Leo Kearse's, I Can Make You Tory, is on at the Gothic Room, Three Sisters during August.
1. Tell us about your Fringe show
My solo show is an honest account of my transition from woolly headed liberal to hard nosed Tory. I show how capitalism and nuclear power are great, modern liberals are narcissistic hypocrites and the Tories are the real party of social progression. It's funnier than that sounds, I hope.
I'm also taking up "Hate n Live", a show I run with Darius Davies, which is improvised hatred based on audience suggestions.
2. Best thing about the Fringe?
All my mates from all round the world are jammed into my favourite town for a month!
3. Worst thing about the Fringe?
All my enemies are there too.
4. How many years have you been coming to the Fringe?
This will be my seventh year in a row.
5. Favourite Fringe venue?
I like the Laughing Horse free fringe venues - The Free Sisters, Espionage and The Counting House. They have an energy that's sometimes missing from the paid venues which can be a little sterile and tend to attract a more mature audience. They also make the Fringe feasible for people like me who don't have rich parents or reckless bank managers. Some people spend over ten grand to do the Fringe but thanks to the Free Fringe and the Pay What You Want model, me and my mates make money.
6. Best Fringe memory?
I was in a burger place and a heavy man's chair collapsed underneath him. Completely shattered, he had no chance. Even he was laughing. All the comedians in the world couldn't write something as funny as that.
7. Best heckle?
I asked a man a question and his daughter leaned over and said "He doesn't speak English".
8. Craziest on stage experience?
I was at Spank with my friend Darius Davies. He told me "you can go on stage and plug your show" I hadn't really been paying attention so got on stage, only to find out they have something called "Naked Promo" and I had to get naked.
9. How do you wind down after a show?
Have a few drinks with comedians and slag off other comedians who aren't there.
10. What do you love about Scotland?
I'm Scottish and I love Scotland so much that I haven't lived there in 13 years. I'm from Dumfries and Galloway which is a beautiful mellow place. I spent an idyllic childhood roaming the countryside with my friends, having fires, smoking soapbar and shooting stuff - sort of like Huckleberry Finn, but with even more racism.
11. What do you like about Edinburgh?
The countryside is woven into the city so you can walk for ten minutes and be on the Crags. It's a beautiful romantic city - sometimes I'll catch a glimpse from a bridge and it feels like I've been transported back to medieval gothic times. Then a Ford Mondeo will drive past and I'm back in the room.
12. Favourite Scottish food/drink?
Food - deep fried pizza, just for the sheer nihilism. Drink - Buckfast. It gets sneered at in Scotland as it's linked to so much bad behaviour (it's strong and packed with sugar and caffeine to give you the energy to cause trouble when alcohol should have rendered you comatose) but it's quite delicious and a real pick me up in the wee hours of the morning.
13. Sum up your show in three words
Antagonistic unfashionable truth.
Leo Kearse's, I Can Make You Tory, is on at the Gothic Room, Three Sisters during August. For more details visit https://www.edfringe.com/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article