What do people need to know about you?
We have graphs and everything
In Dan Simpson: Nerdsmith, I’m going to be pushing spoken word as far away from simply standing up and performing poems as I can. Props, costume, music, flipcharts… If you like funny, geeky, wordplay type stuff: this is for you! Nerdsmith is on 6.20pm daily at the Banshee Labyrinth.
What are you up to this Fringe?
My show plus SO MANY SHOWS.
I’m super-excited to be in Stand Up & Slam – a spoken-word poetry VS stand-up comedy battle produced by Chatback Comedy. I’m one of the hosts and Poetry Captains, and we’ll be getting some of the best Fringe poets and comedians to face-off to see who’s better. It’s poetry, obviously. SU&S is every day at Cowgatehead, 7.15pm.
As one half of producing partnership Varjack & Simpson, we’re bringing up worst-poet-wins show The Anti-Slam, where we get brilliant performers to be entertainingly terrible. It’s the best fun, and it’s got a bit of an underground reputation so always sells out –make sure you get to the Banshee before 11pm on the 27th! Paula and I are also doing our very silly pop-culture-nonsense-meets-high-culture-poetry panel show Poetry Goes Pop! on the 17th, 6.20pm at the Banshee, the 20th, 8.30pm at Chiquito. And a new show from us: WORST. DATE. EVER.: an anti-dating night where you could meet the person of your dreams as we hear bad date stories and play games. That’s the 18th, 10.50pm at Voodoo Rooms. Paula and I are also both in the BBC Slam!
Lastly, I’m trying a bit of an experimental show: working with real life scientist Dr. Sam Illingworth on Peer Reviewed Poetry, where we determine the artistic license and scientific integrity of poems about science and scientists’ efforts at poetry. We have graphs and everything. That’s the 8th and 9th, 3.30pm at Cowgatehead.
See you at one of them!
What else are you going to see?
Lots of spoken word: Loud Poets, John Osbourne, Tina Sederholm, Steve Larkin, Dom Berry… Spoken word-ers in Theatre and Comedy, like Shift at Summerhall, Richard Purnell’s Bathtime, and Paula Varjack’s How I Became Myself. Rob Auton is a must-see, and Poetry Can F*ck Off for the title alone!
What is your favourite word?
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