New Zealander Alice Brine is making her Edinburgh debut this year with a show that promises to rip the lid off the reality of life with ADHD. We caught up with the expert storyteller to talk about her late ADHD diagnosis, hangovers, and the pressure of Edinburgh Fringe review culture…
Funny Women: Tell us about your show.
Alice Brine: Brinestorm is a collection of my favourite stories, observations, and anecdotes. It’s material from the last year or so that has been bringing the laughs to crowds across London so I’m super excited to share it with a wider audience. It’s weird saying “I tell stories about myself” as a pitch for a show but the difference is I’ve had chaotic ADHD my whole life and so there are just so many situations I get myself into that seem really unbelievable. I’ve been in love with storytelling since I was young and I was born without the ability to fear a crowd. Like I just love talking to a crowd of people, I only found out that others found that scary when I was 10 and it baffled me because I legit just thought we all found it really fun. Brinestorm is fun and it’s honestly something I’m super proud of.
FW: ADHD seems to be quite a hot topic at the moment, especially for women getting late diagnoses, are you hoping your show will help educate people about the realities of ADHD?
AB: There’s a very big scale with ADHD. Mine is at the far end where it’s really detrimental to my life. I got diagnosed late at 15 years old and it changed my life when I found out. I think there is a lot of information going out in the world about ADHD. Some of it is helping people a lot, some of it is making ADHD seem very trivial and that bothers me.
The show is meant to celebrate the wonderful sides of having this neuro atypical brain but it also brings to life real situations where the audience will understand just how challenging having ADHD is. It’s fun to laugh at it because I am able to control it but the world is quite harsh to people with ADHD. It’s
really easy to forget that people with ADHD have ADHD and that can be a huge problem because even though we might not seem that different there are humongous obstacles we have to overcome every day and I want to bring that to life while still having a big old laugh.
FW: Are you excited to debut at Edinburgh Fringe?
AB: Absolutely. I love doing stand up and if I’m allowed to toot my own horn I’m really good at it. I can’t wait to just get up there, grab the mic and do what I love. On the other hand there are definitely some things about Edinburgh I’m not excited about. There’s a very big ‘review’ culture that we have to partake in. Your reputation seems to be in the grip of someone else’s opinion who happens to work for a newspaper. It feels like that’s not going to be fun. I also really hate being hungover, I get such terrible hangovers. I know there’s going to be tonnes of drinking so I’m not looking forward to the state I’ll get myself in! There’s also the pressure for people debuting to be in the running for that best newcomer award, which really takes the fun out of it. I just wanna tell jokes innit.
FW: Have you got any tips for comedians going up to the festival for the first time?
AB: This is my first time going up to the festival too. I did many years of NZ/AU Festivals, then moved over here, then there was a cheeky pandemic so I’ve still never actually been. So my advice is as good as the next woman’s. If you’re reading this and are going up for the first time and consider yourself a fun hun, hit me up on Instagram and let’s get a draaaank.
FW: Who are the funny women are you hoping to see in Edinburgh this year?
AB: Sarah Roberts. Kiran Saggu. Grace Campbell. Sharon Wanjohi. Abbie Edwards. Katie Pritchard. Olga Koch. Helen Bauer.
Alice Brine’s debut stand-up show Brinestorm will be at the Gilded Balloon Turret at
4.20pm for the month of August for tickets go to www.edfringe.com
