Show: Grant Busé: SentiMENTAL! Venue Gilded Baloon, Teviot Time: 8.30pm Dates: 3rd to 29th August (not 15th) Photographer: Joel Devereux Links: Profile and Social Media
Hi Grant. Tell me about your 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, SentiMENTAL!
SentiMENTAL is a music comedy show about nostalgia and our obsession with the “good old days”. But were the good old days really that good? Are memories just fake news or was the eighties truly the peak of fashion? I explore these ideas and many more over an hour of stand up, live original music and a few surprises along the way. It’s a celebration and mockery of our collective lust for childhood comforts. If you’re annoyed that they made another season of Sex And The City but couldn’t help but watch every second of it – this is the show for you.
During the pandemic you returned to Australia from the UK, back to your hometown of Brisbane and back in with your parents, to your childhood bedroom. Did this help or hinder the development of SentiMENTAL!? When events happened back home were you able to distance yourself and think, “I might get a couple of minutes out of this”?
Minutes!? I got several hours out of my family. This whole show is less an exercise in comedy and more a triumph in editing! I actually started writing SentiMENTAL three years ago. The premise was more, “Why are we so nostalgic for the good old days? Life ain’t that bad right now”. A horrific global pandemic really makes you rethink that angle.
In lockdown, so many of us turned to our childhood comforts, baking cookies, old video games and reruns of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. because we couldn’t see our own. The timing for writing a show about nostalgia was oddly perfect. My parents were planning a downsize so not only was I living in my first bedroom but I was also helping my folks sell my childhood home. So my lockdown consisted of sifting through thousands of old photos, knick knacks, report cards and trophies (gentle flex). If you think I’m sentimental, my father has kept a piece of wood that we built a soda rocket with 20 years ago. Not the rocket – the excess piece of wood! You don’t realise what is actually sentimental until you have to sell it on Facebook marketplace. So yes, plenty of material among the old boxes.
You talk – and sing – a lot about your personal life on stage. How easy is it to share so much with strangers? Do you worry about what your parents might think? Have they seen the show?
I have done two shows about sex, one in which I stripped butt naked in front of the audience every night. My parents have seen that show. So to answer your question… fun anecdotes about my childhood and family are a fully clothed walk in the park compared to that experience.
Do you miss Neighbours?
I shall always miss a show that featured a man named Toadfish slowly working his way through all the blondes in a 1km radius. In many ways, Neighbours was the blueprint for Tinder. I’m so happy I got to be a part of it for a short time – it really helps sell tickets.
Finally, ask and answer a question of your own.
Wow your show Grant Busé: SentiMENTAL sounds like a great night out. How do I buy tickets?
Tickets: Grant Busé: SentiMENTAL!
