A comedy poet is performing a new show at Edinburgh that he created from a humorous article he originally wrote for Write Out Loud. Robert Garnham’s hour-long show Bouncer is based on true events. In the article Robert told how he was invited to audition for the TV show Britain’s Got Talent - and what happened next.  

He said: “I got lots of messages from people saying how much they enjoyed [it], and that’s when I thought, ah, maybe this would be the basis for a new show? I then kind of locked myself away for the whole of September and wrote the thing! I really enjoyed the process of doing so, and learning it, and I hope that this translate to the audience.”

He added: “I think fame and fortune have to be earned, rather than delivered on the basis of artificial enhancement. I’m a comedy poet, which is not easily translatable to an impatient audience who want to be entertained immediately, right now, right this second. Not that my poems go on a bit. The joy of poetry is seeing where the poem goes. That’s pretty hard to do when they only give you about twenty seconds!”

In spite of this, Robert has had two brief flirtations with fame. In 2017 he was acclaimed by the Guardian as having one of the funniest one-liners of the Edinburgh Fringe, which led to interviews on BBC Radio Five Live and a mention on Radio 2. He has also appeared in three short TV adverts for a certain building society.    “I thought that this would be third time lucky,” he said. “Alas, it was not to be, but I did get a solo show out of it.”

Robert Garnham has been performing LGBT comedy poetry around the UK for 10 years at various fringes and festivals, and has had three collections published by Burning Eye. He is based in Paignton, Devon, but also regularly shows up at Write Out Loud Woking on Zoom, because of his affection for the Surrey commuter town.  

His show Bouncer is at Bottle Room at The Mash House in Edinburgh, from 15-27 August, at 12.35 pm. Pay what you like. More details

You can read about how it's been going so far on Robert's blog