Gabey Lucas is a Seattle-based stand-up. Formerly the humor columnist for The Ubyssey in Vancouver and now a mostly-retired SB Nation writer, she’s worked as a comedian, writer, and producer for over a decade, performing from New Zealand to New Orleans to North Macedonia including at Hell Yes Fest, Rip City Comedy Festival, and the Ohrid Summer Comedy Marathon. She debuted at the Fringe in 2024 with ‘A Berkshire Boar Walks Into a Bar (and Gets Shot in the Face)’. She returns in 2026 with ‘Check Out This Potato That Looks Like a Beluga Whale’. We spoke to Gabey about the show, her idiosyncratic approach to comedy, and her hopes for the show.

Can you tell us about ‘Check Out This Potato That Looks Like a Beluga Whale?

First: If you come, be prepared to see a grown lady do resistance band butt exercises. Cus if I don’t, terrible things will happen.

You can also expect a pitch on why you should join a team sport that you are garbage at as an adult (in my case ice hockey, but you do you, there’s plenty of options), shilling for a portable toilet company, a sacred trio-plus-one of orca pods, the bravest thing someone can tell another, an old Canadian goalie, the Bugle Of Friendship and Harmonica of Good Health, pooping, and the one thing that will last forever, which happens to be what my sister got me for my 29th birthday. It’s a lot of things and people that are worth loving, I suppose.

You find humour in unlikely places, such as weird historical events, and random facts. What drives your comedy brain?

I wish I had a good answer to that but I honestly don’t know. I am uninterested in stuff that’s primarily self-focused though, so maybe that leaves a vacuum for weirder things to fill that space? There’s something fun about just letting your brain take an idea one step further and further until you’ve reached a destination that’s at best ridiculous and at worst the dumbest concept of all time.

The last time we spoke to you, you were just about to come to the Fringe for the first time. How was the experience?

I loved it even though I was zonked by the end of August and had plenty of shows, especially the first half of the run. where you’ve got a super small crowd and have to be the sole source of energy, which can drain you mentally and physically. But I came prepared for that – my goal was just to make it to August 14th without having a mental breakdown and, not to brag, I made it the whole run without having a mental breakdown.

By about two weeks in I think the show really started to click and was getting some word of mouth and that was when it got purely fun. Especially when someone would say a past audience member told them to go, that validation can power you through a few days. In hindsight there’s still some things, structurally and writing-wise, that I could’ve improved about it, but walking away with something better than it was a month earlier is very gratifying.

How do you find British crowds compared to US?

You’ll find great and crap audiences on both continents, but I think the British model where you have the culture and infrastructure for comedians to work out a full hour means you can more easily find crowds who are ‘bought in’ so to speak. Part of that is simply economics and geography, part of it is that the North American conceptualization of live comedy in my experience is narrower than in the UK. Which makes sense when you look at the origins and history of British versus North American comedy, but does make it harder often to paint outside the lines. That’s changing a little bit slowly but surely though.

At the same time, I’ve heard horror stories of the more hooligan-y British audiences which we don’t have to deal with. Each country has its pros and cons. But I like British audiences overall because I’ve found they pick up what I’m putting down; having that connection bodes well for a good time.

What are your hopes for the show? What would constitute a successful Fringe for you?

I really just want to get as many people in to see it and to have as much fun with them as possible. Anything else is a distraction. Or, maybe better put, anything else is a byproduct.

What for you are the best and worst things about the Fringe?

The best: Seeing people make things so funny and joyful it makes you happier to be alive. Getting out of a show and going ‘Oh, it’s only midnight, I could see another,’ without any plans. Having multiple days in a row where your own show is hitting its stride, selling well, and you and the audience are on the same wavelength and having fun together. In the year leading up, the process of putting your show together when something clicks and you’ve solved a part that had been driving you crazy.

The worst: When that streak of having a bunch of good show days ends randomly and you get punched in the face by reality. When you’re in the process of creating your show and you think something clicks and you’ve solved it and then you realize after trying it out you were wrong. The administrative and financial stress and how that impacts so many of your decisions in the nine-ish months leading up to August. That last one sucks.

Besides ‘Check Out This Potato That Looks Like a Beluga Whale’, can we expect to see you performing elsewhere during August; guest spots, compilation shows, etc?

I’m competing in Ikea Wars on the 20th, which is where I have to battle another comedian in a race of who can assemble Ikea furniture the fastest. I assume the winner is whoever resists the urge to beat the other to death with a Skjunkelflömet. (If you’re a Scandinavian language-speaker and thought, ‘Hey, that suffix doesn’t make sense you idiot,’ I did that on purpose because it’s a dumb easter egg to both of us that made me giggle.)

Are there any other shows/ performers at the Fringe that you would recommend?

I’m stupid excited for Tom Whiston’s ‘Night Mail’, Max Prentice’s ‘Mr Boy‘, and June Tuesday’s ‘00s Throwback Party‘. The latter because it combines two of my favorite things: June and, presumably, trying and failing to hit the high note on Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone’.

Also Zoe Brownstone, who is certifiably awesome, and my buddy Emily Pitts is doing a family-friendly show called ‘Rock Paper Scissors: A Brief History and Tournament‘. I’ve been a ‘referee’ for it before, and it’s fun and very silly.

‘Check Out This Potato That Looks Like a Beluga Whale’ is Hoots @ Nicholson Square – Nic 8 from Fri 7 to Aug 31 2026