make him happy are so appalling that you just have to laugh at them. I altered my life in ridiculous ways. Everything I did revolved around being a prison girlfriend, and being a love addict, I committed HARD. I told lies, broke laws, destroyed friendships. It’s one of those if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry type of things.
Jake: The show explores love addiction, sexuality, abuse, and the complexities of the American prison system in just one hour – how did you manage to fit so much in and what’s your process of writing?
Laurie: I won’t lie, it was very tough fitting everything into just one hour. Originally, the show was twenty minutes longer and I did have to cut some sections that were very near and dear to my heart. Put simply, it is a non-stop wild ride from beginning to end of the hour.
The writing process for this show was very different from how I normally write. Usually, I’ll think about a project for several months and then write it all in a weekend. I wanted to approach this project with more care and patience. Before writing it, I wasn’t a huge fan of solo shows. So I spent about a year watching every solo show that I could, and I would make notes about which elements I liked and hated about each show, and that informed the shape mine would take. Then I took about six months to write the script of “Do You Accept These Charges?” Since it’s autobiographical and some of the subject matter goes to a traumatic place for me, it was an intense process, but I’m glad I went as deep with it as I did.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Laurie: My biggest goal when doing the show is to give the audience emotional whiplash. Because that’s what it felt like to live in this relationship. I want them to relate to what I went though, but also feel like it’s so far from anything they’ve ever experienced. The audience should feel conflicted while watching it, about why they’re laughing so hard, and questioning every turn they’ve made in past relationships they’ve had.
Jake: Tell us what you’re most excited about for EdFringe 2025.
Laurie: I’m most excited to hang and party with a bunch of other artists, storytellers, comedians and theatre folk for a month. I’ve been doing my thing out here in LA for over a decade and it the industry is a small world, so I’m stoked to meet NEW people that are doing the same thing I’m doing but in different parts of the world. I’m a 100% extrovert and I can’t wait to just straight up make friends, laugh, drink, dance, and vibe with people.
Plus obviously, Edinburgh Fringe is totally a bucket list item for me and I’m so stoked to be able to check it off my list.
Jake: If your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Laurie: I think my show would be like a spiked egg nog. It festive for the holiday season, controversial, and hekinda heavy but kinda light at the same time.
A reminder, you can catch Do You Accept These Charges from 30th July to August 24th (not the 12th or 18th) at Pleasance Courtyard – Below from 15:10 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Image Credit: Kim Newmoney
