Rhiannon Shaw is a character comedian and writer. As well as performing her character comedy around the UK, she is also a frequent contributor to the likes of Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week, and The News Quiz. She was a Funny Women Award semi-finalist and a BBC New Comedy Awards regional finalist in 2022. She is bringing her debut full-length show ‘Wedding Night’ to the Fringe in August. We spoke to Rhiannon about her show, whether she shouldn’t be planning her actual wedding instead, and her secret to writing strong characters.
Can you tell us about ‘Wedding Night’?
I can and will! It’s an immersive character comedy show about my wedding. Basically, you’re invited to my wedding. Not my actual wedding, though. That’s in September and regrettably you’re not invited to that because of a lack of canapes.
And you really are getting married a month after the Fringe. Are you at risk of having spent more time planning this than your actual wedding?
Luckily a lot of the wedding planning for a real wedding has to happen about 12 months in advance, so I’ve been able to shift my focus to the Fringe. I have been chasing RSVPs just this week, though.
How close are the characters to your actual guests, and what’s the secret to writing a good character?
The Mother of the Bride is very close to my mum, but the rest of them (thankfully) have come from my imagination. I wouldn’t want most of the characters I play to turn up on the day because they’d absolutely ruin it. I don’t know if there is a secret to writing a good character except to making sure that you know exactly how your character would respond in different situations – like losing at Monopoly or finding out they had a secret twin. If you can’t do that, your character isn’t specific enough and needs more work.
You’ve also got an impressive list of credits writing for shows like Mock the Week and Have I Got News for You, among many others. How does you approach writing jokes for other comedians compared to those for your own performance?
Writing jokes for other comedians is sometimes easier, because I’m spurred on by the knowledge that it’s got to be as good as they are. Sometimes it’s trickier writing for yourself because it’s hard to assess your own voice from the outside the way you can with comics you’re a fan of. I’m getting there, though!
This is your debut show. What are your hopes and expectations for August?
Hoping to have fun, develop my audience and maybe, just maybe, meet husband number two.
Beside ‘Wedding Night’, can we expect to see you performing elsewhere during August?
I’ll be doing a couple of compilation shows but I won’t be doing what I used to do in my student days (performing in multiple plays in a day to the detriment of all of them).
Apart from your show, what else are you looking forward to (or even perhaps dreading) about the Fringe?
Looking forward to eating lots of unhealthy food. Dreading how grotty I’ll look and feel by the end of it. And squeezing into my wedding dress.
Are there any other acts at the Fringe that you would recommend audiences see?
Too many to name, so for now I’ll just name some character and alternative comics I love: Kathy Maniura, Lorna Rose Treen, Rosalie Minnitt, Charlie Vero-Martin, Alex Franklin, and Will BF!
‘Wedding Night’ runs from Tue 15 to Sun 27 Aug 2023 (except Mon 21) at Bedlam Theatre at 14:00