Meghan Bean is a California-born stand-up comedian and multi-disciplinary artist. Having honed her sharp comedy coast-to-coast from UCB NY to Groundlings LA, stepping behind the scenes of entertainment powerhouses CONAN, Ellen, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, most recently consulting for national campaigns as creative producer/designer, as well as writing/developing her own performance material! She’s thrilled to make her global debut with her original solo show The Rise & Fall of a Mormon Homecoming Princess at Edinburgh Fringe this summer.
What’s your show about and where can we see it?
The Rise & Fall of a Mormon Homecoming Princess is my debut solo alt comedy hour looking back for a laugh at my journey of growing up a Mormon girl in the early 2000s (3 whole separate heads on that beast), through cheer at the happiest place on Earth, growing up trying to be the best sparkly perfect sexy modest religious school-girly one can be, getting gold stars on grades based on a strict rubric of unspoken rules, and still trying to overachieve into failure.
Underneath it’s about remembering who you were before the world gets to rewire, and where it led me to today. Can promise some big twists, it turns out. Structured like the school lesson nobody asked for, complete with required reading, classroom rules and emotional extra credit, purity culture, Girl Scout badges, breakups, faith crises and the deeply confusing experience of feeling like you have to be sexy before you even get to feel “pretty.” It unravels my reckoning with the competing expectations that once pulled me apart, picking through the wreckage of girlhood under the pressures of magazine culture, high-control religion, all leaving a feeling of such deep scrutiny, somehow without ever quite being seen. You can come see my debut at Edinburgh Fringe this summer at Just The Tonic at The Mash House in The Cask Room from August 6-17 @6:25PM, and from August 19-30 @7:45PM.
Who are your favourite Funny Women?
Tig Notaro was my first answer to this when I started stand-up, and it’s been neat to see her evolution ever since. Something just spoke to me in that desert-dry deadpan! I think the juxtaposition in her distant delivery with such deeply intense topics is so cool. Maria Bamford was the first “weird” that ever made me wonder if ‘Cool’ even deserved Queen Bee status. She always fully-circles back to the sanest person in the room. Her “why does everything have to be so good?” bit ironically ranked an all-time great in my book. Jac Novak live was a brain blast and she brings both halves!
I recognize my thought process in hers, which she describes as “holographic”, which I circle-heart-starred into oblivion until she stopped to check on me. Watching her surf the same wavelength with more freedom than I felt free to have did wonders for trusting the aspects of my voice I appreciate so much in her.. Basically a speed run of all the self-doubt I didn’t need! Let’s say we put Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the “enough said” pile, with essay upon request??
Tell us about your comedy style.
I like to lollygag right on up to a killshot. My comedy is contrast: light & dark, sincere & absurd; always got a little sparkle & a little spiral in my back pocket. I come from a tradition of black and white thinking, and I like to think I’m using it to its highest expression. Thinking in extremes is such a gift for anyone pursuing scrupulosity or comedy.
What do you love about comedy/writing/producing?
Comedy comes down to the moment a laugh hits where you feel an entire crowd of cares go up in the air, for just a second, or maybe 20 minute standing ovations. Then I’ve had so many cool and, not dramatic to say, lifechanging moments while writing, where these epiphanies will float up from a sea of scribbles I wasn’t even sure made sense. They say it’s where “the unconscious becomes conscious”. Basically your brain keeps secrets from you, is what I’ve learned, which is pretty unhinged but also quite fun, when you get to be your own TV detective! And your own victim, I guess. Never the culprit usually. Producing is something I was surprised to be this passionate about. I’ve got a real ‘glowy’ spot in my heart for just watching somebody totally in their element.
I’m a show-off for sure, but that doesn’t stop at me! Collaborating like taking the sun in a magnifying glass to some seeds of raw talent until it sparks up some superpower, is some of the purest magic we have available in reality. And of course Visual Art is the only thing that gets me out of my head when it’s flowing over with all that!
Any advice for those starting out/taking their first show to Edinburgh Fringe?
Oh, ignore as much advice as you can! Everyone wants to give you the rules they had to follow. Remember to trust and respect someone first before you ask them to play captain for a day of your career. No one loves to look like they know what they’re talking about like a little gang of whatever local lads at the legendary ‘literallywhocareswhere’. Just don’t be discouraged by the first on Google that will be 10 men a mic getting up with their latest ‘masturbatobservation’. Prepare somehow, I’m not sure, bring one of those crystals maybe? Whatever helps with the wear & tear of your will to not literally abandon your dreams. Generally, the more a man talks about his cum, the less receptive he’ll be to a period joke, if you thought this was your audience.
How does it feel to have your project picked up?
It feels so validating to have talented collaborators believe in you enough to join forces! 4 years ago I’d scroll over these headlines like, “Why you daydream but do nothing,” or variations on calling you out for being the loser passion got stuck with, in an encouraging way, I was told? Anyway I just saw one yesterday and it felt so good not being there anymore. Going for it is scary and I’ve wanted to swap with the 2023 me just watching TV heck most of today, in fact! But my heart feels like it’s watching this from a hot tub… Alright DREAMERS CAN DO STUFF TOO GUYS!
You can keep up with Meghan Bean on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Tickets for The Rise & Fall of a Mormon Homecoming Princess are available here!
