Tell us about your show. Why should we go and see it?
If you love music, laughter, surrealism and a total cuteness overload, my shows are the shows for you! – Parents, grandparents, aunties, carers and big siblings, its time to scoop up the wee ones in your lives (0-5) and bring them along for some proper bonkers fun. I am bringing my two companion, early years interactive music based shows to Ed Fringe again this year. My long-running hit Disco, Monski Mouse’s Baby Disco Dance Hall playing on the weekends and my singalong live music feast, Monski Mouse’s Baby Cabaret playing on the weekdays. Both shows are at the very fancy and stunning Spiegeltent Palais Du Variete in George Square.
What are your hopes and dreams for the Fringe?.
A TV pilot please! I’d love to be the new Mousey face of early years TV. And of course we all hope for lovely full houses at the shows. I am dead excited that my first Disco and Cabaret sessions are already sold out, so book now babies!!
What makes you laugh?
Kerry Godliman, Dr Brown, cat videos and my gorgeous boyfriend, who has the most brilliant comedy mind – hopefully coming to Fringe next year!
What three words best describe your performance style – and why.
Enthusiastic.
Charming.
Flawed.
I have come to think that my main core energy is just one of channeling pure over-enthusiastic love for the music and my audiences, and that energy is contagious, before you know it we are all making something magical together.
How will your audience think/feel differently after an hour in your company?
They will have a deeper connection to the beautiful and absurd in life.
What kind of shows – apart from your own – are you looking forward to seeing at the Edinburgh Fringe?
For the first time in a few years I am coming to Edinburgh sans children, so I am indeed excited to see as much as possible, I always start with trying to see my many friends’ work and then shall plunge into the unknown. My true loves are comedy, cabaret, music, theatre and circus. I can heartily recommend Party Ghost, Maureen Harbinger of Death, Fool’s Paradise, Mush, Reform and Greif Lighting, as a start!
The cost of living is a big issue this year – will it make this Fringe more challenging?
As an independent artist dealing with the cost of living and the cost of putting on a show in Edinburgh is a seemingly never-ending issue. But also deep down, we all know that what we get from art and performance is really something money can never buy, we get connection, nourishing, deep, soul expanding connection, and that’s why we do what we do, whether there’s 3 people or 300 in the audience, we are all in this together.
What do you predict will emerge as the big themes of this year.
Truth telling, deep revelations and the importance of connecting through our vulnerability.
Who is your showbiz idol and why.
Starting at age 4, a pantomime bear on Australian TV called Humphrey B Bear, was my idol, and I guess I have to admit still is, as I have a little ‘statue’ of him that sits on my DJ desk as a homage to his greatness ever time I play, and I named my son after him. Humphrey B Bear was funny and cheeky, he played dress-ups, was a little bit magic, and when the piano played offscreen, he interpretive danced to the music, imaging a running stream or a bird soaring… I loved his playfulness and freedom, two things I still value immensely.
What is your idea of a perfect Fringe moment?
When I was single, a first kiss at dawn on the top of Arthurs Seat, true story from my first Fringe in 2005, lost an earring up there too somehow.
