Lil Wenker (Crap Ballet) makes her Edinburgh Fringe solo debut in BANGTAIL – the epic tale of a man in search of his manhood. Saddle up for an hour of unbridled cowboy clown chaos as our hero journeys from the Wild West to the American office.
The Baddest Cowboy in Texas roots ‘n’ toots from the mightiest mountains to the sauciest saloons. When a Badder Cowboy-er Texas-er rides into town and steals his title, he finds himself directionless. Guided by a mystery force towards a life in accountancy, Alan finds himself caught between his two identities and must reconcile his past and present to discover his true purpose.
Lil Wenker is a London-based, Gaulier trained clown from Minnesota and the co-founder of Chekhov’s Gum. She frequently performs at alternative comedy nights around London, co- runs Mom’s Room at London Hospital Tavern and has previously performed as part of rowdy and highly physical comedy Crap Ballet which was shortlisted for the 2023 Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence.
Q&A with Lil Wenker
How does it feel to be making your debut at Edinburgh Fringe?
Oh boy! Big, scary, exciting, terrifying, little bird jumping off a big cliff! Since moving to London last September, I have been in a huge process of trial and error / learning as I go in preparation for my fringe debut. My move to London marked the beginning of my comedy career in earnest, so EVERYTHING has been new for me—gigging, performing by myself, the crazy long timeline in the runup to fringe. Ed Fringe looms in my mind as the culmination of all I’ve learned throughout the past year as well as a chance to show that the hard work I’ve put in really pays off (fingers crossed, pray for me, etc.). It’s also crazy to think that in a year I’ve gotten to meet and work with Cecily, perform the show all over the country and world, and now bring it to Ed Fringe. It’s a lot of pressure, in that I want to do it justice, and I’m already extremely grateful.
What can you tell us about your show and its inspiration?
My dad is an accountant at an animal feed company in Minnesota, and he absolutely loves cowboys. What a funny mix: the softest man in the world aspiring to be the toughest man in the world. Ideas for a show always come to be in the form of what I call “small tragedies of the everyday,” or something sad and tragic and sweet about normal people and their aspirations. Growing up watching westerns with my dad, I found his aspiration to be an Eastwood one of these small tragedies.
BANGTAIL is a clown western about a cowboy-turned-accountant searching for his purpose. It’s if the Marx brothers and Clint Eastwood teamed up to make the stupidest western imaginable, but got sidetracked in the process by daily monotony and Excel spreadsheets.
How do you think audiences will react to the show?
I think people will love the strong archetypes and extremely silly physical comedy—we have a LOT of fun parodying all of the great tropes of a cowboy’s story, talk, and walk. But I think audiences will be quite surprised by where the show goes once it veers into the American office and beyond in an exploration of modern masculinity. To put simply, but without spoilers, cowboys are just the tip of the iceberg for this rootin’ tootin’ tough all-American man.
How have you been preparing for the festival?
We have been gigging the show like crazy! In fact, most of the show was created via ten minute gigs where I would try a different game or scene night after night until the sequence felt just right. Then, once we had a longer section of the show, we did a ton of work in progress and preview shows. I mean, a ton. AND we toured the US and the UK in the process of developing the show to test it in front of radically different audiences.
Night after night, we’d tweak and rewrite, sometimes up until the curtain came up. We’d change around the sequence of scenes, scrap sections entirely, massage character-defining moments. Needless to say, it has provided an extreme masterclass in improv.
And just last week, I got an appendectomy just to make sure I was tough enough for an entire run at Edinburgh. Turns out, I am! (This is a joke; I went into emergency surgery and had to cancel several previews but am now preparing by resting and reflecting!)
Will you get a chance to enjoy the rest of the festival?
Yes! I can’t say there will be much time off, but I think it’s so important to have a good balance at the festival. In my free time, I plan to see other shows, hike Arthur’s seat, and eat at Mary’s Milk Bar. Also, a few friends and my parents are visiting throughout the festival, so it will also be a great chance for me to show them some of my favorite shows and give them a taste of my wild life here in London. I will also be scheduling a session at the chihuahua cafe if anyone would like to join me. Please write.
Lil Wenker: Bangtail is at the Pleasance Courtyard (Cellar) from 31 July to 25 August
