2015 Edinburgh Fringe

Keith Farnan answers 10 Edinburgh Fringe Questions

Keith Farnan

Keith Farnan tells us about his Fringe, as he prepares to perform a show about privacy in the internet age.

1. Tell us about your career so far. Are you happy with where you're at?

I started off in Dublin a few years ago (that's probably as accurate as most acts get about when they started; it's a bit of a blur) and like most Irish acts, you're dealing with an audience who spend most of their time telling stories themselves in pubs or listening to stories, waiting to tell their own stories, which makes storytelling a bit of a blood sport in Ireland, like a hare being listened to by two greyhounds who'll happily take over if you falter. I've spent a lot of the time in the UK and travelling around the world, and have done bits of TV, but I always seem to come back to Edinburgh to refill the comedy tank.

Like everyone, I'm happy with some things, not so with others, but haven't pulled my hair out yet.

2. Describe your show in exactly 23 words.

I try to figure out why we're so relaxed about the fact that our personal data's collected by governments and corporations every day.

3. Why are you putting yourself through this famously stressful experience?

You hope each show can help you get better.

4. Any cunning plans to get more punters in?

I had loads, including drones, but for legal reasons, I haven't been able to use them, which is fair enough. Unless you're spying on/bombing Middle East countries, drones are pretty well regulated.

5. How much money do you think you'll lose/make this year?

Not so much to break me. Just enough to make me sweat.

6. What's your weirdest past Fringe experience?

A moth landing on me in the middle of a gig, getting an applause break and then getting a standing ovation when it landed on my shoulder and flew off again.

7. What other shows are you hoping to see?

Haven't seen the guide yet so I have no idea. I try to see shows from acts who aren't based in the UK or Ireland and are just visiting this one time.

8. If you took over programming a venue, what would you perfect line-up of comedians be?

Dermot Morgan, Mitch Hedberg, Louis CK, Bill Murray, and then Stewart Lee and Bill Hicks as a double act to enjoy the awkwardness.

9. Name the one person you'd rather not bump into during the festival.

My bank manager. For obvious reasons.

10. Why should audiences pick your show over the 1,700+ other comedy offerings at this year's festival?

I don't know, if they want to hear some Irish comedian try to untangle the modern Rubik's Cube that is our right to privacy at a time when more and more people want to reveal their most intimate secrets on the internet, a platform designed by the US military that allows us to go running headfirst into an Orwellian nightmare and tracking systems disguised as a cute game about birds with a temper (because that game tracked your location for no reason whatsoever), and realise that watching him try to find the jokes in this is like watching him pull the splinter of a bull's foot while being tossed around by a hurricane. Or something.

'Keith Farnan: Anonymous' is at 6pm at Underbelly, Cowgate on 6-17, 19-24, 26-30 August. Listing

Published: Sunday 2nd August 2015

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