Bethany Black talks about her new show, Bethany Black: (Extra) Ordinary.

Tell us about your Fringe show

My New show is called (Extra) Ordinary and it's about what happens when your life takes you on a rollercoaster ride where you end up making history by accident when you're still the sort of fool who spends their days sat in their pants on the couch eating Nutella with a spoon. My life fell apart in 2011, I thought I had it all sorted out and hubris got the better of me and I had two years that felt like a bad country song before I accidentally ended up with an acting career and found myself totally out of my depth trying to deal with this new life of my dreams.

Best thing about the Fringe?

Getting to eat at Mosque Kitchen every day, and hanging out until 5am with my friends every night. Being a comedian can be a lonely business and there are lots of comedians I don't get to see for a lot of the year.

Worst thing about the Fringe?


When your run goes badly and you've realised you could have stayed at home and smashed up an XboxOne every day and it would still lose you less money, or even better do that as a show and you might have got a bigger audience.

How many years have you been coming to the Fringe?

This will be my third full run, I first came in 2006 and was doing sound tech for Matt Kirshen and flyering for Paul Sinha, I was unemployed and just starting out as a comic back then and spent the last of my job seekers allowance on the fuel to drive up to Edinburgh with no plans beyond sleeping in my car and seeing what I could do to experience the fringe and it was one of the best experiences of my life I came back a year later and did the same thing again, and the following year I did my own show which went great, then I did a follow up which went badly (see above) and since then I've tried to get up for a few days each year.  

Favourite Fringe venue?


My favourite Fringe venue is The Stand, I've always loved their ethos and that they're a boutique venue you know you're guaranteed quality and the way it's set up is just perfect, I'm so glad that I'm there this year.

Best Fringe memory?


My greatest Fringe memory was dancing naked on stage at the Pleasance Grand in front of 800 people for Phil Nichol's The Naked Racist.  For me that was such an empowering thing to do, having gone from 10 years earlier not even feeling comfortable naked on my own to being able to do that was a high point of my whole life.

Best heckle?


Best Heckle, my favourite was when someone last year shouted out "You're just showing off" having failed to understand the very concept of Stand-up Comedy.  The worst was in Aberystwyth in November when I said "I know my girlfriend's the one for me" and a lone voice at the back boomed "There's no one for you!"  Which is the most existential heckle I've ever had, almost like my unconscious brain had bought a ticket and was sat at the back shouting out things I'm scared of.  That one gave me heart palpitations.

Craziest on stage experience?


Craziest on stage experience was during my second Edinburgh show, I was in a 50 Seater at the Underbelly and it was the first Saturday of the Fringe and because of the time of my show I got a lot of overspill from Spank! including three guys who'd dropped acid about an hour earlier. They sat in the front row of my show, which was a confessional show about my drug and alcohol addiction and about half way through one of these guys started freaking out and panicking and I ended up getting him up on stage and sitting him on my knee trying to talk him down from a bad trip.  The press was all in that night too.  Turns out my skills at talking down an acid casualty are only 1 star worthy.

What’s on your rider?


My rider is so simple, Pepsi Max for preference, but a couple of pints of water and I'm good to go.  Having been a comedian for 13 years I've learned not to expect much, a lot of venues won't even give you a soft drink.  The switch from that to working in Television was quite stark where people want you to be as happy as possible so you can perform your best, I can see why the power goes to some people's heads.

How do you wind down after a show?


If a show's gone great I'm full of endorphins and seratonin and I try to hang on to that for as long as possible, though initially I'm in that quite wide eyed and vulnerable "Was that all okay?  I didn't ruin everything did I?" place, but when I get back to my house I tend to go and play one of the LEGO games on my PS4.  Or build a LEGO model, I like concentrating on something that feels creative, but really isn't as it means I'm getting told what to do after spending all day being in charge of things.  

What do you love about Scotland?


There are so many things I love about Scotland, the people, the landscape, it feels like a country who's 30 years ahead of the curve from the parts of Northern England that have been failed by successive governments, forward looking going "right we need to get this stuff sorted and no bugger else is going to do it."  And I love that.

What do you like about Edinburgh?

The thing I love about Edinburgh is that it's one of the only places on the planet where I feel at home.  Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, three places where I can walk about without thinking "I don't belong here"  It's also a place where I'm guaranteed exercise and don't feel like I have to put effort in to get it.  The only thing I don't like is the smell of The Piemaker.  I had a flat above there in 2008 and have barely been able to set foot in a bakery ever since.

What’s the most Scottish thing you’ve done?


The most Scottish thing I've ever done?  Well I did a lot of heroin in the 90's.  I voted Remain in the EU Referendum.  I get Irn Bru whenever I get chips.  One of those probably.

What kind of jokes do a Scottish crowd seem to respond to?


The Scottish crowd seem to love what I do which is confessional filth.  In Glasgow last year I managed to make a guy laugh so hard he passed out and fell through a fire door knocking himself out.  Scotland and Bristol are the only two places I've ever managed to nearly kill someone with my comedy. So you know, with great power comes great responsibility.

Favourite Scottish food/drink?

My favourite scottish food is McSween Vegetarian Haggis and my favourite Scottish drink is Irn Bru.

See Bethany Black: (Extra) Ordinary at the Stand 2, throughout August, 6pm. For tickets visit www.edfringe.com