“It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”

This was how Michael Biehn described the Terminator back in 1984 (poor Terminator – I notice he didn’t give it the opportunity to give its side of the story), but it’s also a good description of the Edinburgh Fringe, which is somehow still nearly happening. We have now well and truly passed through the “Oh my God, is it next month, how did it come round so soon?” phase into “How is it not here yet, can we just get on with this now please?” Last week I posted a write-up of the shows I’ve seen and loved in preview, and just as Terminator was followed by Terminator 2, this week that list of recommendations is being followed up with truly one of the greatest sequels of all time. With luck, this follow-up list will be so popular that I can continue posting sequels of decreasing quality for the next three decades, including the much-vaunted Edinburgh Fringe Recommendations: Genisys, which will be an ill-advised attempt to reboot the franchise that ends up losing a lot of money at least in part because the title appears to have been misspelled, and also because the main twist will be given away in the trailer.

Anyway, this week I promised I’d do a bit more of a deep dive into exactly what I’ll be up to at the Fringe this year, but first, I must correct a mistake!

I realised there was one other show I’ve seen in preview which I’d like to recommend, but which I omitted from my list because I forgot to put it in my diary when I saw it, so it slipped my mind when going back over which shows I’d seen:

John-Luke Roberts: Work In Progress – JLR is just doing a short WIP run this year, which is fair enough considering last year he re-staged all 10 shows he’s ever brought to the Fringe. This new show is gentler than most of his previous shows except perhaps It Is Better, being a collection of really brilliant poems and even a few songs. It’s going to be a really lovely and silly show.

So, moving onto my own areas of focus this year – if you’d like to see some or all of what I’ve been working on or some of the shows I’m guesting on this year, here’s some more shows you should check out:

Joz Norris: You Wait. Time Passes. – This is the big one for me, obviously. I’ve mentioned it often enough in the newsletter here, but I’ve been deliberately cultivating an air of mystery around it because the entire show pretty much revolves around one very protracted build-up and payoff which I don’t wish to spoil. But I’ve been loving it in preview so much, and have been really happy to see how much audiences are enjoying it. In some ways it’s an exploration of choice, ambition, time-wasting, and how we tie our identities to things we never get round to doing. In some other ways it’s just really fucking stupid. I’m proud to have made a show which I do think works on both levels, and I really hope audiences find something in one or both of those levels to enjoy. Please do come and see it if you’re up there, I’m so proud of it, and do book ahead if you can, it helps ease the old nerves. It’s directed by Jon Brittain, with art direction, script and creative input from Miranda Holms, movement direction from Grace Gibson and it’s produced by Queenie Miller. I’m so proud of what we’ve all made together.

I love this photo by Miranda, it’s so good.

John-Luke Roberts & Joz Norris Are Barry & Tony: The Baritones – This has not yet been formally announced, but put midnight on August the 16th in your diaries because JLR and I are doing a live version of the stupid characters we created for some Instagram sketches last year. The joke is that they have high-pitched speaking voices but low singing voices. The other joke is that they do pranks on each other. Then they sing songs by famous baritones like Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. We’re pretty confident this can sustain an hour.

Those are the two shows I myself am making, and here are the shows I’ve directed this year:

Andy Barr: The Hotly Anticipated Fourth Debut Hour From Rising Star Andy Barr – Andy has previously wowed the Fringe with three conceptually ambitious narrative character shows. He’s chucking out the conceits this time and debuting for the fourth time, this time with forty minutes of solid gold gear. No themes, no heavy concepts. He’s not even sad about his friend’s death any more, so there’s definitely nothing more going on behind this. OR IS THERE??? This is great, it’s been really fun helping Andy build a show around his stand-up persona and find mischievous ways of sneaking meaning into the gaps between routines while keeping it all very silly.

Dusty Creases: Dance Your Life Away – Dusty Creases is the creation of Tara Boland and is utterly unhinged – a dance instructor to the stars who is incapable of operating in any state that does not resemble mania. She’ll take the audience through the core tenets of her dance practice and help them to transform the everyday components of life itself into the ephemeral energy of dance. Tara is such an incredible performer, and such an open, fun, positive collaborator and working on this show has been an absolute ball.

Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie Of Witches In The Countie Of Himself – I directed this show last year and it’s been touring around the country and returns for a full run this year! Edy has discovered he is related to some of the women accused in the Pendle Witch Trials, and is excited to channel his newfound powers in order to make sense of his life, or to win the Vengaboys the respect they deserve, one or the other. It’s a lovely, silly, daft exploration of late-stage ADHD diagnosis which has been delighting audiences all over and I loved working on it.

Lulu Popplewell: Love Love – Lulu’s second show looks at the close relationship between love and mental illness, particularly as someone who suffers from Pure OCD – why do the people we love stick around in our heads for so long? How do we tell the difference between that and actual madness? Are they the same thing? Lulu’s a great stand-up but has also proved herself an amazing musician this year, writing a bunch of songs which are not just funny but genuinely musically good, and it’s really exciting to see her tackle big themes in such relatable and inventive ways.

The Mayor And His Daughter: A Genuine Appreciation Of Comedy – The Mayor and his Daughter (Ciaran Chillingworth and Kit Finnie) are on a mission to save the soul of their village from corrupting, demonic influences. The only thing that can save it is comedy, the secrets of which they have learned from a Russell Howard DVD. This show is a strange, dreamlike mangling of the rules and structures of comedy in pursuit of communal healing, and it’s bizarre and brilliant. It’s been so fun diving into its weirdness while keeping a strong sense of story and purpose at the centre.

All these shows are fantastic and you should go see them! I’ll also be guesting in a handful of shows here and there too, including:

Stepdads Les Mis – A late-night one-off on the 14th of August, in which Stepdads (Tom Curzon and Luke Rollason) recreate the iconic musical with a cast including Lorna Rose Treen, Jonathan Oldfield, Christian Brighty, Amy Greaves, Ellie BW and more. I will be reprising my role as the Phantom of the Opera, who serves as narrator, from when we did this before. It was so fun and will sell out if it hasn’t already, so get on it.

Late Night With Terry Wogan – Ben Alborough’s cadaverous Wogan has been hosting chat shows with comedians-as-celebs for a while now, and I’ll be joining him on the couch on the 1st of August as Hollywood’s go-to leading man for musicals, Hugh Jackman.

A Night Of Drama – I’ll also be guesting in this theatrical nonsense on Sunday the 3rd, in which I’ll be doing my best to follow live direction in the staging of an as-yet-undecided melodrama. I’ve heard really fun things about this night and am looking forward to being a part of it.

Clown Beef – Another creation of Ciaran Chillingworth, Clown Beef pits comedians with formal clown training against those without to see which is better. I’ll be there on the 7th as an academic writing a thesis on clowning.

I’ll also be doing spots at The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society, Comedy Club 4 Kids, Comedy Arcade and a few others, and on the 23rd I’ll be part of a Bedlam Late curated by Lorna Rose Treen and Jon Oldfield called One Joke in which a huge number of guest comics tell one joke each. It’s supposed to be headlined by the winner of Dave’s Joke of the Fringe, but that’s just been cancelled, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.

FINALLY, I did say I wanted to impose restrictions on these lists and only include shows I had actually seen to avoid sending out more recommendations than was realistically useful, but alas I cannot help myself. I can’t not also mention a few other things I’m really excited to see including Luke McQueen, Jazz Emu, Lucy Pearman, Joe Kent-Walters, Lorna Rose Treen, Niall Moorjani’s Kanpur 1857, Soft Play, Bec Hill, Desiree Burch, Derek Mitchell, Sam Nicoresti, Katie Norris, Chloe Petts, Heidi Regan, Katie Pritchard and probably even more I’ve forgotten.

So there you go. Just go book for all of those. Easy.

A Cool New Thing In Comedy – I mean, who even cares at this point? It’s the summer, which means comedy as an industry is either on holiday or is focused on the Fringe. I cannot think of anything I could put in this section that isn’t Fringe-related, and I’ve spent the last two entries banging on about the Fringe as it is, so I’m officially putting this section on pause for the week until something else happens.

What’s Made Me Laugh The Most – I did a movement session on my show with my dear friend Grace Gibson and she never fails to crack me up. There are now three separate dance routines in the show and all three of them really, really make me laugh.

Book Of The Week – Still reading Babel, which is great. It’s all just kicked off. Very exciting.

Album Of The Week – Wild Is The Wind by Nina Simone. I read Warren Ellis’s book about stealing Nina Simone’s chewing gum last year, and it made me think I should delve into Simone’s discography a bit more beyond the Best Ofs. She’s absolutely incredible. One of the all-time greats.

Film Of The Week – Friendship, which sadly I didn’t enjoy as much as I wanted to. Tim Robinson is incredible and brings his usual unhinged mania to it, and the premise is really interesting and there are lots of very funny setpieces, but the story doesn’t quite hang together. It feels like a series of skits or set-pieces that don’t quite pay off or hang together. But I enjoyed it.

That’s all for this week! As ever, let me know what you thought and if you wanted to send the newsletter to a friend or encourage others to subscribe I’d really appreciate it! Take care of yourselves until next time, and good luck to all those who are commencing their Fringe adventures next week,

Joz xx

PS If you value the Therapy Tapes and enjoy what they do, and want to support my work and enable me to keep writing and creating, you can make a one-off donation to my Ko-Fi account, and it’s very gratefully appreciated.

PPS Shout-out to Leia the dog who I hung out with in Berlin and miss already:

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