Birthday Girls

Just about the most banging hour at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, the Birthday Girls' Sh!t Hot Party Legends was pretty self-explanatory - a sketch show that came across like a rollicking good clubnight. And they'll be doing it again at the pop-up Spiegeltent at London's Canary Wharf on September 28th. Legends!

If you've only a dim awareness of the Birthday Girls, you may recall their previous sketch troupe, Lady Garden - more on them below - or be aware that Beattie Edmondson has top comedy genes. And probably jeans. But all three are bravura actor/comics who bring vital elements to the Birthday Girls party. "We are a sketch group made up of three women," they say. "Beattie (the funny one), Rose (the funny one), and Camille (the funny one)."

They're not wrong. But have they always been funny ones?

First gig?

Our first ever gig was when we were part of six person sketch group, Lady Garden. It was back at university in Manchester and we gave the audience questionnaires about whether our material was funny or not. We can't believe we decided to carry on after that. By the time we did our first gig as Birthday Girls we were much more savvy. We handed out cake to the audience instead of questionnaires.

Favourite show, ever?

Most recently it would probably be the gig that crime writer Ian Rankin came to watch. Rose plays him in a few sketches and word got back to him via the wonders of social media so he turned up one night at the Edinburgh Festival. At the end Camille hugged him while wearing a penis suit. It was a very special gig.

Worst gig?

Glastonbury to a tent full of five people who couldn't hear us was pretty character building. Or the gig where a man wearing a kilt sat in the front row with his legs wide open. But we quite enjoy these 'horrendous' gigs in a sadistic way.

Who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?

Ha ha, good question. We did a gig for a promoter who showed us to the backstage area which turned out to be the outside of the venue. It was up north in winter, freezing and snowy. We once had a techie who was really, really, REALLY bad at sound cues who turned out to be drunk on the job and when he said goodbye to us at the end he lit his cigarette in his mouth the wrong way round.

Weirdest gig?

We've come to realise that most comedy gigs are a weird experience. We've performed on a boat that made Beattie feel seasick, in a glorified hotel conference room to people who didn't realise they were at a comedy gig, and ran away from a pub who wanted us to perform a sketch in front of everyone eating their roast dinners before they watched the Derby.

Is there one routine/gag you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?

There's always one of these in every show we ever do. We wrote something recently where Beattie dressed up as a goose who gave out shots of alcohol while we played 'Goosey Goosey Gander.' We thought it was the best thing we'd ever written. It got one try and then we never did it again.

What's your best insider travel tip, for touring comics?

Don't know if we're allowed to do some advertising here but SNYDER'S JALAPENO PRETZEL PIECES are the most delicious snack on a car journey. And make sure someone trustworthy is booking the accommodation. Camille recently booked a very convenient hotel in the centre of Manchester that turned out to be in Bolton. That was a fun post-gig car ride at 1am.

The most memorable review, heckle or post-gig reaction?

We are really proud of this one: 'Too much reliance on Camille's absolute willingness to disgrace and degrade herself' - The List

How do you feel about where your careers are at, right now?

Not sure if it's because we are writing this on a gloriously sunny day but we feel like shit hot party legends about our careers (regardless of the fact that we're all pushing 30 and we don't own our own houses and we know that doing sketch comedy means we can't save for a pension).

We've been doing comedy for about eight years now and finally feel like we're good at what we do, we know what we want to do and we enjoy focusing on creating something that we absolutely love performing. We are currently all writing and performing for various TV shows, films and live stuff and getting to do that makes us feel very lucky!

Birthday Girls appear at the Spiegeltent on 28th September, alongside Mae Martin and Felicity Ward. Tickets