This is Zachary Loram’s second Fringe. He got a taste for it in 2022 with Boom Town the Musical, a comedy gay cowboy musical. Now he’s back with his guitar to perform Zac Zac Zoom at The Space Surgeon’s Hall with the support of a Keep It Fringe Award. This is a solo musical show which is about … well it all started with eels and a fascination with their sex life! Loram explains why, “During lockdown nosing online I found myself going down a rabbit hole about eels or more about why humans are so fascinated by why they couldn’t find baby eels. For centuries nobody could worked out how eels reproduced because they have no external genitalia.” Apparently Aristotle and Freud and others were fascinated with their sex life. Aristotle thought adults emerged from the mud and Freud spent an unhealthy amount of time dissecting them to solve the mystery. But for Loram, having trained in music and musical theatre at the University of Chichester, he was inspired to write a song about eel reproduction and that became the start of this show.
Those who have seen him on stage call Zac a captivating writer and performer, one who has you on his side from the second he rolls onto the stage. He certainly makes for an engaging interviewee, happy to share the process that got him to this stage show. I wanted to know why he had called the show Zac Zac Zoom. Are eels particularly zoomy? The title is a reference to Tik Tik Boom, which if you don’t know is a film about a young man struggling to get recognition as a musical theatre writer. “When I was in Edinburgh last I noticed that shows I was seeing were often about the performer. It feels like a lot of artists are trying to tell their story but do we all have a story that is worth telling? I’m not sure everyone will want to know about my life!”
Loram describes his show as a satirical side-swipe at a certain genre of solo show which is very personal to the storyteller. And the title ? “I play myself as someone trying to write a musical show about me but then get distracted by eel research!” The zoom part of the title could be reference to Loram as an ambulatory wheelchair user (sometimes he needs to use his chair, other times he can walk). And the eel part? “I’ve got a lot of empathy with the poor eel being put under the microscope for centuries. People have an unhealthy interest in whether I can have sex when they see me out and about with my non-disabled girlfriend”. It seems bizarre that other people think they can be so intrusive but apparently Loram does get asked.
I wanted to know if Loram was trying to raise awareness about issues that Disabled people face; there are always shows at the Fringe from performers who are making a creative response to their own conditions and impairments and quite a lot want to represent what life is like for them on stage. “I am not trying to speak for other ambulatory wheelchair users, or any other person with my condition. I became a wheelchair user as a teenager and I know my life experience is different for someone with a life-long condition. But there are some universal things that others will recognise.”
Edinburgh is of course notoriously hard to get around in a wheelchair (I know from being a part-time wheelchair user myself), hills and steps, beautiful but old buildings, small performance spaces. Surgeon’s Hall, where Zac Zac Zoom is, scores well on accessibility (ramped and level access) but how has Zac found the city as an artist and a punter? “I have seen some shows but it is not easy to be spontaneous. I need a plus 1 to accompany me for access and you can’t just roll up to the box office and expect to be accommodated, which is frustrating.” The venue is good for wheelchair users and he used part of his Keep it Fringe award to fund a BSL interpreter for one performance. Greg Calquhoun observed the dress rehearsal and was onstage with Loram on Friday 23rd.
All the big venues say they will make shows physically accessible (buildings permitting), there are more lifts than you might think, it is possible to be given a chair to wait in line, and be let in first to choose the best seat. However for wheelchair access with a plus 1 (free companion ticket) they do ask you to call a special access number and these are not open the long hours that venue box offices are. Things do still need to improve. Accessible accommodation is in short supply too so Loram and his support crew (family and girlfriend) are staying out in the ‘fringe village’ – Queen Margaret University Musslebrugh. “It is a quick train journey in so that is not so bad, but we can’t always find Ramp Man!”
Loram is pleased with the response to the show so far with decent sized audiences who laugh a lot and positive reviews. “It’s getting the response I intended when I wrote it”, he says, “and I want to develop it to take it on tour so audience feedback is great for that.”
Zac Zac Zoom is at The Space Surgeon’s Hall 18.20 for two more performances 23rd and 24th.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/zac-zac-zoom-a-story-of-wheels-and-f-eels
