Tamar Broadbent: 10 Edinburgh Fringe questions

Tamar Broadbent answers 10 questions about her 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show...

Give us a quick overview of your comedy career so far. Are you happy with where you're at?

Good gig. Great gig. Good gig. Great gig. Good gig. Great gig. Fucking awful gig. ("Oh God. have I chosen entirely the wrong life path?") Great gig ("Phew!"). (Since 2013)

Also.. Burger Kings. Service stations. YouTube videos. Writing in cafes. "Tell us a joke, then?". 'What is the meaning of life?' chats on the M1. "Grandma, I don't want to settle down in the village and get married, I want to be a musical comedian. Yes it is a job. I know, I wouldn't have thought it either". Touring to Adelaide. Lithuania. Writing a new show. Previewing it. Arriving in Edinburgh. Starting the run. Pause for breath. Happy? Absoflibbinlutely.

Tell us two truths and one lie about yourself (but mix them up, keep us guessing!).

1. I know all the Spanish words to Enrique Iglesias' 2001 No Apagues La Luz (Don't Turn Off the Lights) album. Even though I don't speak Spanish.

2. My Edinburgh debut was in 2010 when I played a 'Star' in an adaptation of Peter Pan. Not the star. A star. Like an actual, twinkly star. Yes.

3. Jim Broadbent is my Dad.

Describe your new show in exactly 23 words.

Songs about hipsters, gym girls, waxing, STD freak-outs, break-ups, deleting and reinstating your Facebook page, and learning to move the fridge.

Any cunning plans to get more punters in?

I basically tell people the Tattoo takes place at 5.30pm in the Espionage, and then we're both like, 'LOL, obvs not', and then we become friends, and then they come and see my show. Works 14% of the times I've tried it. (Which is zero times.)

I do my own flyering so when people meet me on the street they know who they are coming to spend an hour with. I reach as many people as I can, and then I do the best show I can every day, hoping word will spread amongst people who like musical-theatry-storytellingy-stand-up-comedy and that they'll come find me on Cowgate.

What's your plan for trying to eat - and drink - healthily during the Fringe?

Beers are healthy, aren't they?

I have learned in my Edinburgh experience that it is important just to eat. As long as you eat, some healthy stuff and some burgers, you'll be fine. But if you don't eat, and then you drink all of the beers, that's when the bad things happen.

What will you miss most while you're away from home?

We don't have a living room in our flat (which we have dubbed the 'hell house'). In its place we have a 'hell room', which looks like a cross between a portal to another world and a crack den. So when we socialise, we mainly hang out by the toaster. I guess I miss having a sofa instead of how what we have now is the toaster.

But generally, Edinburgh is my favourite place to be and I wish the festival could last all year and that I never have to go home. (She says on Day 6).

Aside from performing, what else are you looking forward to doing in Scotland's fine capital?

Seeing as many shows as I can, meeting the amazing audiences who make the festival as great as it is, climbing up Arthur's Seat at some point with a cider in one hand and grasp of how tiny we are in comparison to the big and beautiful universe in the other. And maybe shagging someone.

If you took over programming a Fringe venue, what would your perfect line-up of comedians be?

At the moment, probably me and my housemates: Jenny Collier, Richard Todd and Dave Green... so we have somewhere to go that's not the toaster in the hell house. (They're also amazing comedians who you should check out NOW!)

Name the one person you'd rather not bump into during the festival.

Probably James Rose. We were going out for a week in Year 7 and then he dumped me because I was 'frigid', even though neither of us knew what that meant. I haven't seen him since and he once tried to add me on Facebook and I said no. I mean, it wouldn't be awful to run into him again, but I just feel like we'd have nothing to say to each other.

Why should audiences pick your show over the 1,800+ other Fringe offerings listed on BCG this year?

It's just so much fun. 'Intimate, heartfelt and hilarious. A fantastic way to spend an hour of your Festival.' (Not my words, the words of a lovely lady from Yorkshire who came to the show yesterday. She gave me a hug. She was the best).

'Tamar Broadbent: Get Ugly' is at Espionage at 5:30pm until the 28th August. Listing