Vix Leyton is a Welsh comedian and podcaster based in London. Since 2020 she has hosted the competitive anecdote panel show, ‘The Comedy Arcade’, transferring it live to the Fringe in 2021. The guest panellists have included a virtual who’s who of the UK comedy circuit and beyond. Vix returns with the show for a two-week run at the new Gilded Balloon Appleton Tower venue. We spoke to Vix about the history of the show, some of her more unexpected guests, and what keeps her returning to Edinburgh.

For those who are not familiar with the format, can you tell us about ‘The Comedy Arcade’? 

‘The Comedy Arcade’ is a competitive storytelling show. I think that’s what I’ve got it down to as a one-liner now. I have a bingo ball full of question topics and conversation starters, like the worst day you’ve ever had. One was inappropriate crush, but that’s confused people, so we’ve gone for unconventional crush.

Any conversation you’ve had in a pub with me, there’s a chance I’ve distilled that down into a bingo ball topic, and I will put it to comedians more famous than me, ask them to tell me their best story on it, and then I will judge them and score them based on my own opinion, which is not the most transparent scoring system. As I often say, I can be bribed, I can be flirted with, I can take against you if you say something that hurts my feelings.

Ultimately, it’s a framework to have conversations, to hear comedians say things outside of what they normally talk about. Because I was listening to loads and loads of podcasts with my favorite comedians, and often – no shade to other podcasts – they would find themselves, I think, talking about similar topics over and over again, because they are the things that people love to hear about. How did you get into comedy? What’s it like gigging? What’s the worst gig you’ve ever done? I want to hear something different. So I started myself.

And can you remember the first episode that you did?

It started as a lockdown kitchen table project. So I decided I wanted to get on Twitch. I saw other people were doing Twitch, and I was like, ‘Right, this is going to be my route to fame. I’m going to join John Robertson, Sooz Kempner, gonna become Twitch famous.’ Now, that didn’t happen. Spoiler alert, that was six years ago and I’m still relatively obscure, but it was called ‘Comedy Roulette’ at the time, and the first one was Thom Tuck, Jen Brister, and Kate McCabe, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I couldn’t believe comedians of that caliber were willing to come on.

It was one of those times I’d love to believe that they would have had the time to do it, and they would have done it for me anyway, because comedians are hugely generous with their time on the whole, and are so supportive of new acts coming in. But it didn’t hurt that there was a lockdown on and people didn’t have as much to do, in terms of the quality of the guests that I got when I first started. But it weirdly worked, and the interplay between the guests was as much fun as the answers. So it’s very much a kind of team sport. As much as it’s competitive, it works best when people are getting on, when they’re kind of mocking and teasing each other a little bit, and if people have got a bit of history with each other as well, that often comes out. So it’s very much sort of panel improvisation when it goes well, but when it doesn’t it’s still fun.

When was the first time you brought it to the Fringe? 

It was that weird Fringe [2021], the one that was sort of – we were half back – but not, so it was a really small one, and I signed up to do a week at the Counting House for Laughing Horse and I didn’t know what to expect. I was really excited about it. Everybody is so excited and so naive when you go into your first Fringe about what you’re going to be able to achieve. It’s just like, ‘Sure, I’ve got my posters, I’ve got my flyers. This is going to be great.’ In fact, I didn’t even have any flyers. I completely missed that step, totally. I just turned up. But because it was a small Fringe and there wasn’t a lot on, it got a misleading amount of people.

I remember being in the pub with highly seasoned comedians afterwards and going, ‘Well you know, I read really weird things about how you’ve got to get used to the fact that the average audience is six, but loads of people have come, maybe I’ve kind of skipped that step because I’ve got this podcast thing.’ No, no, that wasn’t it. It was just a really, really quiet year, and it was a concept that I think you weren’t sure what to watch. I think having a panel show where there are a couple of people that you know is a safe bet for a group, and I think I just got the benefit of that, but it was an absolute dream. First, it wasn’t a full run, it was just a week, but it’s an absolute dream. First week, I was like, ‘It can’t get better than this.’ And you know what? I’m going into year five, and it probably hasn’t since.

And what’s kept you coming back to the Fringe? You’ve been in a few different venues, is it a case of trying to find the right venue and the right time slot?

It’s so weird because my day job is marketing, and marketing is all about data and insight and deciding what works, and testing and learning. I feel like for the last five years I’ve tested and tested and tested, but I’m not sure I really learned anything. It is just pure magic I think, it can’t be defined. I don’t think there’s a science to it. It’s still something that I love, I can’t stop going.

I think a lot of comedians probably say the same. It’s kind of a weird addiction. It’s the kind of hard that you try and tell friends that are outside of comedy, ‘Oh, it’s so hard doing two shows a day,’ and they look at you like, ‘What a life you must lead for that to be a problem for you.’ But it’s like being in this big holiday camp with all the comedians that you loved when you’re growing up, with all the comedians that you work with on the circuit, with everybody’s colleagues and everybody’s peers.

I think that is an incredibly addictive thing to be alongside your absolute idols, and you just happen to be next to them at one of the artist bars, and they’re like, ‘Oh, how’s your run going here?’ And you have a conversation like you’re just colleagues. This isn’t somebody that you know from tele, that you’ve absolutely idolised in the old life. It’s lovely.

And I think for me, because I got into it quite late – I started when I was 35 – and I had this whole career defined. I was a personal finance PR person. That’s the thing that I loved to do. I didn’t realize that I had this whole separate person. And it is nice to be somebody else. It’s nice when you’re a bit set in your ways to have the chance to reinvent yourself and to meet people outside of your normal circles and just be somebody a little bit different.

That was certainly how I got into comedy, because I got into it by accident, because I was scared of public speaking and I tried stand-up to get over my fear of public speaking, and then it got out of hand.

Who’s the most unexpected guest that you’ve that you’ve had on the show?

I’ve had really, really good luck with it! I think Russell Kane came on because at the time I booked… I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m gonna. I had just booked an actor that was friends with my first ever boyfriend, and I booked him to come on the show because he was doing really well at acting nd I wanted this actor to feed back to my ex-boyfriend that I was really thriving.

So I messaged Russell Kane, and I was like, ‘Look, I really need my ex-boyfriend to think I’m a big deal. Will you come and be on my podcast?’ And he sent back his agent’s details. He was just like, ‘Yeah, get in touch with my agent. I’ll do it.’ And I thought that was a really polite fob off. But no, he absolutely turned up. He was so good. It was him, Katie Brand, and Stu Whiffen, who is a prolific and brilliant podcaster from Southend. And I just could not believe it.

I was sat in my kitchen with these people that would have been on a table at a fancy dinner party if somebody had asked me, just getting to have the best off-the-record chat. It was one of those where the show technically finished and I pressed stop on the Zoom recording, and we carried on chatting for like another hour, I think. And I wish it had still been recording, because it was absolute gold, but I guess it had to not be recording to get that quality of conversation. But it was just one of those proper pinch me moments.

That and Jess Phillips MP was another one. That happened because she tweeted to say that she was looking for suggestions for things to see at Edinburgh Fringe. And I tweeted back and went, ‘I’ve got a suggestion, come and be on my show.’ And the next thing, I logged into Twitter, and Jess Phillips was following me. And yeah, she  – again – just so nice, just so open. Every bit of promo that I tagged her in, she retweeted, and she just turned up and was just so much fun. And again, it was that kind of surreal moment where it was her, Bec Hill, Ada Campe, Jenny Ryan from The Chase, and Leslie Ewing-Burgesse. And I cannot imagine another place in the world where that conversation would have happened. If anybody could dream it up; if you woke up from a dream and go, ‘Well, that’s ridiculous!’ And I was there and I was hosting it, and somehow I made that happen.

I think those are the moments that keep me coming back to the Fringe. That’s the kind of alchemy of being in the right place at the right time and experiencing things and sharing something with a room full of people that you know will never happen again. And so everybody in that room got a completely unique show.

Sometimes we have guests drop in at the last minute. So we had Sophie Aldred, who was Doctor Who’s companion. So Andrew O’Neill messaged, because I was short a panelist, and they said, ‘Vix, Can I bring Sophie Aldred along?’ Yeah, I think we’ll find space! And by that point already, this was, again, another one of those ridiculously surreal panels. I’ve already got, I think Thom Tuck was due to be on, but he had to leave halfway through because he had a show that he was going to do. I’d already queued up Mark Watson to sit in the audience. And then when Thom Tuck went, ‘Is there anybody out there that could jump in?’ Then “Bob Watson” would be like, ‘I can jump in!’  And we would go, ‘We’ll give this guy a chance!’

But then I had Sophie Aldred as well. We’ll put an extra chair on. We’ll make it work. And she was perfect. I had Greg, who was the manager of the Stand, because that was my venue. We’d sort of fallen in love with each other. The staff at the Stand that year were absolutely incredible. And I was like, ‘Why don’t you come and be on? It’ll be a laugh’. And he was, yeah, delighted to be in the room with his first crush. Sophie in the middle, enjoying it, making the most of it. It was  – again – you’ll never see that happen again. But I was glad that I was there.

And I think on a good day it’s bad for me as a as a comedian, because we also crave the laughs. I mean, on a good day I don’t say a lot, because all I have to do is sort of tap people back on to the rails if the story is going on a little bit longer than than we’ve got time for. So, yeah, a good show is isn’t about me, which is a tough one to manage for the old ego! But yeah, it’s great.

And it has been any particular, any stories or anecdotes that have really stood out that have stayed with you.

Some of them are really surprising, because sometimes they’re laugh out loud funny, and sometimes you get something that’s got a surprising amount of heart, and it sort of really brings you all together. And we’ve had some really cute moments like that. Shaparak Khorsandi was on one of the first episodes I recorded for the podcast, and she told this story about how she really wanted to be friends with one of her little girl’s friend’s mum, and had gone round the house and had sort of invited herself in and was at the kitchen table and was just like, ‘I’m an adult that’s kind of forced my company on this other adult, and I can’t believe this has happened to me.’ And it was such a relatable thing to hear. We’ve all been the same, like, ‘Oh, I don’t know how to make friends as an adult.’

And I think having people be that honest and that self aware, you know, those are the kind of moments that are like [being] out in the pub with new friends. So that’s definitely one of them.

We’ve had some scandals. We were meant to record and put out all of the episodes the year I did Underbelly, we meant to put out all of them as a series, and I think only six of them didn’t have to be edited so much that they barely made it out. Because it was the 11 o’clock slot, comedians were coming in all forms. Some people had had an absolutely brilliant day. They were giddy from selling out. Some people were belligerent; they didn’t know why they were at Fringe, and they wanted to leave Fringe immediately. So you had all of these personalities and all of these moods to manage. Frequently, people were drunk, and it led to some brilliant moments of ‘things that stay in the room forever’ and with the people that were in the room.

I think there’s a really nice feeling that sort of extends to the audience. When we had people like Jess Phillips on those stories don’t typically get out. And I was worried about Jess Phillips. I didn’t want anything horrible to be in the paper about her. She’d volunteered to support this female-led panel show. And I was like, ‘If a journalist comes and says mean things about it, I will be heartbroken.’ But that hasn’t happened, which is just really unusual. When you have people being incredibly candid, I think the audience comes in and sort of treats in the spirit that it’s intended.

A kind of unspoken ‘What happens in Vegas’ kind of thing.

Exactly. I think there’s a real joy in that. This is the sixth year of having ‘The Comedy Arcade’ in existence. Over the years there are some in-jokes that are in there for people who have been with us from the start. And we do have people that come back year after year, and there are sort of Easter eggs in there just for them. It’s an incredible joy to do. And I’ve kind of taken a step back from stand-up in general, because I found it quite a lonely process. But this, I’m not sure I’ll ever say goodbye to this. I think I’ll be doing this when I’m 70, in a cupboard in Free Fringe to three people and a dog.

Are you doing any other panel shows, or any any other slots?

I’m trying to get on as much as I can obviously, because you’ve got to go out and promote the show and find new audiences, so I’ll definitely do that. ACMS is a yearly treat. I did my first ever gig with them back six years ago when I started comedy.

Thom Tuck invited me to do my first ever gig because he saw me do Mark Watson’s Comedy Marathon, and I think he knew if I didn’t do a gig straight after that, I probably wouldn’t have gone on with it. So he’s kind of responsible for me keeping up with comedy after this sort of once-in-a-lifetime charity challenge that I could have ticked off the list and gone, ‘Well, I’ve done it. Now let’s park it.’ So I don’t know. Sometimes I’m delighted with that information, like I’m grateful for Thom and sometimes wonder whether I should have just closed the book back then.

But yeah, it was the best first gig anybody could have had, because the ACMS audience is such a community that it really gave me an inflated sense of how funny I was immediately. I look back at the sets I was doing when I first started, and I don’t think I deserved the love I got, but it was just this incredibly supportive, beautiful community of people. So getting to see that every year at Edinburgh Fringe is a real joy. We went through a process where I was given a gift for my 100th gig that I also did at ACMS and I joked that I was accepting ACMS’ marriage proposal. And in the last few years, we’ve had a stag and hen party, and I have married the gig. We had a wedding. It was a really beautiful service. It was overseen by an actual minister. So it’s pretty legit.

Every year I am desperate. So ACMS is such an alternative, a cool gig, and I’m such a pure-play, straightforward storytelling stand-up. Every year I spend the year going, ‘I’m going to come up with something really brave and really cool this year.’ And I’m still thinking about it. ‘This, maybe this is my year!’ But I’m still looking for my alternative comedy voice for it. But nonetheless, they let me do seven minutes every year, and I try and justify the cool lineup.

There was one year I just sang Donna Summer’s, ‘I Feel Love’ a beat behind the backing track, which was surprisingly successful. I was singing it badly in the car and my girlfriend said, ‘You should do this at ACMS,’ and so I did. But yeah, that will be on my list.

I’m doing Leslie Gold and Tom Mayhew‘s new show, ‘101 Rules for a Better World (By Comedians)‘. It’s a panel show about what you would do if you rule the world. I would make Edinburgh Fringe completely affordable. I wouldn’t charge a registration fee to participate. Yeah, I’ve already started thinking about that.

And Sam See does a sort of tabletop game show called ‘Off With Your Head!‘, where you get to rule a kingdom for 12 months and try and survive. And it involves dice and beguiling the audience, and improv, and it’s a lot of fun. I play D&D, so it’s a bit me, that is. So I’ll definitely be at those.

I’m also doing ‘Mark Burrows’ Britpop Disco‘, because he’s got a Britpop show at the moment, so he’s doing a kind of acoustic performance for a couple of hours a couple of times over the month and I’m going to go and do Cerys Matthews at that. Very much my era. We’re going to do Space and Cerys Matthews’  ‘The Ballad of Tom Jones’. I’ve been practicing. I’m ready.

So this year, because it’s so expensive and it’s starting to feel like maybe I’m not going to be able to afford to do it again, or certainly not do it again for two weeks, I really want to sort of squeeze the most out of this year. If this is going to be my last sort of semi full run at it. If I behave like a grown up and put the money in savings and buy a house, then I really want to make sure I get every last bit out of it. I’m going to be going to the breakfast shows. I’m going to go to the late night shows. I’m going to squeeze as much in as possible. I say that, and I’ll probably be doing exactly the same next year. I’ll be like, ‘This is my last year!’ I’m like that detective that has one last shift.

Are there any other acts at the Fringe that you would recommend audiences check out that perhaps don’t get as much attention as they should?

There are so many. That’s the thing. And I think the joy of ‘Comedy Arcade’ is at the end, I say, ‘Tell us about your show, and tell us about a hidden gem show that might not have the marketing budget this year to be recommended.’ So if you come along to the show, you will hear new comedians on the case.

The thing is, I’m really delighted for them, but all the people that I consider up-and-coming are arriving. So people like Jessie Nixon, who I’ve known for years, has been grafting away. She’s absolutely brilliant. I think she’s debuting this year. Alex Stringer again, absolute Northern queen of comedy, with ‘Happy Hour’. But yeah, they are starting to get the attention that they deserve.

I’d say give Leslie Gold’s show a go as well. I think it’s ‘Tall Girl Energy’. She’s fabulous. And Leslie Ewing-Burgesse, if you like surreal comedy. She is the one person I’ve seen every year that I’ve gone [to the Fringe]. So I’ve got to see her develop as a comedian as well. And I think it’s going to be a really good year for her. So definitely those, but I’m going to think of 10 other people and feel guilty that I’ve not remembered them.

‘The Comedy Arcade’ is at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower – Braeburn from Fri 1 Aug to Sat 16 Aug at 22:15