Demi Adejuyigbe

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Friday 24th January 2025

It was the first of times, it was the worst of times.

This time we welcome Demi Adejuyigbe, still riding high after a tip-top Edinburgh Fringe debut last year, including a Best Newcomer nomination. Belated congrats then - but does he achieve self-propelled highness in the show? The British-born, Texas-bred comic returns to London's Soho Theatre this week with the seemingly self-explanatory Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip.

"The show involves... a series of surprises," Adejuyigbe explains. "It's a lot of silly musical bits and presentations, all designed to twist and turn in a way so that the audience can never predict what's going to happen next. It started as a compilation of different individual songs and bits I had performed at other people's shows, and slowly evolved into a much bigger thing as I performed it more and more.

"And thank you for the congrats! It wasn't a big deal for me, but not in an egotistical way - I simply didn't know it was a thing until the festival began. I felt like I was going to a comedy nerd theatre camp, and then suddenly learned there was an award for Best Camper. It was really lovely to be nominated though! I was bowled over, it made me feel very loved by the festival goers."

He's bowled over too! Now let's backflip to a long time ago (well, 2015), in an (LA) galaxy far, far away.

First gig?

I remember my first ever real gig was an open mic in Los Angeles, at the NerdMelt Showroom, a theatre behind Meltdown Comics.

I did a bit - about two years after moving to Los Angeles in 2015 - where I wore a hoodie and baseball cap, pretending I was someone who worked with JJ Abrams and had snuck out a copy of the script for The Force Awakens so I could read it to people. It was a very dumb bit and would immediately no longer work because of details for the actual movie finally coming out.

Favourite show, ever?

I think my favourite show I've ever done was at the Edinburgh Fringe; because the shows sold out quick, we added a second late night show to one of my days, and it was full of people who were just so excited to see the show because it had sold out before they could get in.

The energy was just so supportive and sweet and they gave me a standing ovation at the end, which was lovely and truly shocking for the show, but the vibes in the room made me feel supported in that really dangerous way where you're like "I am so high off of your attention that I might do something crazy if you guys want it enough."

Worst gig?

I did a charity show at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica where I delivered a joke about Gwyneth Paltrow's gift guides being extravagant and out of touch. The reaction was... unbelievably muted. I bombed hard and got off stage like "Well. At least that's done." As I was walking to my car, a man with a giant smile came up to me and informed me that Gwyneth Paltrow's kids go to this school, and that the room was likely full of parents who were friends with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Which one person influenced your comedy life most significantly?

Will Smith. Both as a musician and a sitcom actor, I think he's someone who kind of became the blueprint for me of what a comedic black actor could achieve. And then I literally started aping his work for musical comedy in a way that was meant to be appreciative, like a child who mimics his father to a T because he's been paying such close attention to him.

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

I wish I had a salacious answer but I think I've honestly been lucky enough to never really meet anybody famous that has been a prick. And I've met so many celebrities! It would be nice and fun if I could just name even one...

Oh, M__ L_____. Met him for the first time in a public park where he made fun of a bunch of children that were walking nearby, at a volume they could hear. What a nasty person.

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

The very first time I did my show, I opened it with a bit where I talked about Mark Wahlberg going on the radio and suggesting he could've stopped 9/11. It did not go well, and I never did it again. Shout out to my friend Andy who saw me do the show again four years later and asked "Why'd you take the Mark Wahlberg bit out, I loved it." Because no one else did, Andy.

What were your other highlights - and lowlights - from last year's Fringe?

Highlight for me was DJing a bunch of mashups I made at a bar the last night, staying up overnight to climb Arthur's Seat at five in the morning, completely delirious with a bunch of comedians, and celebrating a good month at the festival. Lowlight was descending the mountain and not being able to sleep for another three hours because I had to catch a train to London.

Any reviews, heckles or post-gig reactions stick in the mind?

I don't know how to discuss it without spoiling the show, but there's a bit in the middle of my show in which I draw a name for an audience member to do something, which turns into another bit. After the bit was over, a woman raised her hands and insisted that I did not do the bit right, and that I should draw another name. This resulted in a stranger punching me in the stomach.

It was funnier and more welcome than it sounds, but it was also... the weirdest form of heckling I've ever received. Again, can't really explain this without discussing the show, but if you come to the show and ask me about it afterwards I will regale you with the full tale like a counsellor telling ghost stories 'round a campfire.

How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?

Like any good artist, I am always convinced that I'm both at the nadir of my entire life and somehow still declining. I pray I fail from even greater heights in 2025.

Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip is at London's Soho Theatre from 27th January to 15th February. sohotheatre.com