Title of Show: Ange Lavoipierre & Jane Watt: Jazz or a Bucket of Blood Venue: Underbelly – Wee Coo Time: 8:50pm Dates: 2nd - 27th August (except 14th August) Links: Profile and Social Media
Tell me about your 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show.
This will sound unhinged but the title sums it up pretty neatly. It’s a faux-amateur farce, where Jane and Ange compete for what the show should be about. Jane loves rhyming, hopes her friends from Bunnings* will come to the show, and wants the show to be about Jazz (she thinks Jazz is Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’). Ange is brooding, hates touching and would prefer the show to be about a bucket of blood that she “found” and has placed on the stage.
*Bunnings Warehouse is Australia’s most cherished cultural institution, as well as a hardware franchise where families make memories, newlyweds nest, and queer women go to perve on each other. Bunnings rules.
How many shows have you appeared in at the Fringe and what has the Fringe done for you?
This is Ange’s sixth fringe and Jane’s second. That’s because it took Jane five years to do another Edinburgh after 2018 because it turns out self-producing and performing two separate shows on opposite ends of the day a day for 27 days straight is traumatising. Apart from traumatise Jane, the Fringe has given us both confidence and lots of great friendships with artists. And new greys.
What is your most memorable moment from the Fringe?
Jane: Watching Zach and Viggo perform at Late and Live in 2018. They went off the rails about 1 minute in when the audience yelled for them to “take it off”. Zach Zucker called their bluff and they then proceeded to dance naked for, I’d say, 7-8 minutes while “it’s coming home, footballs coming home” played on repeat over and over and over and over again. Iconic.
Ange: There was one point last year when I mistook sleeping pills for painkillers, and went on stage with 4 times the recommended dose of sedatives in my system without realising. One of my few enduring memories from that day was rushing to the toilet in a spider costume, 2 mins before the show began. I avoided shitting myself in public that day, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared about the future.
What is the worst thing about the Fringe?
Jane: Flyering! Next question!
Ange: Avoiding exes.
If you were not a performer what would you be doing?
Jane: Well, when I’m not performing I work as a carpenter’s assistant. Growing up in the country my sisters and I were always handy and I guess it’s now evolved into fixing up houses. I fantasise about turning the large, timber shed on our farm into a venue someday but the catch is that it can only be accessed by boat. Pipe dream? Who knows!
Ange: I already have a quite well-developed career in journalism that’s actually way easier than comedy so I’d probably just put more energy into that. I’d sleep better and see more of my friends and family, and just generally enjoy the fruits of stability and positive life choices.
How do you prepare for a performance?
Jane: Try not to think about it too much until necessary. Live my life outside of the show. Then at call time Ange usually plays some fat reggaeton, I do a little warm-up, we make sure the mic batteries are fresh, I go “eek, everything is gonna be fine” and wait in the wings shaking my hands. A lot. Also, actually, Ange and I have started doing this thing that began as a once-off and now we can never not do, where we hold our hands up in front of our faces, palms touching and kiss the back of our hands. She will probably kill me for telling the world this but too late noooow.
Ange: Sometimes, before a show, in order to get my head in the game, I murder Jane for having a big mouth.
What is your favourite thing about being in Edinburgh?
Jane: The atmosphere, the city. It really is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited and Fringe time is electric. Less rain would be nice but I guess it’s the trade-off for the green, rolling hills.
Ange: I like the sense of relentless struggle and showering at the end of the day. No actually though I quite like your pubs. They are the best pubs in the world and I’m not just saying that to suck up.
Who or what are you inspired by?
Jane: Ange
Ange: Jane… I guess.
Tell us something your agent doesn’t want us to know?
Jane: I have the word MILF tattooed on my right-arse cheek. I do not have kids though. Which is understandably confusing. Milf is an attitude. I’ll give you the full feminist manifesto in person sometime.
Ange: They were pretty keen for us to leave out the fact that we sing in the show. Oh well.
What is the best advice you have been given so far and by who?
Jane: “Make work you’re proud of with your talented friends”. That’s a quote from Amy Poehler’s book ‘Yes, Please’ and I love it and her so even though it wasn’t said to me personally I like to pass it off like it was.
Ange: “Never attempt to endure sleep deprivation and a hangover at the same time. Pick one”. That gem came from my friend Lindsay McDougall, an Australian musician and broadcaster, who would know.
Outside of performing what are your passions?
Jane: Building, as I mentioned. Looking at Pinterest pages of heritage restoration. Watching youtube videos of people getting the rust off old tools? Are those passions?
Ange: I enjoy giving vague and ominous tarot readings to strangers. Also winning games of chess.
What do you want to get our of performing at the Fringe?
Jane: I want to meet lots of lovely artists. It’s my favourite part of the festival. Obviously selling tickets would be nice but for me, it’s about the friends you make along the way. Yes, that feels as nauseating to write as it probably does to read but it’s true so sucked in!
Ange: To transform my mind into an impenetrable fortress.
Name three other shows we should see and why?
Jane: Chloe Petts and Lara Ricote! We met Chloe and Lara at Melbourne Comedy Festival this year and they are the actual best. So kind, so funny and both good for a dance at 4am. Both very different styles but both deeply charming. Gill Cosgriff because she is a wonderful friend and one of the hardest working, funniest, most talented, and (almost cripplingly) humble people in the biz. She annihilated the Melbourne comedy this year, taking out both top prizes and she deserves every bit of it. Her show is beautiful and I’m so proud of her. So, yes, I might be biased because they’re my friends but also maybe I just have good taste and talented friends.
Ange: Jane named three acts already so now you’ll never know what I think.
Sum up your show in five words.
Comic brilliance meets Gremlin filth
(this was an actual pull quote from Fringe darling Victoria Falconer-Pritchard and we LOOOVE it)
Why should we see your show?
Because if you don’t you’re a coward. Also because it’s dumb and absurd but also strangely heartfelt and you’ll leave feeling better than when you came in. Absurdism and clowning have a loving recklessness to them and it’s a nice space to float around in for 55 minutes. Life is absurd and dumb we should remind ourselves of that as often as possible.
