Shay Mace
We first caught Turan Ali’s ensemble storytelling work Queer Folks’ Tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre last month, which we described as “the kind of show that reminds you of the true value of the oral tradition and of community within the community.” The show will be returning to Edinburgh this August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with more line-ups, each Wednesday. Turan will also be bringing his own solo show, the fabulously titled You Straights Are F**ked Up! across the month.
We caught up with Turan for a pixelated pint to find out about his plans for the festival, the origins of QFT, and what his solo show has in store for us.
You can catch You Straights Are F**ked Up! at Just The Spare Room at Just The Tonic at The Caves on August 6th – 30th (not the 12th, 18th, 19th or 26th) from 22:25 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
You can catch Queer Folks’ Tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on August 12th, 19th & 26th from 20:30 (120mins, w/ interval). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi Turan! We caught up with you at the latest Queer Folks’ Tales in Edinburgh in June – tell us about what you’ve been up to so far and how you’ve been preparing for EdFringe.
Turan: Yes, we were so pleased you loved our June Queer Folks’ Tales in Edinburgh. Thanks so much for the 5 star review! I have been preparing for bringing not one but two shows to the Fringe. For the weekly Queer Folks’ Tales (now at its 4th Fringe) I scour the festival for exciting international queer performers to come and tell amazing stories of LGBTQ+ lives in their part of the world. So far we have storytellers from Austria, USA, Turkey, Cyprus, Ireland and, of course, Scotland. For my solo comedy show, I’ve been preparing by taking the show on a far east Asian tour.
I am just back from performing it in Singapore, Vietnam and Japan where it went down a storm! Despite being quite conservative countries when it comes to queerness, but of course the people who came to a raunchy provocative gay show, are not the prudes and homophobes. It was a blast in each country, and they want me to come back.
Shay: For the uninitiated, could you give us a bit of background to how you started Queer Folks’ Tales, and the journey that the show has been on so far?
Turan: Ten years ago I was living in Amsterdam and co-started a storytelling show that was and still is very popular. So, when I came back to Edinburgh, after Covid, I wanted to start a queer storytelling show that celebrates, validates and shares the hilarious and harsh realities of LGBTQ+ lives in Scotland. Introduced by the wonderful playwright Jo Clifford, I approached the country’s national storytelling venue, the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile. Eventually, using my BBC production experience to reassure them that the queers let loose on stage will be a quality act, they let me do one show, in October 2021, which Jo and I were in. It was a huge success and now we are in our 5th year of year-round shows in Edinburgh, and about to do another weekly show in our 4th EdFringe.
We are now Creative Scotland funded and do regular shows also in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Inverness. Every show has a different line-up of queer talent. We’ve had a huge variety of storytellers, from household names like novelist Val McDermid to queer performers early in their career, and everyone in between; poets, actors, stand-ups, dancers, writers, academics, drag performers and many more. This autumn we hope to start monthly shows in London too.
Shay: You’re bringing your part stand-up, part-storytelling, part-spoken word and gloriously titled hour You Straights Are F**ked Up! to EdFringe also this year – tell us about what’s in store, and why you’ve decided to bring these stories to the stage now.
Turan: I travel the world a lot with my shows and my BBC productions, and I see how the majority of the world is still a pretty hostile place for LGBTQ+ people. Most of the world still pushes “heterosexuality is best”. And yet, I also see how miserable so many straights are in their marriages, and how difficult so many of them find it even to get relationships, let alone to have the sex lives they really want. They have very little freedom. Many of us queers, in LGBTQ+-friendly countries, are living lives of freedom and sexual excitement, able to make our own rules.
I think it’s about time we started teaching the straights about how to have a fabulous life, with different ways of running relationships, and how to get the sex lives they always dreamed of. What better way to have these tough conversations about “the monogamy myth” as I call it, than through comedy. Having a gay slut with a ukulele unpack his raunchy toolbox on stage and share how he uses the tools to have lovers galore, is a liberating experience for many. Lots of straights come to the show and say it was hilarious, a bit shocking, and it’s given them so much to think about. Many agree with the title, “Yes, we straights are fucked up!” they tell me. And loads of queers come to the show to laugh at an hour of straight-bashing and feel superior. What’s not to like?
Shay: We’ve been told we can expect some cameos from someone called Sister Ejaculata in the show – tell us about her!
Turan: Ahh yes, my alter ego Sister Ejaculata, the sex positive drag nun from the Order of Perpetual Indulgence: an order of gay male nuns who promote sexual liberation and pride in all forms of human sexuality. She will indeed pop up in the show, with some very saucy blessings, an alternative set of commandments to live by and will try her best to save the souls of the gathered faithful and unfaithful. Be warned, her full name is Sister Ejaculata of the Imminent Spattering, and the front three rows are very much within range. Don’t expect guilt-tripping from this nun, quite the reverse. Slut is a very positive word for Sister Ejaculata.
Shay: Tell us about your comedy icons – who are they, and how have they influenced your work?
Turan: Gosh, I have so many comedy icons, and I have been lucky enough, through my BBC comedy and drama productions, to have worked with a few of them. Dame Edna Everage made drag comedy popular internationally, decades before RuPaul’s Drag Race. I grew up adoring Dame Edna and was lucky enough to go to one of her West End shows on my 18th birthday. I saw how she was able to be brutally honest about people, their lives and choices, yet make it acceptable and not cruel because of the flaws of the comedy character who delivered it. Joan Rivers was fearless and so self-deprecating.
She was roasting the world long before comedy roasts became popular. I learned you can point the finger at others, if you also point the finger at yourself. Sacha Baron Cohen is a comic genius in his Borat, Bruno and Ali G personas, I cry with laughter watching him, another fearless comedian. And two other comedy heroes of mine who I have been lucky enough to work with are Jennifer Saunders and Eddie Izzard. Both are world class comedians and delightful to work with.
Shay: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Turan: I like to get dressed up for gigs. I’m gay! So choosing my stage outfit is a ritual. It has to be something I feel fabulous in, and which won’t clash with the stage curtains (yes – I perform in some grand theatres in Vienna and you’ve got to co-ordinate with the drapes my dear). Don’t wear black if the curtains at the back of the stage are black – you won’t stand out. I know many comedians don’t pay much attention to what they wear. Fair enough. But, I’m a tall, slim gay man, errr hello – I like dressing up and suits look good on me. If I feel “I look good in this”, it gives me extra confidence and energy. I have so many suits in different colours and patterns, and fabulous shirts that look great on stage – choosing an outfit that I feel great in sets up the show for success before I’ve even left the house or hotel. It increases the chance of a date afterwards too.
Shay: What do you do when you’re faced with writer’s block?
Turan: I don’t get writer’s block. In fact I have the opposite problem. I have such a long list of things I want to write about and perform, it’s tempting to cram too much in. Less is more.
Shay: With EdFringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
Turan: I’m excited about all the new queer performers from around the world I am going to share a stage in the weekly Queer Folks’ Tales. This is how my recent far east Asia tour came about. In last year’s Fringe, stand-up Nebulous Niang, Singapore’s self-confessed biggest lesbian, was in one of the Queer Folks’ Tales shows, and we really hit it off. She loved my comedy and said I should bring it to Singapore. She introduced me to a Singapore producer who was interested, and she knows producers in neighbouring countries, hey presto, a far east tour. Who knows what new collaborations will emerge this year. Plus I am very excited to perform my solo show for 3 weeks because I want to see how many straights I can convince to throw off the shackles of heteronormativity, and how many queers will leave my shows feeling proud of themselves as having found their own unique way to live their lives, rather than feel shamed they did not follow the straight strait-jacket we were taught was the only way. That’s an exciting prospect that gets me out of bed every morning.
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?
Turan: Queer Folks’ Tales would be a Rainbow Paradise Cocktail which has layers of different colours: Grenadine (red), Blue Curacao, pineapple juice (yellow) and so on, because it captures the diversity of the show and huge variety of queer world experiences that get shared. Our first story last year was from a Mexican lesbian stand-up who told the story of growing up in a tiny, religious Mexican village, and her daily babysitter was a drag queen, who was loved and accepted by that conservative community. Just one of the colourful layers.
And You Straights Are F**ked Up! would be a matcha latte, sipped on a stool in the window of one of Old Compton Street in London’s many coffee bars, with gay friends, as we watch the straight guys walk down that gayest of streets looking very nervous. We sip our hot drinks and say to each other “they don’t need to worry – they’re quite safe!” Most straight guys don’t meet the very high standards us gay guys have …. we’re not interested. Now then, back to our perfectly crafted, sumptuously velvety, gloriously green matcha lattes and fabulously bitchy conversations.
A reminder, you can catch You Straights Are F**ked Up! at Just The Spare Room at Just The Tonic at The Caves on August 6th – 30th (not the 12th, 18th, 19th or 26th) from 22:25 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
You can catch Queer Folks’ Tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on August 12th, 19th & 26th from 20:30 (120mins, w/ interval). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
