Comedian Josh Pugh takes us through the last two years of his life in his brand-new hour at the Edinburgh Fringe, Sausage, Egg, Josh Pugh, Chips & Beans.
For the past ten years, he has played for England’s Partially Sighted football team is also the creator of cult FA coaching account @GrassrootsCoac5 on Twitter.
Here, he answers our questions ahead of the festival kicking off next month…
How are you feeling ahead of the Fringe?
Pumped! Honestly maybe too pumped, in real danger of overcooking it and burning out before I get there. Really wasting a lot of excited energy right now to the point where I expect to crash day one of the festival.
What is your show all about?
My show is about becoming a dad and a general catch up from the last two years. I just go out and try to be funny for an hour and have a bloody good laugh. Got to have a laugh ain’t ya?
What put you on the path to a career in comedy?
I used to love watching Vic and Bob and Harry Hill with my Dad. I would try to make my friends and parents’ friends laugh. It didn’t even occur to me that it could be a career until I’d done a few “real” jobs and thought why not give it a go. I like being the centre of attention for a bit and then going home, so it’s perfect.
You play for England’s partially sighted team, has the locker room been a good source of material?
Not at all, people think it would be, but comedy needs to be relatable and not a huge number of people have experienced playing in a World Championships in Japan and probably even less in a friendly in a leisure centre in Shropshire.
You’ve supported the likes of Kevin Bridges and Ricky Gervais on tour. How important are these slots for rising comics and what have you learned from the experience?
These gigs are great to do, I enjoy watching how the top comics get a new show together and the work that goes into it. A lot of the time they get Deliveroo brought to the stage door as well which is brilliant. It also gives you a taste of what it would be like to tour to your own audience and that’s definitely the aim.
How useful a tool has Twitter been in getting your name out there, especially over the past couple of years of lockdowns?
Twitter has been really good to me. It all happened by accident really, I just filmed some daft videos on my phone to entertain myself and people started sharing them which was really nice. I even had people making spoofs of them and sending them to me, my “Four Cheese Pizza” video has been my “Rock ‘n’Roll Star”.
If you had to pick one item that’s essential for surviving a month at the Fringe, what would that be?
I always find it mad that people talk about “surviving” the Edinburgh Fringe like it’s an expedition to Everest base camp and not just a lot of show-offs performing in a beautiful city for a month. That being said I would love to see E-Scooters thrown into the mix, I think one of them would be pretty handy for getting around.
The Edinburgh Fringe can throw up some surprises – what is the strangest moment you can remember from the festival?
Honestly you become so desensitised to the eccentric that it’s the mundane that becomes surprising. After three weeks of seeing drag queens on stilts and people juggling fire, a builder walking into a bookies can shake you back to reality.
I really like the moments when these worlds collide, like my family visiting and my 79-year old Grandad being flyered for a Shakespearean Lip Sync Battle.
What do you think it is about the Edinburgh Fringe that attracts people from all around the world to come to watch and also to perform?
I think it’s the history of it, and the city itself, and also let’s not kid ourselves that a hell of a lot of people want to come and look at the castle. That’d be my advice for anyone thinking of putting a festival on, stick a lovely old Castle in the middle of it. Without being too soppy the festival has a “feel” to it which is really magic.
What is your favourite one-liner?
“My father used to like my mother to get dressed up as a nurse. Then he used to like her to go out and work… as a nurse. Brought in some extra money.” – Harry Hill
Josh Pugh is performing his brand-new show ‘Sausage, Egg, Josh Pugh, Chips and Beans’ at Monkey Barrel 4 at 14.10 throughout the festival
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