Spring Day joined a Christian cult at 13 years old and left 13 years later. She’s never talked about it before because she didn’t think anybody would understand. Spring recounts why she joined, and how she escaped a growing fundamentalist Christian community that had become her whole world.
Tell us about your show.
Exvangelical is all about my life in a christian cult, which I joined at the age of 13 and how I eventually escaped at the age of 26. It is a coming-of-age story about learning to let go of the things and relationships you loved after you’ve outgrown them. I also talk about the nature of cults, more accurately labelled high-control-groups, why they will always be around and how to spot them. It is a sharp and darkly funny show about: speaking to Satan, attending coercive faith healing services, failing forward, refusing to be a victim, and finding the courage to take control of one’s own destiny.
How does it feel to be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe?
This is my eighth Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In many ways, it is a spiritual homecoming, the Fringe is where I honed my craft and learned to perform under any circumstances to all kinds of people. I learn something new every single year I do the Fringe, and I’m always improving as a performer because of it. It’s also where I met my husband, fellow comedian Tim Renkow. I am forever grateful to the festival for bringing us two rednecks together in the Three Sisters courtyard on Cowgate one damp evening. I also look forward to how fit I’ll be after walking an average of 30,000 steps a day for a whole month.
Have you got any tips for comedians going up to the festival for the first time?
I hope you’ve visited the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before your debut because it is larger and more chaotic than you think it is. Doing the Edinburgh Fringe is as close as you can come to going on the road with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem—it is a wild ride that is worth it, just be sure to buckle up!
Be happy for others’ success. There will always be someone that looks like they are having the best, most carefree time at the festival. Maybe they are but they are probably not. Viewing the fringe as a ‘winner-takes-all’ festival is exhausting; it makes you no fun to be around, punters and fellow performers can smell it from miles away and it will cast an unpleasant shadow over your show. I like to think of the Fringe as an infinite game of catch where, every year, you get to expand your community of like-minded creative artists, punters and make really great art together.
Spring Day’s new stand up show Exvangelical is at the Pleasance Courtyard – Bedside 6.05pm. Book tickets here.
Picture credit: Matt Crockett.
