“I wanted to be weirder. I want to be more of a freak!” Stand-up comedian-turned-drag clown, Su Mi is speaking about her journey down the alt-comedy path. She says, “With stand-up comedy, as much as I love it, there was so much more I wanted to do.” Pushing against norms in stand-up, Su finds acceptance in the drag scene alongside her fellow troupe member, clown, and friend, Eliza Nelson who goes by Cabbage the Clown.
“Even though I am a clown, I think my work is a little bit outside of traditional clowning and more in the realm of drag,” says Cabbage. Coming from two ends of a spectrum, Su and Cabbage meet somewhere in-between comedy and drag, both taking something from each other’s background in their acts.
Su sees the drag scene as a liberating space, saying “I found so many really nice, queer, crazy spaces where people wouldn’t just be freaked out by [my act].” Embracing her newfound creative freedom, Su Mi throws her audience through a whirlwind of surreal non-conformist punk madness in her Fringe debut THISMOTHERPHUCKER.
Likewise, Cabbage’s step in the direction of comedy and clowning allows them to be more experimental with their drag act. “When you put something on stage in the drag world, it’s like a finished product, whereas in the clown and comedy scene, it’s all about getting used to failure,” says Cabbage. Their show Cinemadrome combines glamorous outfits with the misery of working as a minimum wage cinema usher in an hour-long parody of cinematic history.
The two are quick to praise Charlie Ralph, the big head of BIGHEAD Comedy. “What’s great about Charlie is that he really champions alternative comedy and clowning,” says Su, happy to have found a production company “solely for freaks like us.” Under the banner of BIGHEAD Comedy, Su’s and Cabbage’s shows will join six others for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Squeezed into the BIGHEAD clown car with Su and Cabbage is Ozzy Algar who plays a clairvoyant laundress in Speed Queen – a narrative-driven character comedy. Other narrative acts are more personal, with Pedro Leandro’s Soft Animal following the winding road of his life as he explores his own sexuality and need for acceptance – all told with a self-deprecating grin. Bebe Cave steers her comedic story, Christbride, in a historical direction, following a medieval tween who, sick of all living men, seeks marriage to a man she will never have to actually talk to – Christ himself.
Fighting over the radio are Holly Spillar and Anna Hale with their musical comedy shows. Spillar channels her financial frustrations in Tall Child through a stand-up routine with a live soundtrack delivered via a loop pedal. Hale’s Control Freak employs her vocal and piano chords in an obsessively curated medley of mirth.
And, getting mud on the back seat is Rosa Garland whose boundary pushing physical comedy, Primal Bog, interrogates the relationship between queer sexuality and aesthetic taboos.
Expanding boundaries and telling unconventional stories is what BIGHEAD Comedy aims to bring to the Fringe through its alt-comedy troupe. Cabbage is keen to point out the importance of this aim for the alt-drag scene as a whole, saying, “There’s so little alternative and AFAB bodied drag in the public eye… some people don’t identify what I do as drag.”
Mainstream culture can often view drag as rigidly defined. Alt-drag acts prove that this is far from the truth. Drag queens, kings, and things are all part of the equation and increasing the representation of alternative drag acts helps expand common understandings of drag as a broad church or, in the case of Su and Cabbage, a big tent.
Cabbage the Clown: Cinemadrome, Underbelly, George Square, 30 Jul-24 Aug (not 12, 19), 9.45pm
Su Mi: THISMOTHERPHUCKER, Underbelly, Cowgate, 31 Jul-24 Aug (not 12, 19), 6.40pm