Shay Mace
We first caught emerging theatre duo Dylan and Will’s debut piece Cody and Beau at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, which led them to rave success taking the piece further onto other festivals and destinations. The duo have returned for the upcoming Fringe this August with another piece exploring male friendship, this time through an introspective look at the Festival setup itself, following two comedians who reunite after their double act had imploded some years before.
We caught up with the pair for a pixelated pint to find out more about the show, and expanding their double act into a trio for this year. You can catch The Joker and The Thief at Studio at theSpaceTriplex on August 7th – 15th from 20:05 (50mins), and then again at Upper Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St on August 17th – 29th (not the 23rd) from 20:15 (50mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi Dylan and Will! We caught your last show, Cody and Beau: A Wild West Story, at EdFringe last year – tell us about what you’ve been up to in the meantime.
D&W: Hey Shay, thanks for having us! Cody and Beau had a bit of life beyond last year’s Fringe which certainly kept us busy. We took the show up to the Dundee Fringe and then down to the Jack Studio Theatre in London – an incredible experience straight off the back of the festival. It was great to see so many people there who couldn’t make the show in Edinburgh. What had started as our Fringe debut had suddenly opened up so many more opportunities, and the reception was more than we could have asked for.
We rode the high of Cody and Beau for a while, but couldn’t help but want to come back to the festival with something different. So we returned to the writing desk, with a bit more experience under our belt, and got to work.
Shay: The Joker and the Thief is something of a self-aware piece, examining the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the 1980s through the eyes of two comics – tell us about those characters, and what made you decide to bring the story to the stage now.
D&W: Sid and Larry are two halves of what used to be a comedy duo. Our backdrop, the 1980 Fringe, is where the two reunite after having not spoken for five years. Larry has become an international comedy star, while Sid is dying on his arse performing stand-up in a cellar down the Royal Mile. The night Larry is set to perform, Sid turns up on the doorstep of his dressing room. What drew us to them is that on the surface one might look like a ‘success’ and the other a ‘failure’, but really they’re two men on the opposite ends of a broken friendship, and neither is necessarily happy.
In a way our show is almost the ‘epilogue’ of the plot. By the time we meet them in this dressing room, the rise of Sid and Larry’s comedy duo is in the past, their breakup has already happened, both men have gone their separate ways and built their own lives. It’s only now, in one room, with an hour before Larry goes onstage, that they actually have to face each other. We were drawn to that. All the drama is in the aftermath.
Those who saw our last show might recognise something familiar in that. Cody and Beau followed two boys who wanted to become cowboys, a dream built on idealised preconceptions about the world beyond their town. This is a step further down that path, about two boys whose dream seemed within their grasp, and what happens on the other side when it falls through.
The 1980 Fringe really excited us as a setting. What’s extraordinary about that year is that stand-up comedy essentially didn’t exist at the festival yet. Alexei Sayle brought one of the first ever stand-up shows to the festival that very year. The contrast between that and the Fringe as it exists now is staggering, and Sid and Larry became our way into that story. One man performing in a cellar, one man headlining the International Festival; it’s a sample of everything the Fringe has been and everything it’s become.
We’ve also written a third character this time round in Howard, Larry’s manager, which has given the whole thing a new energy. He adds a layer of chaos and complexity to the friendship at the centre that we couldn’t have got to with just the two of us. We’ll leave it at that. He’ll be played by a friend of ours, Rufus Goodman.
Shay: How has the creative process been of putting the show together? Give us an idea of the journey you’ve been on with it so far.
D&W: We’ve spent a lot of time in a room together. Writing, rewriting, cutting, arguing about cuts, reinstating the cuts, arguing again. One of the great things about writing as a duo is that the show comes from two different minds and two different visions. I originally thought this might be a liability, but in practice it means that every line has to justify itself, as nothing gets through uncontested. Particularly when we write from the perspective of the character we’re playing, there’s a real instinct to fight for your character’s corner: why would he do this?, would he actually say that?, or how would he react to this moment? That energy is incredibly productive because it forces us to be clear about what the show actually is at its core, and always makes us return to what we are trying to say.
We’ve also been rehearsing like crazy. One of our challenges (very much self-inflicted) is working without a director, as we devise the pieces ourselves. It means there’s no outside eye to tell you when something isn’t landing, or when you’ve been staring at a scene so long you’ve completely lost perspective on it. We’re leaning on friends and trusted voices along the way to gather as many opinions as we can and to work the show as much as possible. But there is also a feeling that until a public audience sits in front of it, we’re working somewhat in the dark, and Fringe will be the first time that happens. It’s extremely exciting and, if we’re being completely honest, a little terrifying. We can’t wait.
Shay: What will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
D&W: The audience will walk into soft jazz and low warm light. In many ways, if the audience looks around themselves, they’re already in our show. They’re at the Fringe. Centre stage there is a single microphone stand.
When the lights go down, an intercom crackles, and a voice announces our comedian for the night. For a moment you might genuinely wonder if you’ve walked into a stand-up show. We like the idea of that uncertainty, the audience not quite sure whether what they’re watching is meant to be going wrong or not.
Shay: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
D&W: It would be cool if the audience left thinking about a person in their life. An old friend, maybe, or someone they haven’t spoken to in longer than they meant to, for reasons that made more sense at the time than they do now. It may make them think about what things were, to what they are today, in terms of the festival itself, or a career, or a relationship. At its core this is a show about two people who loved each other as best friends, who shared a dream together, and what happened when that gets complicated by ambition, pride, trust, and all the things in between.
We also hope the audience laughs. After all, the show is about two comedians. The show is meant to move fast, as the closer we get to Larry’s showtime, the more chaos unfolds. It should be, above all, a real fun time.
Shay: What journey has the show been on to find itself at EdFringe 2026?
D&W: After Cody and Beau we knew we wanted to come back to Edinburgh, that was certain, but we didn’t know what with. We knew that we were drawn to male friendships as a subject, and I think once we had landed on 1980 as the setting, realising what that year actually meant for stand-up comedy at the Fringe, the whole thing started to unravel from there. The writing process has been a long one, longer than Cody and Beau, because the show kept evolving and expanding the deeper we got into it. We’ve been working out what we feel works and what doesn’t right up until recently, but we think we know now. Ask us again after the first night.
Shay: With EdFringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
D&W: We can’t wait to embrace the bedlam of it. August in Edinburgh just feels like a fever dream. Looking back on Cody and Beau, it just felt like one huge adrenaline rush. What excites us most is the passion from everyone, particularly when someone flyers their show to you and you get the feeling that what they are about to do on stage means everything to them. And it’s even better if you see the show and it’s really damn good. Being surrounded by that many people who care that deeply about what they’re making is truly inspiring. The whole community of it is immense, you get people from all over the world and get to meet some incredible characters. And we’re looking forward to those post show pints (or pre show, who knows).
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?
D&W: A pint of Guiness, which has been sitting there settling for about five years. It looks like it might have gone off. And you aren’t too sure whether that first sip is going to be bitter, or flat, or rich, or heavy. It may taste familiar. It may taste lukewarm and disgusting. Or, it might be just about the best pint you’ve ever had.
A reminder, you can catch The Joker and The Thief at Studio at theSpaceTriplex on August 7th – 15th from 20:05 (50mins), and then again at Upper Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St on August 17th – 29th (not the 23rd) from 20:15 (50mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
