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INTERVIEW
Role Playing Comedy Interactive Theatre at the Fringe: David McIver talks about Teleport
What’s your show about?
It’s a character comedy show in which I recreate an online roleplaying game. I’ve invented my own World of Warcraft-style game, and I enlist the audience as players in a quest to gain a magical spell book that will teach me how to teleport. We meet a bunch of crazy characters along the way including a dragon and a big enchanted amulet. Also I am quite bad at doing characters and can’t do any voices or anything, and I think that is funny.
What is new and different about it?
I haven’t seen a live comedy adaptation of an online roleplaying game before.
How have you experimented or taken risks with your work?
I think the big experiment with this show is trying to represent a video game in a comedy show, and thinking about what that means and fun ways to get that across. Also the show tries to integrate quite a heavy autobiographical story, which has been challenging on a personal level.
How did your show come into being?
I played too much World of Warcraft when I was a teenager and I wanted to get some material out of it. Honestly I played that game for about 5 hours a day, seven days a week, for 2 years. They say write about what you know and I really know World of Warcraft.
What is your take on the world right now?
Oh boy I don’t know, I’m only a cheeky little lad.
Why are you bringing your show to the Fringe this year?
Do people actually think about why? We just do it, don’t we? I think we have to. I think you have to keep making new shows in order to get better at comedy and the Fringe is the best reason and deadline to make a show because you get to do it 25 times in a row. Also it’s fun and I get to stay up late drinking Carling with my friends.
Describe one of your rehearsals.
Rehearsals are for cowards! Also every time I’ve tried to rehearse I’ve got bored. Most comedians don’t do them because they’re not fun and you have to do them on your own. I bet when you rehearse for a play it’s like going to youth club with all your mates. Actors don’t know how lucky they are.
Who inspires you most, and why?
At the moment I really like David Longstreth from the band Dirty Projectors. I think he makes really complex and beautiful music and takes lots of risks with each album. Also I saw him live last month and he was wearing a white denim jacket with white trousers, and if that doesn’t inspire you I don’t know what does.
Also, I hardly see any theatre, but last year I went to see a one man show called Daughter and I cried my little eyes out. He re-enacted the screams of his wife giving birth in the first 15 minutes of the show, and it only got more intense from there. It was about fatherhood and toxic masculinity and I thought it was very courageous and important. It affected me so much that for the first 6 months of making this show I was thinking about it a lot, and trying to create something very bleak and depressing, and then I remembered that I do comedy.
What can the audience expect?
They can expect really stupid props and costumes, voices that are so bad they’re laughable, polite and kind-spirited audience interaction and also I will take my top off for one bit.
Show listing details: Title: David McIver: Teleport
Venue: Banshee Labyrinth – Cinema Room, 29-35 Niddry St, Edinburgh EH1 1LG
Venue link: https://www.
Fringe Venue Number: 156
EdFringe link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/
Dates: 3-25 August (not 12)
Time: 12:20PM
Age: 14+
Duration: 1 Hour
Entry: Free
You can listen to our audio interview with David at Brighton Fringe 2019 here.
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