Q&A : Luke Rollason

We're interviewing hilariously absurd comic Luke Rollason about his Edinburgh Fringe show Bowerbird. Debuting at Monkey Barrel comedy, Rollason presents a creative physical comedy, that will get the audience rethinking the mundanity of everyday life. It's an absurd ode to the great indoors and the relationship we form with objects that fill it. Using mime and clowning he brings these objects to life with singing sofas and abandoned utensils.

Are you excited to be back playing at the Fringe? I love the wording of this question because it’s actually spot-on. Playing is exactly the thing that I am excited about. It feels like Fringe is all anyone can talk about at the moment, but when we do its only ever about sales, reviews, awards, flyers etc. It’s what happens when everyone is their own management and worst critic (after Chortle). (This is a joke, big up Chortle) (Love you Chortle).

But playing is the thing that we should be talking about, or at least be trying to get excited about. Performing live every day to the best comedy audiences in the world is what the Fringe really is all about – and believe me, having recently performed in some really conservative towns to audiences with very little interest in alternative comedy, I’m really looking forward to a Fringe crowd!

Describe your new show Bowerbird only using 5 words? Madman loose in IKEA, help.

If you could buy one household item (money no object) what would it be? I get by with very few luxuries – I currently have a double bed for the first time in my life, although I’m yet to get a double duvet so I sleep in the middle, pretending nothing has changed. I look insane.

I’m of a generation where owning furniture feels like a mad indulgence (you can’t carry that wardrobe on the tube when you move!) so I’d love to buy a pointlessly massive item like a sofa which you then have to totally restructure your life around. A real statement sofa that then defines all future decisions about housing.

I once knew someone who travelled between various short-term lets with an actual antique chaise longue.

What is one you think the crowd can take away from watching Bowerbird? I think I’m trying to get people to rethink their relationship to the everyday, and bring some wonder back to those household objects we interact with on the day-to-day. We need to see the eccentric in the everyday! We need to use our imaginations or doom ourselves to domestic boredom! I’m never happier than when someone says “I’ll never look at a corkscrew / sieve / tape measure etc in the same way again!” I mean, I don’t believe them. Mundanity will always win. But that’s why people need to come and see my shows regularly, as a top-up.

What is the stupidest purchase you have ever made?

This is a very funny question to ask a prop comedian! I was convinced tea strainers were going to be a really key element of the show, so I bought around 50 in bulk. I’ve managed to find uses for three of them. Turns out tea strainers are funny, but not THAT funny.

See Luke Rollason: Bowerbird at the Monkey Barrel during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 3-28 August. For more information and tickets visit www.edfringe.com or www.monkeybarrelcomedy.com