Annabel Marlow had an unusual first Edinburgh Fringe experience. At 18, she originated the role of Katherine Howard in Six, then an unknown student production, which later went on to become a massive international hit with productions across the world.
Annabel is set to return to the Edinburgh Fringe this year, with her solo comedy debut show, “Is This Okay…..?”. She describes the show as having cosy living room vibes, after coming up with the idea for it after sharing her music with a group of family and friends early last year.
Annabel speaks to me about the inspiration for her new comedy hour, performing at the Fringe for the first time since Six and the advice she would give to performers bringing their own solo show to the Fringe.
Jo: Can you tell me a little bit about your show and what inspired you to create it?
Annabel: It’s called Is This Okay….? It’s basically a comedy gig. It’s an hour of me sharing a lot of the material that I’ve written over the last few years: some of the songs I’ve written, I wrote at school [and] some of the songs I wrote in the last couple of months. There’s comedy songs in there, then there’s more kind of theatrical songs, and then there’s pop songs and ballads. And stories to go along with some of the songs to give them context. It’s an hour with me sharing music from my life really.
Jo: So it’s a mix between a comedy gig and a concert then?
Annabel: Yeah, exactly. I did my first gig of all my music at some point early last year, to loads of family and friends because I’ve got so much music that I’ve just never shared with anyone and I wanted to know how that might feel and how people responded. I’ve written so many comedy songs that no one had ever heard, and I was like, “Oh, I wonder if these get laughs in the moments I’m imagining”.
In the back of my mind, I knew that I wanted to write some kind of hour for myself to showcase everything I’ve got but I didn’t know how. Then after that gig last year, I was just like, “Oh, that’s going to be pretty much my show.” It was very laid back; there was a lot of chat with the audience. It would be a bit chaotic at times but there was just a nice flow to it. There’s not a storyline, but there’s songs and the stories are put in it in a way that it flows from comedy to something a bit more serious to a story. My first mini-preview, I did at my brother’s flat, and I invited 20 friends and did my show for the first time and it had that same feel. We’re all sitting here, cosy, talking about these events and stories that hopefully people can relate to.
Jo: How does it feel to be going back to the Fringe this year with your own solo show? Obviously you went with Six, but that was quite a few years back now. How does it feel coming back after that obviously all blew up?
Annabel: Yeah, I’m excited. I guess my first time performing at the Fringe was very unique because it popped off. I’m not expecting that in any way for my show. My goal is to have at least one night that is sold out or pretty much sold out. I want to enjoy doing it. I don’t want to cry too much, I want to meet some people, I want some new fun things to happen every night and I’d like there to be more than three people in the audience. I’m not expecting to do this show and have a sold out run and go on to this, this and this. I’m just so proud of it and I love it, and I just want to enjoy it every night. I don’t want to put these massive expectations on it, even though I believe that it’s good enough to get all those things, that’s not personally what I want out of my first time doing my debut show.
Jo: What’s the experience of getting a show to the Fringe been like? Did it help having been involved with something that’s been there before, or was it a completely different process this time around?
Annabel: Oh, I had no idea what went into it when I did Six. The organisational side of a show and actually getting it up there, I was not involved in that at all when I was younger. I am so lucky to have Stamptown because I was fully prepared to do it completely on my own but now, if I didn’t have this team behind me, I would be so lost.
I am so lucky that I have Zach and everyone at Gingerbread supporting me and helping me, because there’s so much work that goes into it and so much money too. That’s also what I’m proud of. This is my first year funding my lifestyle myself because I’ve been in education and this is my first year out and I really wanted to fund my Fringe myself.
It is a lot of money but it’s also an investment for your career. I knew it would be a lot of money and a lot of hard work so that wasn’t a surprise but it still has been extremely hard work. It’s nice to know that you have a team not only logistically helping you but they’re doing that because they believe in you and your show. I guess that’s the main difference.
I also don’t know how I’m going to feel. I got ill during Six. I was ill for half it which I absolutely didn’t remember. I’m very prone to getting exhausted and then getting ill. So I guess that’s something I’m nervous about, the stamina and how it’s going to feel doing something for a month when it’s just you on stage. Plus I’m doing the musical Public as well, every night. I think in September, I’m just going to pass out!
Jo: Do you have a particular song from the show that’s your favourite to perform?
Annabel: Song wise, there’s a song that wasn’t going to include but I performed it at the preview at my brother’s house. It’s about the friends that I lived with over lockdown in Leeds where I went to Uni and how special that time was. Afterwards, everyone said that had to be in the show, so now it closes the show. It just means so much to me. Every time I sing it, I think I’m going to cry, and I can really feel people relating to it as well. I think that it’s a bit surprising as well because not all the songs are funny, but the ones that aren’t are still quite powerful, big numbers. This one is just a bit different. I like ending it on that note as well, on a bit of a reflective note. It’s a bit of a selfish, nice moment for me but also afterwards people tell me that song was their favourite, so I really love that one and I’m so happy it is in the show.
Jo: What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned in the process of putting together your first solo show for the Fringe?
Annabel: You just have to believe in it so much and you have to back yourself because it’s just you. Unless you have a director, but it’s not like you have a whole team and other cast members, you’re fully doing it on your own. You need to just believe that if you feel something for it, other people will as well.
I think also what I’ve found is that I’ve met so many other people taking their own shows this year, and you just really need to support each other because it means so much if I’ve done a little bit of my show on a night and someone says something to me about it because you really do need that when you’re doing it on your own.
So I think supporting other people as much as you can and really listening to other people’s work and talking to them about their show, it’s so helpful for them and then you’ll get that in return because otherwise it will just be a bit lonely. So I’d say yeah, supporting other people and knowing that if you care about it, someone else will care about it too.
Is This Okay…? will be performed at Pleasance Courtyard – The Attic from 14-27 August (not 16) at 8:30pm as part of Edinburgh Fringe. Public – The Musical, which Annabel is also performing in, will be performed at Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance 2 from 14-28 August (not 21) at 6:30pm.
Some answers edited for clarity.
Words By Jo Elliott
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.