A brash, sharp, questioning stand-up from west London, Tiff Stevenson is back this year with a solo show, Mad Man , that covers everything from sanitary products to Spanish rap. She once played the lead in a Dizzee Rascal video and, more conventionally, has appeared on TV shows including Mock the Week and Never Mind the Buzzcocks . Stevenson, 37, also runs Old Rope, a comedy night in London for new material.
4.05pm, The Stand, York Place (0131 558 7272), to Aug 29
Pitch your show in 140 characters
The show’s about personalities — what makes a person individual, how much of it we’re consciously aware of, and how much of it is sold to us through advertising and social media.
What will people learn from it?
I look at the way news is reported and when women are left out of it — for example, during coverage of gay marriage in America, a news anchor said: “Today’s a historic day for the United States of America — all across the US, men are marrying men.”
How do you reconcile serious subjects with making people laugh?
I try to balance the light and the dark. If I feel there’s something a bit weighty in the show, I offset it with a silly routine about Iggy Azalea. Or vagina houses — that’s my empowering bit about being a woman — once a month, women build houses in their womb. We are architects with tempers.
What kind of reception do the more sombre gags get?
I can perform at a comedy club on a Saturday night and do material that’s feminist in tone, but I don’t state that it is. Afterwards, I’ll have a 50-year-old bloke come and grab my face saying: “I loved that, treacle, I’ve never thought about it that way before.” You have to put medicine in the mashed potato — if they don’t know they’re getting it, that’s the dream.
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How many Edinburghs is this for you?
This is my sixth solo show and I’ve been coming to the Fringe for ten years in various guises doing plays and mixed-bill comedy shows. Performing in a group means you can share the load, which is quite nice — stand-up can be a lonely pursuit.
You don’t read reviews of your shows. Why?
I try and follow Maya Angelou’s advice: I don’t pick it up, I don’t lay it down. If you take on a compliment, you also have to take on an insult, so it’s better not to pick any of them up.
Strangest Edinburgh experience
Last year I accidentally headbutted someone in my show during a Kate Bush/Wuthering Heights dance routine. I had to stop the dance dead because I couldn’t pretend that the headbutting didn’t happen, and I’d given myself a mild concussion. The guy’s response was: “That was hard, and I’ve got a hard head.” The show became very Glaswegian all of a sudden.
Best-kept Edinburgh secret?
I like going to the Lobster Shack in north Berwick, or the sea life centre in Queensferry. I did that a couple of years ago and swum with sharks — actual sharks, not reviewers! Sometimes during Edinburgh you feel like you’re the zoo attraction and that people want to see whether you’re going to fling your poo on onlookers.
Who are you looking forward to seeing this year?
Joseph Morpurgo, Phil Wang and Sarah Kendall.
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What Edinburgh needs is . . .
Cheaper rentals. It’s getting insane how much it costs to rent a student flat for a month. It prices working-class people out of the festival.
What Edinburgh doesn’t need is . . .
More great comedians. I’d hoped to be the only one!
The moment you almost gave up
I didn’t come to the Fringe in 2013 and it was a tough year. I had to have an operation on my tongue that I thought might affect my speech, and I felt like I wasn’t where I wanted to be in my career. Not coming here hurt, particularly as it was such a huge year for women at the Fringe. I was at my lowest ebb. Come the end of the year, it had all turned around — I went travelling, and that reinvigorated me.
Describe Edinburgh in three words
Beautiful. Hilly. Heartbreaking.
Circus is a big theme at this year’s festival. If you ran away to the circus, what would you be?
I’d like to be in the freak show.