Ange Lavoipierre (pictured) brings her brand new show ‘Your Mother Chucks Rocks And Shells’ to the Edinburgh Fringe Underbelly - George Square Gardens. Already a critical success at the Adelaide Fringe, this marks the first time she has moved away from straight stand-up and, no longer concerned with or constricted by genre, presents THE show she has really always wanted to do.
‘Your Mother Chucks Rocks And Shells’ is a show within a show. It’s about insomnia, being so extremely ‘online’ that it taints reality and lucid dreaming a queerer and generally better version of The Exorcist (surprisingly since she watched the film more than a decade ago for the first time). Even though by the time she saw the film she was an ex-Christian, it hit a nerve and most of all made her angry.
Previously she has drunk egg on stage, done shows about being followed by spiders and cajoled audience members into and pretending to be her father for a full hour. Past shows have also tackle big personal themes that have included being an ex-Christian, surviving leukemia and leaving an abusive relationship.
Ange is also half of the original web series Impostors, alongside Jane Watt. Old friends Ange and Jane are also performing together at the Fringe and Jane has also answered our Rarely Asked Questions below. Their show ‘Jazz or a Bucket of Blood’ is an absurd, farcical sketch show which caricatures the unlikely, twitchy yet deep bond that Ange and Jane share. These characters love and need each other, but time spent together carries its own risks: maiming, death, or worse: hurt feelings.
Ange Lavoipierre’s ‘Your Mother Chucks Rocks And Shells’ will be at the Underbelly – George Square Gardens – Wee Coo at 4.20pm from 2nd – 27th August (not 14th) for tickets go to www.edfringe.com
Ange Lavoipierre & Jane Watt's ‘Jazz or a Bucket of Blood’ is at the Underbelly – George Square Gardens – Wee Coo at 8.50pm from 2nd – 27th August (not 14th) for tickets go to www.edfringe.com
What is the last thing you do before you go onstage (apart from check your flies and/or check your knickers aren't sticking out of your skirt and check for spinach between your teeth)
Jane: I usually say something along the lines of “eek, everything is gonna be fine” while shaking my hands. Also, Ange and I have started doing this nauseatingly earnest thing which began as a silly joke and now we can never not do, where we hold our hands up in front of our faces, palms touching and each kiss the backs of our own hands. She will probably kill me for telling you that but she CAN’T STOP ME NOW.
Ange: Sometimes, before a show, in order to get my head in the game, I murder Jane for having a big mouth.
What irritates you?
Jane: Disrespectful audience members.
Ange: The inexorable passage of time.
What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?
Jane: Probably hitchhiking from Morocco to Senegal when I was 19. I was with my oldest sister and we didn't tell our parents and we also didn’t have phone signal for three days so they kind of thought we might have died so fortunately, the relief they felt when they found out we’d safely arrived in Senegal overshadowed the rage they felt when we told them how we got there. Like a prodigal son type thing.
Ange: Choosing comedy and journalism as careers.
What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?
Jane: See above. But actually, I guess on top of that there was the time when I was driving around Sydney in a car that had faulty brakes because I was too broke to get them fixed and then one evening the brakes failed (obviously) as I was pulling up to a traffic light so I stopped the car by mounting the curb and sandwiching it between a wall and a telephone pole. I can show you a picture. It's pretty impressive. In retrospect, the handbrake may have worked but also shut up who is thinking of that at the time get off my back.
Ange: Once I forgot my boss’s face but remembered her name and read an email that said she had resigned and immediately turned to her and looked her in the face and asked her if she had heard that she had resigned.
What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy?
Jane: How easy it is to ruin a joke. Once someone just accidentally knocked over a beer glass on the last line of my friend’s set and ruined the end of her show. No one heard her final punch line and she kind of had to explain what it was and then just be like “ok thanks bye”.
Ange: The shit that still gets said into a microphone. Honestly, the next person who tells you that cancel culture has ruined comedy, punch them.
Interview continues here
