Suchandrika Chakrabarti on the best and worst of Edinburgh

Suchandrika Chakrabarti is at the Edinburgh Fringe performing her show  Doomscrolling  at Hoots @ Potter at 3pm. 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 

This year I want to play around more with improvising, crowdwork and audience participation. 

My first show, I Miss Amy Winehouse, lifted its staging from my days of training journalists: slide deck (click); me having to stick around in one place as a result, so as not to get in the way of the projection (click); very structured audience participation - for instance, by including a quiz (click). Having a projector also limited my choice of venues. 

Two years have now gone by, I’ve learned a lot more through performing comedy outside of a full pandemic lockdown and I’m doing everything differently in my second show, Doomscrolling. I’ve got props, characters, voices; I’ll be running around, swimming away (yes), perhaps even changing species (wut). 

There’s a script, of course, but I’ve left lots of space in it this time to play. That feels right for a show taking place in a yurt. Even the songs in my playlist as the audience walks in are references to running jokes and themes coming up in the show. 

Edinburgh cringe 

That time at Fringe in 2022 when I walked up behind two people on Cowgate and tried to flyer them, but then one of them turned out to be well-known comedian Eleanor Morton. 

She was very very nice about it, but I did feel that it was a faux pas to flyer a well-known comedian, so I mumbled, ‘Oh I'm so sorry I did that to you,’ before scurrying back to the overflowing dumpster where I was flyering that bin-strike year. 

Edinburgh whinge 

It is impossible to remain in the same emotional state as your friends for a normal amount of time during Fringe; you’re always screaming with joy for one of them, then immediately turning round to comfort another, while helping a third dodge the Silent Disco returning... then your daily sales report pings, the only numerical document that can immediately change a mood... 

Who am I trying to kid? I love it! I was so sad to miss a year last year I simply cannot wait to be back bring it all on! 

?

Published: 20 Aug 2024