What's a day like in the life of Elf Lyons?
Elf Lyons by Andy Hollingworth
For starters, it's glamorous. I wake up in a flat entirely to myself...
Not because I own it, or because I can afford the rent of a flat for one in London... oh no, but because my flatmates work - which means they're out of the house by 8am and in bed by 10pm. In terms of a living dynamic, it's like the film The Others. They think I am the ghost, and I think they are.
After the usual feelings of 'Wow, how glamorous is my life? When will the washing machine stop leaking? When am I going to find the time to book driving lessons?" I make a huge pot of lemon water - as not only is it good for scurvy, but it's cheaper than coffee. And at the moment I can't afford coffee.
By 9am I'm at my desk and I'll PANIC as I realize it's less than 3 days until the Edinburgh Fringe and I still need to choreograph a dance routine to Tilted by Christine and the Queens.
Then I realize that there is someone in my bed.
It's my little brother. He crashed here after a 'Lads night out'. My bedroom now smells like puberty. Alongside balancing being a comedian I also enjoy balancing being a i 'cool older sibling' at the same time.
(My brothers told me not to write that as he doesn't think that sounds very cool.)
For the next two hours I sit at my desk and I type like a mad thing. I have to edit and re-edit a few articles, go through some photographs that photographer Lucy Brown has taken of me looking like a part time drug dealer (but in a fashionable way), and bash out a new script edit. In the run up to Edinburgh you are constantly tweaking, changing, re-writing and organizing. It's as if you've turned into an octopus and grown 6 new arms to do all the multi-tasking with.
Then I am going to tube to Camden. I'd usually go by limo or by Segway, but the Tube is quicker.
If I'm feeling extra glamorous - I may eat some nuts and seeds. Because that seems to be what successful people do. That and yoga.
This afternoon I am rehearsing at the Camden Comedy Club with comedian John-Luke Roberts. We are both going to experiment and nit-pick each other's ideas and then we are going to do a small scratch performance of our material to a small group of fellow Gaulier trained theatre makers. Since returning from Paris there is a huge collection of Gaulier trained performers in the city, and it is brilliant to have so many people who have the same sort of critical eye as you do, to pin point and critique the work you are doing.
Then, this week, it's off to preview my show, or support someone else's. In the run up to Edinburgh it is crucial to give yourself nights off from performing your own show to watch other peoples. You always learn from supporting and seeing other theatre, in all its forms. Last night I went to see my friend Obi as Smokey Robinson in Motown, and tonight I'm off to see Radiator by fellow Gaulians at the Etcetera Theatre. Then tomorrow, it's a preview on the Cutty Sark with Josie Long.
It's busy. Go go go. But wonderfully glamorously un-glamorous in its own way.
See Elf Lyons: Pelican at The Voodoo Rooms: French Quarter 6th-29th August, 7.50pm. For tickets visit www.edfringe.com
Tagged in Edinburgh Festival Fringe