Amy Matthews is a stand-up comedian who has performed several critically-acclaimed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including last year’s ‘I Feel Like I’m Made of Spiders’. She’s also been tour support for comedians Ed Byrne, Tom Allen, Tom Davis, Suzi Ruffell, Rachel Fairburn and Jessica Fostekew.
Tell us about your show?
Commute with the Foxes is all about how much context can completely transform meaning, and how in an increasingly individualised world, we’re all approaching things with wildly different frames of reference and vastly different contexts. It’s also just about love, roots and how completely absurd our lived reality is really.
How do you want audiences to feel in your show?
I want them to feel like they’ve been invited to an old 70’s hippy den after a party, having made a friend in the bathroom setting the world to rights and having a good giggle. I want this show to feel like sharing something you’ve wanted to after your fourth pint, or that last joke before lights out at a sleepover.
How does it feel to be returning to Edinburgh Fringe Festival?
It’s that feeling when your laundry basket is full again and you think, ‘Really? Again? Already? Didn’t we just do this?’
Have you got any tips for comedians going up to the festival for the first time?
Speak to your friends and family outside of comedy as regularly as possible. It’s easy to reduce yourself into feeling like a product of the industry during the month. It’s healthy to remind yourself that you’re a three dimensional human being with lots of people who really know and see you outside of the pressure cooker that is the Fringe.
Which funny women do you recommend seeing in Edinburgh this year?
Hannah Platt is simply the comedy goth girl of my dreams. Imagine Wednesday Addams and Natasha Lyonne had a hilarious baby – that’s Hannah. She’s bringing her debut spooky, stylish stand-up show to Edinburgh and it’s going to be superb.
Rachel Fairburn is doing a character show which is so cool. I love it when artists take a totally new direction with their work. We all know Rachel is a stellar stand-up, but it’s so exciting to see where she takes a character hour. I love seeing creatives be brave and brilliant and I think this is going to be both, I can’t wait.
It would be remiss of me not to recommend my director extraordinaire, Elf Lyons. She’s bringing her usual clowning magic to the Fringe with a show all about horses. It’s going to be characteristically silly, imaginative and beautiful.
Amy Matthews: Commute with the Foxes, 8th – 13th, 15th – 20th and 22nd – 25th August at 3pm, at Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Tron). Book tickets here.
Photo credit: Dylan Woodley
