Chloe Radcliffe Documents Everything
The standup comic, actor and writer talks about her current Fringe show and how the material transformed into what it is today.
Here’s a chat I had with Chloe Radcliffe in July. Chloe is a standup comic, actor and writer. Last month I had the pleasure of seeing her show Cheat in NYC in its final development stages, right before it came to the Edinburgh Fringe. We talked about how that kind of material is honed, keeping the audience on your side and finding inspiration.
You can get tickets to Cheat, which is playing most days between now and August 27.
In August you will bring Cheat to the Fringe. When did you start developing this material and how did it become what it is today?
The first incarnation of this as a show has only existed since March. I would say probably a third of the material that you saw is stand up that I've been doing for a long time. I’ve been doing standup for about eight years so some jokes are from early on.
Through all the different incarnations, has the material always been this personal?
I’ve always been a personal standup. I open every set talking about my birthmark, which is fairly intimate even though it’s on my face and is the first thing anyone sees. It always felt natural to write personally. Early on a friend of mine, Turner Barrowman, told me that you find the funniest anything can be when you find what’s funny about the truth. It makes it immediately more believable, if something made you laugh then just talk about that. You don’t have to build in some wacky happenings if the truth of a situation just makes you laugh.
Do you have to walk a very fine line when talking about the truth, though? Cheat is about your cheating in past relationships, which maybe is something an audience would respond to with some negativity. How do you keep them on your side while touching on this subject matter?
It’s very hard. This is maybe a gap I’m still trying to close in the show. I feel confident about making people laugh, even though the subject matter is a bit sensitive. The real question for me is how to go from the cheekiness of those jokes to the moment when I need the audience to really lock-in and connect emotionally.
I picked up on that ‘lock-in’ moment when I saw the show the other night. It felt really effective and it seemed to take a real toll on you. I mean, maybe what I saw was just great acting but it felt like the last portion of the show came from a deep place. Is there a toll in doing something so personal?
Oh my god. Writing and thinking about it has an incalculable emotional toll.
I bet…
But performing it does not. You asked about it being acting or it being real, I think the job of an actor is to confuse that line for the audience. Good acting has to tap into a real thing, so I don’t think the line is that clear. But yes, excavating the truth of it in the writing... I don’t say that to be poetic and artsy, I really want to create something that doesn’t feel superficial. Something that people can click into. And that has been emotional work.
One of my favourite things to ask people is - how do you get things done? You have lots of projects going on just now, and lots of exciting stuff coming to fruition. How do you make things happen and see them all the way through?
I'm running from the devil.
I get that.
That’s a phrase that a friend of mine said once, and I sometimes think about it. I learned a model of working that is probably not 100% healthy, but is very addictive. And addictive is not even the right word, it’s very… it’s… satiating. And when I don't have that now, when I don't have a thing to tractor beam into, I feel unsafe. It's easier for me to make lists than to just sit in the moment and relax.
This is a busy period for you with a high volume of output. What do you do to get inspired in the off time - what does your creative inhalation look like?
Creative inhalation… what a great concept. My phone background says ‘Document Everything’. That is a reminder to me whenever I see something interesting to write it down. Put it down somewhere. It's so easy to be like ‘wow, that was a beautiful little moment’ and then move on and forget about it. Anything that seem cinematic, anything that seems funny, just write it down.
