Cambridge Footlights alumna and 2022 Pleasance Comedy Reservist, Dee Allum, chats to Katerina Partolina Schwartz about bringing her debut stand-up hour, Dead Name, to the Edinburgh Fringe.
What would be the elevator pitch for your show, Dead Name?
Dead Name is about trying to come to terms with the past versions of myself. I’m trans and I came out about three years ago, so my show is about me trying to reconcile myself with the person and name I used to be. My old self was a guy who meant a great deal to a lot of people. Even though I didn’t particularly like him, they certainly did, so in my show I explore grieving that old self and finding a way that myself, and the people around me, can let go. It’s obviously quite a niche experience. It’s not something every person has gone through, but I do think everyone has some nostalgia towards their old selves and for cringes at the person they used to be. Dead Name is a show that looks at trying to find a way of accepting the past and finding a way to move on, but with some humour! It doesn’t sound like the funniest pitch, but it is. It’s got jokes in it, I promise.
How would you describe your comedy style?
I always struggle with this, because other than ‘one-liners’ or ‘absurd clown’, I don’t know if I could really encapsulate a comedian’s entire style in a sentence. I think I am observational and unafraid of silly punchlines. I like to create a serious set-up followed by a very silly punchline. ‘Dry,’ I guess would be a word, sometimes verbose. I don’t know, funny? Very funny.
What was your writing process like for this show?
The writing process was interesting. It’s my first ever hour-long show, so some of the content was determined by the kinds of things I was already doing material about, you know the stuff that I had in my back pocket so to speak. I wanted to set up my stall to the comedy world, saying, “This is the person that I am, and this is how I got here.” In a lot of ways, it’s been really amazing to write cause it sort of helped me almost codify in my own head who I am (which probably isn’t that healthy) and doing it through comedy. It’s been very rewarding and hopefully the audience will come out of it having seen a good piece of art as well.
What inspired you to approach your debut from this particular angle?
As I say, it was what I was already writing about and is what felt most relevant or interesting to me. There’s an element of politics to the show, however, I try not to focus on it more than is absolutely necessary, because I feel like it’s been done. I don’t think people are that interested in hearing about the trans political debate, least of all me. It’s something that I think is just very tiresome, so I was conscious of deliberately making a show that was laugh first and then making the overarching political point second.
Dead Name, sounds like a very personal hour. Where have you found that level of comfort to speak about your personal experience onstage?
Yeah, it’s weird, the first stand-up gig I was was about coming out (which was about two weeks after I actually came out), and has very much been part of my therapeutic process from very early on. Within a few days of realising I was trans, I started writing jokes about it because it’s just really funny as well as being full of emotional turmoil, especially telling your family and reorganising your whole life. The whole experience felt like where the comedy is, and I just followed. I consider myself as much of a comedian as a trans person, so when it comes to writing the actual comedy, I think anything about my own life has to be fair game or I should probably be doing something else. But I’ve never felt like that’s been an issue really or that I’ve had to balance one or the other. I’ve just felt that as long as it’s funny, then I feel good talking about it.
Dee Allum: Dead Name, 31st July – 12th August and 14th – 25th August at 4.30pm, at Pleasance Courtyard (Below). Book tickets here.
Photo credit: Rebecca Need-Menear
