Big Tobacco’s Pinocchio comes to Edinburgh Fringe this summer. The team tell us more about the show.
“American comedy troupe Big Tobacco returns with a show that answers the timeless question: What if Pinocchio was all f*cked up? The group takes their absurd, irreverent, joke-a-second style to the land of old-timey Italy for a hilarious retelling of the classic tale. Join Pinocchio, Jiminy, Geppetto and The Blue Fairy on an outrageous journey to discover what life is all about. It’s a wild new spin on the beloved story that’s packed with twists, surprises and wall-to-wall laughs. Don’t bring your kids unless you want to explain a bunch of messed up stuff to them.”
Where: Upper Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St
When: 7-29 Aug
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/big-tobacco-s-pinocchio
What can you tell us about Big Tobacco’s Pinocchio? What is it about and where did the idea come from?
Big Tobacco is a team of four comedians (Brad Beideman, Brian Fitzgerald, Lyndsey Kempf & Eli Lutsky) who met in college and were united by our love of comedy, theatre, and also a locket that we each had a quarter of. We’ve now been doing comedy shows together for over a decade in Los Angeles, our latest being Pinocchio. Our show is a (mostly) faithful adaptation of the classic story, written for an adult audience. It reflects the relentless absurdity of becoming a grown-up, and we filled it with as many jokes as we could possibly manage.
This is not an exaggeration; there are so many jokes in this damn show. If you love joke-dense comedies like Oh, Mary! or Wet Hot American Summer, you’ll be laughing from the first scene till the next day when you realize we squeezed a life lesson in there too. The idea came from Brian texting our group chat that it would be funny to do a version of Pinocchio, and that is truly all it took. The rest of us are very agreeable and weak.
How would you sell it to audiences in one paragraph?
Big Tobacco’s Pinocchio answers the timeless question: What if Pinocchio was all f*cked up? It’s an absurd, irreverent, joke-a-second style take on the classic tale, in which Pinocchio, Jiminy, Geppetto and The Blue Fairy go on an outrageous journey to discover what life is all about. It’s packed with twists, surprises and wall-to-wall laughs. And please don’t bring your kids unless you want to explain a bunch of messed-up stuff to them.
Do you enjoy participating in the Fringe? Do you have any particularly memorable moments?
Doing Fringe last time was one of the best months of our lives. We love doing our show every night, seeing shows that we never would’ve seen otherwise, and meeting old Scottish men who will talk to you for as long as they want because you can’t leave because you’re flyering.
A memorable one of these was the man who told us how he hated the city council so much that he calls them the city clowncil. He wanted to take them up to the castle to give them some flying lessons, by which he meant he wants to throw them off and kill them, and we know because he acted it out. We cannot wait to see this man again.
What are you most looking forward to in Edinburgh?
Going to Mary’s Milk Bar every day until they have one specific peach flavor we can’t remember the name of but will know it when we eat it.
What’s next for the show?
We are very excited to announce that we’re being sued by the Pinocchio estate because no one has a sense of humor anymore.