Church Night is a Washington based production company bringing a show of the same name to Edinburgh. But this isn't your average service..
We put on a completely new Church Night once a month, and for the past year, we have been producing a web series also called Church Night, so beyond those things there is little time available to work on the logistics for the trip to perform in Edinburgh.
Tell us about your show
Church Night is an irreverent lampoon of a Middle-America church service run by a sexually ambiguous reverend, a former prostitute youth minister, and a scantily-clad alter boy. Based in Washington, DC, Church Night has built a fervent following with consistently sold-out monthly shows.Blending monologue, sketch, and music with crowd participation, Church Night offers a uniquely hilarious community experience.
Church Night is performed, written, and produced by Linsay Deming, Landon Letzkus, and Jeremy Frank.
Why did you decide to take your show to Space UK this year?
Church Night is thrilled to be a part of the global community of performers convening at Festival Fringe this August. It didn’t take long for our group to decide to take our Americana laden satire to Edinburgh because we garner a lot of inspiration from U.K. comedy groups like The Might Boosh, Richard AyoadeandMatthew Holness, David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and of course, Monty Python. Many of these groups got their start at Festival Fringe, so we knew we wanted to be a part of it, too and are delighted to be performing at theSpace this year. theSpace is an incredible venue right in the middle of all the action and is home to so many different performance genres. We think Church Night is going to feel right at home at theSpace.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s festival?
We are looking forward to interacting with a non-American audience. We’ve had a great reception in the States, but our show spoofs heavily on American culture and we are curious to see how an international audience will react to it. We suspect that our brand of humor will resonate with the global audience because sadly, American culture pervades a lot of international media.
Why Edinburgh? What’s the attraction?
Edinburgh is where a lot of our favorite UK comedy groups got their start.
Have you brought a show to the festival before?
This is our first time!
What makes your show unique amongst the thousands of others at the festival?
We are the only show of its kind in D.C. and perhaps the greater U.S. When the audience comes to our show they aren’t in a theatre, they’re in a church! Our show brings people together to form a community, even if it is for only the length of the show.
What has been the biggest challenge in getting your show ready for Edinburgh?
We put on a completely new Church Night once a month, and for the past year, we have been producing a web series also called Church Night, so beyond those things there is little time available to work on the logistics for the trip to perform in Edinburgh.
How did you create your show?
Linsay Deming and Landon Letzkus, the show producers grew up in the church. As they became adults their religious viewpoints turned to agnosticism. They drew upon their past experiences to create a fully realized American church service variety show. They basically looked at all of the elements of a church service and thought “How can we make fun of that? How can we flip this to be adult themed?”
What’s the main thing you want to get out of the festival this year?
We just want to have a blast and meet other performers.
If your show does well in Edinburgh, what do you want to do with it next?
We are going to keep putting on our monthly show in DC. We are releasing a web series around the time of the festival as well, so we will be promoting that. Also, we plan to apply to a bunch of U.S. comedy festivals and web series festivals in 2016.
Show Name: Church Night
Production Company: Church Night
Venue: theSpace @Surgeons’ Hall T2
Dates: 21-29 August
Times: 21:25 (duration 45minutes)
Twitter Handle: @ChurchNightDC
