“Cult icons and definitely teenage heartthrobs “Boy Band” are finishing their globetrotting world tour with an intimate gig in Camden.
Join pop stars Jools Jacuzzi, Ray Jay Jay Jay, and Hugh Way for this top secret (shhh!) show by a musical comedy pop sensation so massive you probably haven’t heard of them … yet.
We want to get real about our feelings. We want to share our deepest secrets. We want to change our costumes. With your help and the power of three part harmony, we believe Boy Band can change the world. All we need you to do is open your hearts and let us touch your feelings.”
Where: The Glitch
When: 11 Oct
Ticket link: https://lambethfringe.com/events/boy-band
One third of the team, Michael Kunze (with Hugh Edwards and Fergus Shipman) tells us more about the show.
What inspired the creation of Boy Band, and is the review accurate that refers to it as “a bouquet of bonkers”?
Believe it or not I first had the idea for Boy Band some 15 years ago, when friends and I started an indie pop group after we graduated college.
We’d always talk about it as a silly idea, but then I wrote a song for the group, and it got weirdly serious and we fell apart.
There were a lot of petty squabbles over who artistic direction and who would be the “Justin Timberlake” of the group, AKA the one who has a successful solo career post-boy band.
The whole episode was hilarious – we took it so seriously and were also so dumb and egotistical about the thing. I always thought it would make a great show.
Flash forward a dozen years and someone in a workshop suggested out of the blue that I should try a “pop star” character – the memory of my boy band flashed into my brain, and then here we are.
I’d say “a bouquet of bonkers” is pretty accurate – the songs are all extremely absurd and left field. There’s songs about needing kidneys, about nacho cheese waterfalls.
It’s all good fun. Fun fact: the song I wrote initially, “Baby Whatchu Want For Breakfast”, did not make into this show, but that’s because I adapted it into my hip hop musical about a pasta chef, 2022’s fringe hit Lil Saffron: Ragu to Riches.
Why should audiences come along to the show, and what might they expect?
If they want an hour of comedy pop bangers they should come. If they don’t, I don’t know who they are but they aren’t comedy fans.
They should expect pop earworms and dumb jokes, and a show that very lovingly parodies the era of 90s and 00s Boy Bands.
If they’re millenials with a soft spot for that time period, they should come. It’s fun.
Do you find fringe festivals inspiring?
I love fringe festivals. The fringe is where people take creative risks and it’s so rewarding to see people make something spectacular for almost no money at all.
I’m always impressed by the work people make. More people should go to fringe festivals.
What’s next for the show?
We have big plans for the show. We’re going to keep developing it, keep building our audience, keep writing new songs.
The format of the show is a gig, so if something’s not working, we’ll swap it out and add something funnier in.
One day it’ll be perfect, and then we’ll achieve our top-secret ambition of turning it into a TV show.