Harriet Braine won our ‘arts (sorry) and the 2016 Funny Women Stage Award last year and now she’s hitting Edinburgh Fringe this August with her show Total Eclipse of the Art, an hour of hilarious and educational songs inspired by the art world. We caught up with Harriet to talk about her new show, musical comedy and what inspires her…
Kate Stone: Tell us about your debut Edinburgh show Total Eclipse of the Art – I love the poster for it!
Harriet Braine: Thanks! The show is an hour of my best art-history-related parody songs, linked tenuously together with bits of talking. I’ve got a stupid amount of material on the subject and it’s an on-going process choosing which songs and bits to put in. I have a feeling I’ll change it depending on what I think the audience might like. For example, older audiences go nuts for Giacometti and Georgia O’Keeffe, whereas younger audiences go nuts for Diego Rivera and Hieronymus Bosch… I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not to make a judgement of my audience based on their average perceived age. Probably not. An hour is too short, to be honest. Is that a really up-myself thing to say? Probably.
KS: What are you most looking forward to about the Fringe?
HB: I lived in Edinburgh for five years so I’m looking forward to seeing friends who still live there, going on my favourite walks along the Water of Leith, and going to my favourite eateries and drinkeries. Mmmm. Also some Edinburgh Art Festival stuff would be good to see. And some comedy, obviously. I can’t get enough of the stuff.
KS: What drew you to musical comedy?
HB: I was talking to someone about school the other day and I realised my friends and I used to sing funny songs to each other all the time. There were two girls in particular, Salena and Mel, who were brilliant at it, they wrote sort-of theme-tunes for everyone in our group and we sang them obnoxiously in the lunch-queue. My contributions to this activity were strong soprano vocals and an excellent impression of Hans Moleman from the Simpsons. So I reckon that has something to do with it. The comedians I Ioved as a teen were all musical in some way, whether it was the Mighty Boosh, Adam and Joe, Flight of the Conchords or Jack Black. I also loved a lot of sketch stuff on TV, like Smack the Pony, and sitcoms like Black Books but I wasn’t as obsessed with them as I was the musical guys.
KS:What have you been up to since winning the 2016 Funny Women Awards?
HB: Really fun stuff! Lots of amazing gigs, the highlight would probably have to be the V&A gig with Nish Kumar and John Lloyd. It was incredible. John Lloyd called me a genius, and no one recorded it so I can never prove it really happened, but it did! Also I now have an agent, the lovely Jacob Howe-Douglas, and things are looking very bright for the next few months since I did the Speaker’s Corner Comedy Collective Showcase. Exciting times!
KS: Who are your favourite funny women?
HB: I have recently read books by Bridget Christie and Sara Pascoe, both excellent, so they are at the forefront of my mind. There are so many – I listen to a lot of podcasts and have been digging Sofie Hagen. I met her at a preview of hers recently and blabbed on an on about how great she is. Very uncool of me. All-time faves would have to be Victoria Wood, Ruby Wax – who I used to do impressions of when I was about seven which everyone thought was hilarious, and actors Jessica Hynes, Miranda Richardson, Doon Mackichan and Michelle Gomez. I’ve been re-watching Green Wing recently, and in my opinion Sue White has to be one of the best characters ever created.
Harriet Braine Total Eclipse of the Art is at Laughing Horse @ The Golf Tavern, Fringe venue: 114 from 4th – 27th August at 1.15pm. For tickets and more information click here!
Can’t wait that long to catch Harriet in action? She’s performing at the Funny Women Comedy Gala on Friday 23rd August at Worthing Assembly Hall. For tickets and more information click here!
