“If you reframe how you look at delusion it’s actually sort of a superpower”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY SARAH HARRY-ISAACS
Taskmaster champion Sophie Duker will return to the highly anticipated Edinburgh Fringe Festival once again with her new show But Daddy I Love Her. Focusing on the power of delusion, Sophie will explore how living in fantasies can help us escape the bleakness of reality. With anecdotes about her catholic mother’s holy water habit, But Daddy I Love Her is set to be a hilarious and fresh look at how we all use a little “delulu” in our lives.
Sophie’s rise to stardom in the comedy scene was catalysed by being nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards in 2019. Since then she has been featured in Mock The Week, Hypothetical, The Last Leg, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, The Great Pottery Throwdown and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
We caught up with the comedy icon to find out more about how we could all use a little delusion in our lives.
As someone who is also a bit “delulu”, I was very excited when I heard about this show. What inspired it?
I think that one of the main things about the show is that the world is bleak at the moment – the world is really grim. Looking out at life can sometimes feel kind of very overwhelming and dark and dull, and I think that the response that we have to traumatic events or having to face being a grown-up is to disappear into our own little delulu reality.
I think over the show I kind of present it as a slightly toxic thing, but if you reframe how you look at delusion it’s actually sort of a superpower. It’s adding that bit of magic or self-belief that can make you actually transform reality for yourselves and other people.
There are a lot of subcultures or trends that get dismissed because they have to do with young people or women and I think that being delulu is like something that can be just dismissed as people on the internet being dumb. But, when harnessed correctly, I think it’s an incredible way to transform your situation and transform your perspective.
How has social media changed comedy or changed the way that comics approach their material?
I think that social media has made stuff more spicy! I definitely think that it’s more spicy and I think that ultimately it’s a good thing. I think there are so many new comic voices on Instagram and TikTok that would never have gone into a comedy club, and I think that we’re seeing so many more queer creators and creators of colour. I think that is like shaking things up a lot as well.
A spicy development, I like that. The Fringe is coming up, and you’ve done the Fringe quite a few times now. Is it still nerve-racking when you’re taking a new show to the Fringe?
Oh my god yeah, I’m terrified! I think to be fair I’m less terrified than I was before, but it is a delulu thing to do! I’m just going to stay in the same place for a month and I’m going to do this show that I’ve spent nine months gestating and all sorts of mean bitter people are going to come and watch it. I think I feel like in a safe position to do the Fringe but making yourself vulnerable even when you’ve done it many times over with something new always feels pretty scary.
I feel like the queer community has a real connection with the Fringe. Why do you think that the queer community – both the comics and the audiences – have that kind of connection to events like the Fringe?
I think as queer people we gravitate towards places like the Fringe because it’s a place where anything goes so you feel safer in your expression. You get rewarded for being different or original or flamboyant and not being like everyone else and I think that’s a feeling that a lot of queer people, whether they’re extroverts or flamboyant, have felt in one way or another. One of the best things about the Fringe is that you sort of find your tribe. I think that whatever year you come up, and whether you come up as an audience member or as a performer, finding that tribe is sort of like having the opportunity to create a utopia in some ways. A very dysfunctional utopia where you like to stay up too late and you’re overstimulated!
What can sapphics expect from your new show? What do you think that they might be excited about?
I feel like the show is very inherently queer. I feel like they will connect really deeply to the themes of the show – not just the obvious stories and anecdotes about queer dating – but also stuff like daddy issues or like parental connection. I think that what is amazing is that queer people tend to get the show at such different levels to an audience member who doesn’t necessarily have that lived experience. I find that really exciting. There is some explicitly queer stuff but I think what’s more interesting is it’s just an undeniably queer show, so I’m just excited for everyone to perceive it as that.
What’s been one of the most delulu things you’ve done on stage?
Last fringe I agreed to do a live wrestling show, and my character was called Queen Bee. I had my own hive and had a finishing move where I grabbed someone’s head and got them in a headlock and went “buzz buzz bitches” and then smashed their head into the floor of the ring. I’m not a professional wrestler and after landing on my knees in the ring I basically couldn’t walk for two weeks.
Delulu is for everyone, so during the full run of the show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Sophie will be running her own “Sugar Daddy” scheme, reserving reduced-price tickets that can be purchased by Black, Asian and other global majority people, as well as unemployed/low-income festival attendees.
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