Performer: Ray Fordyce
Photograph by: Crossing Parallels 
Show: Afternoon Tea with Ray Fordyce and Other Spiffing Personnages
Venue: Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom
Promoter: Indie
Online: Box Office Facebook

Tell me about your Edinburgh show.

It’s a showcase show featuring up to four acts each day from around the local and worldwide circuit.

Tell me about your first gig.

My first gig was in March 2010 in Edinburgh. I’d been at a comedy course for a few weeks beforehand and the organiser managed to get me onto a new material show she was hosting. IT all went pretty well. I made people laugh, as is a comedian’s want. The only hitch was my camera didn’t record the show, so there is no evidence of it going well.

Do you have any rituals before going on stage?

Drink water and coffee, pee lots, stretch, breathe, hastily run over my notes a million times, panic, silence my self-critic and then just do it.

Tell me about your best and worst review.

I’m still yet to have any reviews published by big name reviewers. I’ve had a few troll reviews from audience members. One in particular criticised me pointing out a man getting up and leaving in the middle of the show.

During this Edinburgh run, do you plan to read reviews of your show?

I try not to get too obsessed with reviews during the show. I’m mainly there to help other people get some stage time and to help better myself as a performer. Though I’d be lying if I got a good/bad review and wasn’t elated/disappointed.

How do you feel about reviewers generally?

Comedy is very subjective, reviewers have different tastes, every Fringe day is different so it’s best not to take what they say too much to heart. But, if you’re consistently getting bad reviews, it might be time to reconsider your life choices.

In April 2018, YouTube comedian, Markus Meechan (aka Count Dankula) was fined £800 for training his girlfriend’s pug dog to do a Nazi salute with its paw, in response to the phrase ‘Gas the Jews’. Do you believe Meechan committed a criminal offence, and why?  

No. HE merely made a mockery of the Nazi movement and of the many cute dog videos. He didn’t hurt anyone or incite hatred against anyone.

Are there any subjects that are not suitable for comedy?

Paedophilia jokes is always a risk never worth taking in comedy.

Have you ever gone too far?

Not really but I did once have a joke about suicide in the middle of a set that went down like a lead balloon and then I tried bringing the room back with a cheery joke about school tuck shops, but the audience usually never recovered, so that joke was promptly dropped!

Looking back over your time as a comedian, tell me about the best gig of your career.

My last show of the Fringe 2013 was my best gig to date. I had a full house, the audience were amazing, the other acts on did fantastically and I got one of my most generous donation buckets ever.