Given the fact her debut show is called Duvet Day and there’s nothing she’d rather do than have a lie down, it’s rather ironic that Susan Riddell is a stand-up comedian.
And she’s fully aware of that fact as she prepares to extol the virtues of laziness at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Originally planned to be called Lazy Susan – before she discovered there was a sketch group by the same name and decided against causing any confusion – her show’s title plays on the fact that she’d much rather have a duvet day than a wedding day.
“I was thinking of different ideas for the poster and found these bedcovers that make it look like you’re wearing a wedding dress, I thought that would be perfect,” she says.
“I just lay in bed and got photos taken, it was quite good! I think I’m always trying to work out how to just have a wee rest.”
Comedy – especially during the Fringe – is not a career pursuit known for allowing a lot of time for having a good old lie down.
And while Susan loves her career in stand-up, she admits that she doesn’t perhaps get the buzz out of it that others do – mainly due to the hours.
“It’s the routine of it I don’t like. Getting up on stage is fine but it’s having to go out at that time of night,” she laughs. “I’ll be sitting in the house all day writing and then it’ll get to 7:30 and then I need to put make-up on and go out and do a gig.
“I really just want to stay home and watch Love Island and go to bed!
“It’s just a really weird routine, especially because I can’t sleep in the morning. I’ve got a dog, so it’s not as if I can have a long lie and then change the routine. I think it would really depress me to get up late.
“If we could just have matinee gigs at 12 and if everyone could come out on their lunch break to come and see some comedy that would be great!”
© Mark Liddel PhotographyComedy writing is where Susan’s passion truly lies.
A talented writer – perhaps honed by a short stint at The Sunday Post on work experience, where she coincidentally wrote about weddings – she’s penned material for not just herself but also others on the likes of Mock The Week and Scot Squad.
“Writing was all I’ve ever wanted to do,” she says. “It’s very hard in Scotland just to make a career out of comedy writing. It’s not the same as in America or even in London where you’ve got all these shows to write for and you can be part of a writer’s room. There’s not too much going on like that here.
“That’s how I branched into everything else really, because I thought I’d have to have more than one string to my bow because it would be really hard to get off the ground.
“I consider myself a writer and if I could just do that I would.”
With just days to go before the start of the Fringe, the final pieces of the show are being put into place.
For just about the whole of August, Susan will take up residence in a room in Edinburgh and welcome a brand new audience and a brand new challenge every night.
“I’m looking forward to it but it’s still nerve-wracking,” Susan says. “I’m still knocking it into shape. I’m just back from the Cotswolds, I was doing a preview there.
“It was good – I didn’t know how it was going to go down, if they would understand me to start with.
“I’ve never been there before, it was like stepping into an episode of Antiques Roadshow! But it went really well, it’s good going to all these different places to roadtest it.
“It’s different to doing gigs in Glasgow or Edinburgh. A lot of the audiences at the Fringe are tourists, a lot from England, so it’s good to go to these places.”
It’s an early evening show for Susan with Duvet Day at the Fringe, and she’s looking forward to audiences coming to her for a change rather than the stresses of touring.
She says: “Throughout the year you’re travelling to all these different gigs so it’s quite nice to just have something nearby and the tables get turned a bit, everyone from England has to do what we do all the time and come to us.
“It’s so overwhelming, even as a punter, going to the Fringe. Just deciding what to watch, there’s so much on.
“When you’re making your posters and thinking what your show’s going to look like you remember there’s going to be a million other posters and it’s going to just be overload.
“I know a guy that handed out post-it notes instead of flyers, that’s actually quite a good idea.
“It’s more attention grabbing than a well made flyer, people are just trying to avoid you! If somebody handed you a post-it note then that would get your attention.”
Perhaps the next step for Susan, and to enable more lying down, could be inspired by one of her favourite Fringe memories.
She recalls a show she went to with friends, before had started doing stand-up, called Comedy in the Dark – which was exactly as it sounds.
“I’m dead into a gimmick, so it was right up my street,” she says. “The performance is in pitch black, the audience is in darkness, they’re doing their set on stage and no-one can see them.
“It’s so bizarre, it really affected some of the comedians on stage, they were having meltdowns because it was so surreal.
“I’d like to do that myself. Everyone could have a wee communal lie down from all the sensory overload. That would be quite nice!”
Susan Riddell: Duvet Day, Monkey Barrel 5, August 2-25 (not 12), 7:15pm, https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/susan-riddell-duvet-day
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