We were delighted when duo Stiff and Kitsch won the 10th WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards at the Underbelly Festival Southbank and grabbed some time with the musical pair to talk about the MCAs, Adele and which one’s which…
Funny Women: Congratulations! How does it feel to win this year’s MCAs
Stiff and Kitsch: Safe to say, it felt pretty amazing. We were absolutely thrilled to win. The competition as a whole was a great experience – allowing us to meet tons of great acts, and just getting to perform in the Udderbelly cow alongside so many talented musical comedians was incredible. We never expected to win so it was an amazing surprise and a pretty great way to end the night!
FW: Which one’s Stiff and which one’s Kitsch?
FW: Which one’s Stiff and which one’s Kitsch?
S&K: Well, initially Sally was ‘Stiff’ and Rhiannon ‘Kitsch’ (after descriptions close family and friends had generously named us), but when we started writing together and working on our shows these seemed to switch with our on-stage personas. Rhiannon is neat, organised, spends her evenings alphabetizing her DVD collection and genuinely owns has a label maker. Sally hasn’t seen her bedroom floor since 2012 and once turned up to a rehearsal 10 minutes early which shocked everyone. On the flip side Rhiannon wears flamboyant hats non-ironically and Sally’s wardrobe colour palette ranges from black to a lighter shade of black, so I guess there is a little Stiff and Kitsch in both of us.
FW: How did you get into musical comedy?
FW: How did you get into musical comedy?
S&K: Sally has been attempting to write comedy songs for years, much to her family’s dismay. She sang them in place of having to buy birthday presents. ‘‘You’re nifty and you’re fifty” for her father’s 50th birthday was the last straw, they told her to sing her songs elsewhere, so she did.
Whereas Rhiannon spent childhood summer holidays writing and producing ‘variety shows’ with her cousins, and although not intended as comedy at the time, I think they can now be viewed as some of the most hilarious home movies of all time. (She maintains this is her seminal body of work)
But ‘Stiff and Kitsch’ specifically was formed after we both graduated from LAMDA and found ourselves up at the Edinburgh Fringe together. We loved a lot of the same shows and thought – Why not try do this ourselves? (Ten thousand pounds of debt, endless sleepless nights, and a surplus of posters which we accidentally got printed in the wrong size is why not) But hindsight is a great thing and we’re so glad we did now! We’d been working on a lot of new musical theatre cabarets with James Taylor (our MD) and Janine Harouni (our director) at the time so it seemed like the next logical step.
But ‘Stiff and Kitsch’ specifically was formed after we both graduated from LAMDA and found ourselves up at the Edinburgh Fringe together. We loved a lot of the same shows and thought – Why not try do this ourselves? (Ten thousand pounds of debt, endless sleepless nights, and a surplus of posters which we accidentally got printed in the wrong size is why not) But hindsight is a great thing and we’re so glad we did now! We’d been working on a lot of new musical theatre cabarets with James Taylor (our MD) and Janine Harouni (our director) at the time so it seemed like the next logical step.
FW: You both have comedy projects (Sally is a member of sketch group Muriel, while Rhiannon’s TV comedy script Hitched was runner up in the 2017 Funny Women Writing Award) outside of Stiff and Kitsch. Do you think this makes your pairing stronger?
S&K: Absolutely, Stiff & Kitsch and Muriel often work as a collective – and working alongside such talented funny people makes you up your game too, as well as really figuring out what your individual comedic voice is.
Rhiannon helped directed Muriel’s first show Bad Master and Janine from Muriel works closely with us – directing our show ‘Adele Is Younger than Us’ as well as our online material: Her, and all-round-camera-and-editing -genius Andrew Nolan made our video ‘The Facebook Song’ look more snazzy than we could have ever dreamed. For Rhiannon’s writing Sally is always on hand to read a script and answer the question “But is it funny though…?” (The answer often being: ‘Yeah put some jokes in and it will be’)
And we all help our MD James out with the piano – showing him how to switch it on and which end makes a noise etc.
FW: What’s next for Stiff and Kitsch?
FW: What’s next for Stiff and Kitsch?
S&K: We’re busy writing our next show at the moment, which involves lots of eating cake and watching youtube videos and about 10% writing, and at the same we’re time doing a final tour of our debut show ‘Adele Is Younger Than Us’ which will culminate in a limited run at The Pleasance at this years Edinburgh Fringe.
We’re also planning to release more online videos throughout the year, if only so that we can send them to our parents and say ‘Look – proof! This is what I do all day!’
FW: Who are your favourite funny women?
FW: Who are your favourite funny women?
S&K: The incredible Victoria Wood has been a huge inspiration over the years – her witty, clever, yet silly musical comedy has certainly been a big influence, and we recently started re-watching French and Saunders from the beginning, and God, they’re brilliant. We’re also massive fans of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and love musical comedians such as Garfunkel and Oates and Rachel Bloom who are bringing musical comedy to wider mainstream audience.
Stiff and Kitsch are at Soho Theatre with their show Adele Is Younger Than Us from 19th – 21st June. For tickets click here!
