Billy Walker brings his comic solo show, Joan Collins Blocked Me On Twitter to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
“Theodore Emory Jones, one of England’s finest thespian exports (in his opinion), arrives in Hollywood with the sole burning desire of starring in the Dynasty reboot.
Armed with a Burberry steamer trunk filled with enough opinions to sink the Cutty Sark, and a signed 10×8 of Patricia Routledge, only one thing stands in his way – Dame Joan Collins!”
Where: Jade Studio @ Greenside
When: 1-23 Aug
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/joan-collins-blocked-me-on-twitter
Billy tells us all about his “Fleabag-style one-man spectacle”!
Why Joan Collins? What’s her enduring appeal and what gave you the idea for the show?
This is such a great question, and one that I’ve been asked before. I live part-time in America and I think that over there, they just look at her as the epitome of a British villain.
She’s glamorous, she is classy, she has a tongue that would cut glass with her insults and she can throw shade like no other Hollywood star.
I think it’s a little bit sad to say that part of her appeal is to do with how good she looks for her age. I think in general women have a hard time aging in the entertainment industry, and of course in Hollywood, but somehow she seems to have kept this incredibly flawless beauty, even at the grand old age she is.
The idea for this show actually came from me creating a character based on all of the annoying British people that I interacted with in the United States.
In northern England, we call these people, all fur coat and no knickers. Basically they talk a really good talk. So the character in my show is a very hoity-toity type English man, who would just be totally annoying up in my neck of the woods in northern England.
He’s sort of a little bit of Kenneth Williams, mixed with a little bit of Hugh Grant, and of course, a peppering of Dame Joan Collins.
The show sounds an absolute riot. What might audiences expect, other than having a fine old time?
I describe it as all of the chaos and camp of the carry on films in one 55-minute show.
In essence, it is a very humorous, self-deprecating look at the entertainment industry and what it means to be an actor in Hollywood. The show is also playing homage to an era when the soaps ruled.
I’m really proud of the fact that we don’t make fun of Joan Collins in the show. If anything, she is feared by the character, and revered.
Audiences can expect a 6 foot 2 Englishman dressed as an elf in head to toe in lycra, quoting Hamlet. There are tons of pop culture references, and there are actually two scripts.
One for an American audience, which we used during the three preview shows that we did in June, and of course a British script which will be used at the Edinburgh festival in August.
It’s actually been really interesting formulating, the two different scripts, because there is a different rhythm to British humour.
So a lot of the jokes have to be completely restructured, and of course the punchlines have different star names.
How did you start performing? Do you find Fringe festivals inspiring?
I was raised by a single mother on a council estate in northern England. A town on the west coast of Cumbria called Workington.
It’s a wonderful place to grow up but it’s very rural and it doesn’t produce a lot of movie stars. So it was sort of difficult to find my creative community. I feel like I did that when I moved to Los Angeles over 10 years ago.
I would say my first taste of professional theatre was it 16 years old when I was accepted to be a member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.
After that, I just wanted to make money so I left school and became a cabaret singer on the northern working men’s club circuit.
This has definitely given me the grounding I need to work with an audience, and it has allowed me to create this show for Edinburgh with a lot of room for ad lib and crowd participation.
It’s sort of my favourite thing about the show because this character really lends himself to going off-book, and also going off at anyone and everyone who stands in his way… including Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter!!!!
I’m new to the Fringe Festival circuit, but right now I’m still reeling from the price tag. I never in 1 million years thought it would cost £10,000 to stage a Fringe show. But it has!!!!
I thank my community back in West Cumbria who have completely supported me in every which way possible, and my agents who book me for cabaret work in Blackpool and Manchester, because that is the money that has paid for the show up to this point.
It’s been really tough, and I applied for the Fringe grant two years running and didn’t get it.
As a member of the LGBTQ community, and coming from an underprivileged background I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t qualify.
What are you looking forward to the most in Edinburgh?
I’m really really really really looking forward to getting my show up in front of an audience. I feel like I’ve been creating this character, and cultivating this show my entire life.
I started writing the script just over a year ago, and I’ve only just in the last 24 hours completed the British version of the script.
But I feel very emotional, I’m very proud of myself, that this working-class boy from a council estate is staging his own one-person show at the world’s biggest Fringe Festival.
I got so sick and tired (and deflated) of waiting around for other people to give me an opportunity to shine, so I’ve grabbed the bull by the horns!
Edinburgh, here I come!
What’s next after Fringe for you and the show?
I’m already talking to a few people in America about staging the show in San Francisco, and putting it up again for a longer run in Los Angeles, but I would also love to do more shows in the UK.
I think this character would be absolutely great for a sitcom, and I think the creative possibilities are endless.
I really really enjoy performing, and I love being in front of an audience. So bring it on…