Crybabies square up for another fight with BCG

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the woods... Edinburgh Fringe Best Newcomer nominees Crybabies (James Gault, Michael Clarke and Ed Jones) return with their new creation: Bagbeard - a sci-fi infected narrative sketch adventure about finding home, forbidden love, monsters, mystery and massive regret.

Bagbeard is E.T meets The Wicker Man meets Harry Meets Sally in this boundlessly absurd and heart-warming story about finding your place in the universe. After snagging a Best Newcomer nomination for Danger Brigade in 2019, nothing could stop them (shy of a global pandemic and an unexploded World War 2 bomb on Dean Street which got in the way of their Soho Theatre run... and maybe an ongoing fight with us).

You were nominated for best newcomer in 2019 and then there hasn't been a Fringe to return to until this year. What have you missed about Fringe in the meantime?

There's so much about the summer of 2019 that moistens our eyes. Tie-dye, Love Island (2019) and a little something called the British Comedy Guide's 39 best reviewed shows of the Fringe.

THAT'S RIGHT. We're still not over coming dead last in your parade of embarrassment! Bring out your 'least best' reviewed shows they cried! And out came Crybabies clutching the corpse of narrative sketch comedy.

But we won't linger on it. Because some of us actually used the pandemic for a bit of self-improvement thanks. And also, because we've got two thousands tickets to sell and our last box office report came back titled *gulp*.

Great question though. Probably Paul Merton's Impro Chums.

Your show has aliens, bad guys, spooky woods, pagan festivals, musical numbers, and villainous plots - is it going to be scary?

Since when were musical numbers scary? Numbers maybe (666, Inside Number 9... I could go on) but musical numbers? Come on guys. It's questions like these that make us think you WANT us to be fighting. We're trying to move on.

Sorry. Yes it might be scary but for Christ's sake it's a comedy show. That has to be the main takeaway from all this.

How can we tell which of you is which in real life?

Right, OK. So, all character-driven narrative sketch comedians look the same to you, do they? For the last time, Ed is short, James has a moustache and Michael is the other one. It's. Not. Hard.

An unexploded WW2 bomb stopped you from performing at Soho Theatre in London. Who do you suspect of travelling back in time to put it there just to spoil your plans when it will be/was found?

Finally, a bit of journalism. Aside from whatever editor of yours was 'working' that week, we've narrowed it down to three potential suspects:

1) Rob Oldham - The amount of times we've overheard him in Brooke's bar saying, "I'm gonna go back in time and plant a bomb on Dean Street to stop those pricks playing Soho" was not normal. He shouldn't have even been in there.

2) London Board of Tourism - We all remember how dull the WWII anniversary celebrations were (YAWN). This had all the hallmarks of a PR stunt for 2045's VE Day Centenary Picnic.

3) God - Never liked us, never will.

What makes you cry?

Come to think of it, we haven't cried since we came last in the British Comedy Guide's 39 best... - oh great. Nice work team, guess you got us again. Are you happy? We're not. We're crying. We're Crybabies. And we're on at 5.50pm in Pleasance 10 Dome 3rd-28th August (not the 15th).