Juliette Burton is back on the Fringe with No Brainer, all about mental health, which she performs at 7.20pm at Gilded Balloon Teviot, but only until August 11. Here she shares what she can't get enough of at the festival, her most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously…

Edinburgh binge

I have tree favourite places:

1) Chatting with audience members in the bar after my show while I’m still on that post-show high.

2) Sitting in the audience of a friend’s show laughing so loudly while watching a pal smash it on stage.

3) On stage, in my element, audience laughing loudly, they and I having fun. I seem to be having more of those moments these days.

There are also some hidden bars and brunch spots I love sitting in to decompress from the world but I am absolutely not telling you where those are. They are a secret only Edinburgh town and I share.

Edinburgh cringe

Honestly, I don’t feel embarrassed looking back at moments from the Fringe. It’s a playground free from shame.

I’ve felt shame about a lot of stuff in my life – my sexuality, mental illness, my body, my lack of financial success, lack of education. Don’t worry! I’ve let a lot of that shame, not all my own, go now. 

But before then, Edinburgh Fringe was the first place I experienced total acceptance of myself. I could be me free from the inhibitions. My crazy, my passion, my weird was all welcome there.

Edinburgh whinge

The last time I was at Edinburgh Fringe, I was flyering people on the streets and more people than ever were saying ‘we’re not here to see shows, we’re here to drink’. Bear with me while I climb onto my soap box…

Comedy treads the boundaries between what is socially acceptable and what is not, what is considered sane or insane. Comedy can be just silly fun and it can also explore and expand people’s understanding and acceptance of topics before misunderstood like disability, extreme mental health struggles, anger at societal fuckwittery.

Comedy can be a place to be open about things we otherwise can repressed. Boundaries can be expanded. That’s why Edinburgh Fringe treads the borders – on the fringe of society – to artistically challenge the system and status quo.

In the 15+ years I’ve been going to Edinburgh Fringe I’ve noticed commercialisation and capitalism infiltrated more and more. So, how do we comment on the problem if we’re a part of the problem? A friend of mine also in the arts industry recently said to me ‘If the system doesn’t work, don’t change yourself, change the system. Or find an alternative to the system.’

Having performed there in my own shows since 2011, I owe the biggest successes, most exciting adventures and most unexpected life-changing moments to Edinburgh Fringe. Having taken a break and changed a lot myself, I’m excited to see, what (if anything) has changed.