Performer: Rik Carranza
Photograph by: Nick Rutter
Show: Still a Fan
Venue: Gilded Balloon
Promoter: Delphine Manley Management

Tell me about your Edinburgh show.

I’m a Star Trek fan. Like a proper Trekkie. I love all of it, even The Final Frontier. Sometimes I think I might be a little too obsessed but then I remember that Star Trek is the greatest thing ever made. Though it wasn’t always that way for me.

Tell me about your first gig.

I organised my own first gig. It was at my student union bar which was a generous name for what basically looked like someones living room with a bar in it. It went really really well. At least that’s what I tell myself and official interviews. The video footage (that I still have) tells another story.

Do you have any rituals before going on stage?

I have an album I have to listen to before a gig. No, I’m not telling you which one it is.

Tell me about your best and worst review.

My best review and worst review are one and the same!! It just contains the wonderful line, ‘Rik Carranza was excellent…at first.’ Such a high to then get my hopes dashed!!

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

Do I plan to? No. Will I? Without doubt.

How do you feel about reviewers generally?

I mean, one reviewer alone I can deal with. Two is an invasion.

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?  

Well this is a loaded question.

People are getting so wound up with the court case that they forget that it just wasn’t funny in the first place. Sometimes people use the defence ‘it’s just a joke’ to try and get away with saying offensive things. Sometimes it is just a joke. Sometimes it’s more.

Are there any subjects that are not suitable for comedy?

If you can make it funny, if it comes from somewhere personal and it doesn’t punch down, then no, nothing is off limits.

Have you ever gone too far?

Yes, but I’m not telling.

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

Bluedot Festival. Performing Star Trek vs Star Wars with John Robertson and Mike Osborne to 300 people whilst Orbital were on the main-stage. It was an amazing experience and I hope to do it again sometime!!