Shay Mace
Aidan Greene arrives at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from Dublin with his Stuttermilk Pancakes next month. We caught up with the self-proclaimed ‘bad boy of stammering’ for to hear more on his big-hearted show about embracing what makes you different and having serious craic along the way.
You can catch Aidan Greene: Stuttermilk Pancakes at Dexter at Underbelly, Bristo Square on August 5th – 31st (not the 18th) from 17:45 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi Aidan! Your show follows your journey being told not to let your stutter define you, and coming to embrace what makes you different. What made you want to tell that story now and where have you found the funny within it?
Aidan: The impetus to tell this story came from meeting a young stammerer a few years ago. Meeting him made he see that the well-meaning advice to “not let it define you” is complete rubbish. I thought so what if it does define you? What if that’s actually fine? It made me realize how important it is to be open and confident in your stammering rather than constantly trying to hide it. Finding the comedy in this show has meant looking back at the times in my life where I was made to feel like my speech was a problem and finding the absurdity in those situations. Luckily for me (and unluckily for my childhood self) I’ve held onto old homework assignments from speech therapy and actual video recordings of my school plays so I have first hand evidence!
Shay: Tell us about your process for putting together this hour – what do you do to get yourself motivated and what challenges have you found with this material?
Aidan: The biggest challenge with writing a show this personal is fighting the urge to protect yourself. When you’re looking back at difficult times in your life, your natural instinct is to gloss over the parts where you felt vulnerable or embarrassed. But as a comedian those parts are where the best material lives. You have to force yourself to be brutally honest. To motivate myself I try to remember all of the terrible portrayals of stammering I’ve seen in media over the years. That really motivates me to create something much better and more authentic. Plus, nothing motivates a comedian quite like the looming terror of the Edinburgh Fringe.
Shay: Tell us about your comedy icons – who are they, and how have they influenced your work?
Aidan: I’ve always been influenced by storytelling comedians who aren’t afraid to be vulnerable. In 2010 I saw Simon Amstell at Vicar Street in Dublin and it was the first time I truly thought I could be a comedian. I had never seen a comedian be so brutally honest on stage and it opened up a whole new idea of comedy for me. After that I discovered Mike Birbiglia and I felt like he was a great model for the kind of narrative style I wanted to develop. Then came the Tig Notaro “I have cancer” set which really showed me how to navigate the heaviest, most difficult topics on stage without losing the laughs.
Shay: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Aidan: I don’t have any superstitious rituals per se, but I do have a mantra that I force myself to repeat before every show: ‘It’s the audience’s first time seeing the show, so give them the best possible version of it.’ The Edinburgh Fringe is exhausting. By week 3 you can easily end up on autopilot. It’s easy to fall into the trap of just saying the show rather than fully performing it. Reminding myself that the crowd in front of me has bought tickets for a fresh experience completely resets my brain and forces me to bring my best self.
Shay: What do you do when you’re faced with writer’s block?
Aidan: What I love to do whenever I have writer’s block is to look at a show I did ten years ago. As a comedian you’re always improving and evolving. Often, a throwaway line or a half-baked premise from a decade ago that wasn’t fully fleshed out can spark a brand-new idea today. Even if you don’t find anything it can still be therapeutic. Sometimes you just need to see how much you’ve improved to encourage you to continue. At the very least I’ll know that whatever I write today will be way better than what I thought was hilarious in 2016.
Shay: Will the show be performed anywhere ahead of EdFringe?
Aidan: The show will officially debut at the Edinburgh Fringe but I’ll be putting in the miles at home in Dublin before I board the flight. Over the coming weeks I have a series of secret preview gigs booked in. The audiences at these shows don’t actually know who is going to walk out on stage. It could be a massive household name or an up-and-coming act. These gigs are great because you’re coming on to a completely cold crowd which is the best way to hone the show and get it festival ready!
Shay: With EdFringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
Aidan: I’m most excited to start performing my show. What’s brilliant about the Fringe is that because you’re performing every single night, the hour naturally evolves as the month goes on, and it’s always fun to see what new jokes and spontaneous stories emerge. I’m also excited to see all of my camp friends. Every year in Edinburgh I meet the most incredible people. Whether it be performers, audience members or the absolute legend in Chicken Skoop who sometimes gives me a free fried chicken waffle cone.
Shay: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Aidan: It would be a signature cocktail called “Stuttermilk”. On paper, it sounds like a drink that shouldn’t make any sense but once you take a sip, you realize it’s absolutely delicious. A comedian with a stammer sounds like an oxymoron to a lot of people but when you leave the show you’ll realize it actually makes perfect sense.
A reminder, you can catch Aidan Greene: Stuttermilk Pancakes at Dexter at Underbelly, Bristo Square on August 5th – 31st (not the 18th) from 17:45 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Image Credit: Steve Ullathorne
