Stuart Goldsmith made the pivot to talking about climate change in his comedy just under five years ago and seems to have never looked back! In the shadow of several heat waves and despite us both having to turn our cameras off, Stuart’s enthusiasm and passion radiates from just his voice while speaking to me about his latest Fringe show, ‘Canary’.

A lot of people might know you as a climate comedian – where did that start?

I was feeling really frustrated with the comedy circuit. A couple of things are pertinent to this… but I realised why I was frustrated about comedy… everything was becoming very familiar. At the same time, I was experiencing a lot of climate dread. I prefer to call it climate dread over climate anxiety, makes it sound like a mental health issue and it’s a completely reasonable thing to be pretty scared about! I discovered when I was on stage and started talking about it, it helped resolve both problems at once. The almighty challenge of trying to make the climate crisis fun had rekindled my interest and I’ve become quite obsessive about it over the last four-and-a-half years.

What do you think has changed in the dialogue since you started?

It’s a really interesting one, because obviously the most pertinent thing is heat waves we are seeing very visibly all over Europe and Canada. The climate crisis is feeling ever more real and I think that is – I’m not going to say it’s a good thing, but certainly people waking up to it is a good thing! I think there’s a feeling within climate people, that we need action, right? Not pandemic-scale action, we need World War Two-scale action! We need to do that globally and we need to do it yesterday. I think I’ve noticed a bit of a tide turning in terms of how the person on the street feels about the climate.

How do you think comedy helps with the message?

I think the thing which I can help with most readily is bringing my skill set to bear on people’s salience. Now, salience is a fairly new word to me, so as you can imagine, I’ve been using it all the time. But stand-up comedy can really help people to care about something. We can talk about scary things, we can identify the elephant in the room. Literal research, by actual researchers has shown that the greater people’s salience, the better they are at resisting repeated negative messaging.

Your show is called ‘Canary’ – how deep in the coal mine are we?

It’s so funny to me that the analogy… the creature I’ve chosen as being in the spirit of my attempt at climate communication is, let’s not forget, a bird who sounds the alarm by silently dying. I suppose what you’re asking is, ‘What are the chances of saving people?’ and the chances are enormous. The show is really about the need to talk about the climate, the difficulties. The way that you can accidentally scare people and a better way of doing things.

What makes the Fringe special?

This will be my 32nd Edinburgh show. I love the bones of the Fringe and I wouldn’t mind being buried at the Edinburgh Fringe – you’d have to dig me up in September and then rebury me the following August. I love that place, it’s changed my life and been responsible for so much joy. My brother said to me a couple of years ago… he came up and I took him for some shows and he looked around and said, ‘Right, I get it. It’s a trying things festival’ and I was like, ‘Bloody hell, mate, yeah!’ It’s the world’s biggest trying things festival!

Anything else you want our readers to know?

I am going on a national tour! People can find everything they need to know at stuartgoldsmith.com!

Summarise your show in five word?

Scared man makes you brave.

‘Canary’ is at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire) from Mon 17 to Sun 30 August, ahead of his UK Tour.