INTERVIEW: A Digital Pint With… Ayindé Howell on Old Memories, Masculinity, Crowd Work and Summer

Ayindé Howell’s upcoming debut EdFringe show 16 Summers looks back across his childhood as an African American boy growing up in his father’s store in LA – sifting through old memories and exploring notions of masculinity through crowd work, storytelling, theatre and stand-up, alongside his past as a celebrity vegan chef, there was plenty for us to talk about. We caught up with Ayindé for a pixelated pint to find out more about what inspired him to bring his autobiographical story to the stage.

Catch 16 Summers at Space 3 at theSpace on the Mile from 11th – 22nd August at 10:30pm (55mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.

Kat: Hi Ayindé! Tell us about your show’s journey from creation to ending up at the EdFringe stage.

Ayindé: This show has been an act of specific manifestation. I started doing this show as a five-minute standup set (the first five minutes of the show) but every time I opened, I started by saying this is an excerpt from my one man show. After touring with Tim Robbins new play Topsy-Turvy all last year, two things happened: I realized that theater was all over the world and appreciated much more than we appreciate it here in America, and Tim Robbins had a program where people in the company could submit 10 minute plays for a night of 10 x 10 minute plays.

I got back from Romania and got Covid the same week the deadline for the 10-minute plays was due, so I got myself hopped up on ginger tea, laid my phone on my chest and dictated what I thought 10 minutes of a show could be. I then simply copy paste that all out of format and final draft and submitted it. Much to my surprise on our next trip, Tim told me he liked the idea, and I was in.

We were set to open the show Night Miracles, a night of 10 x 10 minute plays the week of January 7, 2025. For those of you who don’t know that’s when Los Angeles was engulfed in a fire hurricane literally. So, we postpone the show for a week and I had to evacuate; I went to Las Vegas stayed at a friend’s house who wasn’t home. We finally opened Night Miracles with an abbreviated run of just four weeks. But during that time, 16 Summers was quickly becoming a fan favorite. 

I said “I’m taking this to Edinburgh Fringe” but when I applied in February, they said I was too late, but I might be able to find a spot. When I pitched an hour-long show, I still maybe had 15 minutes written, but I used the video from Night Miracles to get in.

From March until mid-May, I have been writing and rehearsing. On July 10^th, I had my first public workshop show of 16 Summers here in Los Angeles and it was great. I’m feeling really good about the international debut of my solo show, and I am now in the countdown.

Kat: Tell us about the inspiration behind your show and why you think its themes are relevant to an audience in 2025. Think – why am I telling this story now? Who will it connect with?

Ayindé: I started telling a story about my relationship with my father after he passed in 2021 and I was going through a grieving process. He always told me I should do stand-up and so finally doing standup led me to where I am today and from the time I spent doing the show in January and the most recent show that we just did. I know that this is not just for me. This is for the world. There’s healing that needs to happen between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, people my age who are adults who have to deal with the death of a parent and still be okay. It’s for people who resonate with vulnerability, truth, art, poetry.

Kat: Tell us about how the show has ended up being performed at theSpaceUK and about your relationships with the other creatives involved.

Ayindé: I was flipping through the huge Fringe book and I came across several different phone numbers. I started calling them and then one of them answered and he was too expensive and then I got theSpace and I could afford them.

My relationship with my director Gloria is great now, but it started off very antagonistic. She would harass me around the theater and haze me. No one asked her to do this. She just did it. But she showed a glimpse of being human in a late-night company take-over of the lobby bar at that waterpark hotel. So, when Tim asked me if I wanted to pair with her on Night Miracles as a performer director group I chose her… I’m not gonna lie it kind of works.

Kat: Now that we’re in the midst of Fringe season, what are you most excited for?

Ayindé: I’m most excited about doing the show and getting people to come and be willing to participate in my “crowd work” sections, have good conversations afterwards. I’m excited to see all the art I can and go to a lot of shows.

Kat: 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?

Ayindé: My show would be a homemade. I guess you would call it an Italian soda. This is something that my father used to make all the time I’ll give you a recipe.

Baba Soda

57 ml lemon juice

57 ml maple syrup (or Agave)

1.14 litres sparkling water

How: Mix the lemon and sweetener together add ice and water to taste. 

Catch 16 Summers at Space 3 at theSpace on the Mile from 11th – 22nd August at 10:30pm (55mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.