Show:               Lil Saffron: Ragu to Riches                  
Performer:          Michael Kunze
Venue:              Just the Tonic - Mash House -   Cask Room
Time:               9:05 PM                     
Dates:              4th - 28th August (not 15th, 22nd)                    
Photographer:       Niamh Denyer
Links:              Instagram   Twitter   Facebook   TikTok

Please tell me about your 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show

Lil Saffron: Ragu to Riches is a narrative musical comedy about a rapping pasta chef chasing his dreams of culinary greatness. It’s a big joyous night out with a live DJ and lots of rap bangers about pasta. It’s a solo debut about food and how cooking is an act of love.

During lockdown I got obsessed with this YouTube series called “Pasta Grannies”. It’s about all these elderly Italian women who make these very specific pasta shapes that can only be found in their region. That became the little grit of dirt at the heart of my show which naturally I surrounded with silly raps about pasta and lots of euphemisms based around feeding.

What is the attraction of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe? What do you think of Edinburgh?

I’ve always wanted to perform at the Fringe. It’s a great place to see cool new things, and have your work seen by really savvy audiences who know what they like. The chance to perform a show every day for three and a half weeks is just incredibly rare. I feel like this year’s fringe in particular is just going to be an explosion of joy, especially after the last couple of years. I’m so excited for it. I love the fringe and I love the city and the buzz, and I can’t wait to just immerse myself in it for August.

Who inspires you?

I’ve been very inspired by all my funny friends and people in the arts community during these past two years. It hasn’t been easy and despite that people have made really amazing things. People are so resilient, and I expect Edinburgh Fringe this year will be a massive celebration of that resilience. Hurrah.

Are there shows that you want to check out during the Fringe?

So many! Katie Pritchard, the Police Cops, Julia Masli’s new show, Crizards, Alison Spittle, Alex Bradbury, Anjali Singh … the list goes on and on.

I’ve been lucky enough to take part in Soho Theatre’s Ed Fringe Lab, and I am super excited to see the show of everyone in my cohort there. Here goes … Posey Mehta, Theodora Van Der Beek, Chelsea Birkby, Ted Hill, Eleanor Higgins, Suchandrika Chakrabarti, Anu Vaidyanathan, Sid Singh, Phil Green, Thom Jordan, the play “Lucid”, Kristin Mcilquham, and Nobby Kobayashi. I’ve just been so impressed by the scope of everyone’s work.

Finally, ask and answer a question of your own.

What is the fringe really about?

I think the fringe is really about shows and performers on the fringe of the mainstream, aka the fringe. There are so many great well-established acts that are taking shows up this year, but I think the spirit of the fringe is taking a punt on something that wouldn’t see anywhere else, the weird and the wonderful, shows that are taking big swings and big risks and are driven by passionate people whose main resources are their own time and effort, the people that can’t really afford to do the fringe but do it anyway. Go and see their shows. You might just see something new and amazing. But that’s just my opinion.