Edinburgh Fringe Q&A: The Awkward Silence on making their musical comedy debut

Comedy duo The Awkward Silence, consisting of Ralph Jones and Vyvyan Almond, are making their musical comedy debut at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Their show, The Awkward Silence’s Big Break, tells the story of a locked-up father and son desperate to escape jail.

As if that wasn’t enough, they’ll also be performing their brand-new sketch show, Enter the Vortex throughout the festival.

Here, they answer our questions ahead of the festival kicking off next month…

How are you feeling ahead of the Fringe?

Well, we’ve both got Covid, so ‘bad’ is probably the answer. Well, we’re both OK now, really. Fringe-wise, we’re probably in the ‘assuming only four people are going to come to the show’ phase – the thrillingly uncertain period before travelling up there and inhaling the Edinburgh air, humid with the dreams of fellow comics.

We’ve not staged a full Fringe run since 2014 so we’re extremely excited about giving it our all and seeing some of our dear friends. Some might say we’re pumped. Those people would probably be American.

You’ve got two shows on the go this year – how hectic will that be?

You know what – we think it’s going to be mad. Absolutely mad. There’s a hell of a lot of dancing and singing and shouting across those two hours. But the theory is that, if we think we can abandon our jobs and families for a month, we’d better be working bloody hard to compensate. What better compensation than a heart attack!

The Awkward Silence’s Big Break is billed as a musical – what’s it all about and what inspired it?

It’s a two-man, multi-character prison musical. Father and son Mike and Louis Voler are in jail for three years because of Mike’s criminal incompetence. Desperate to have nothing to do with him, Louis wants to launch an appeal. Desperate to break out, Mike wants the pair of them to stage a daring escape with the help of a couple of eccentrics. How will things turn out??

What can audiences expect from Enter The Vortex?

A sketch show that, we hope, isn’t quite like other sketch shows you might have seen. Each sketch blends into the next – a scene from a book bleeds into a radio drama; characters in a painting begin singing a shanty… Before you know it, you’re deep in a comedy lasagne, wondering how many layers are between you and the surface.

What put you on the path to a career in comedy?

A huge range of things including Peter Cook, I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, Monty Python, The Simpsons, and making howlingly bad handheld video sketches at school.

If you had to pick one item that’s essential for surviving a month at the Fringe, what would that be?

A raincoat. It may be summer, but Edinburgh doesn’t care. A light one, though, because the moment you step into an underground venue full of people you’ll think you’ve stumbled into a sauna.

The Edinburgh Fringe can throw up some surprises. What is the strangest moment you can remember from the festival?

Watching a woman with sad eyes downing a pint of Guinness, on stage, in an almost empty room above a restaurant. It wasn’t even part of her act, she just…did it.

What do you think it is about the Edinburgh Fringe that attracts people from all around the world to come to watch and also to perform?

There simply isn’t anything else like it. There are festivals for comedy, music, dance, but only one where you could step out of a searingly heartfelt puppet show about terminal illness, into a comedy magic extravaganza, all the while eating a tattie scone.

If you were in charge of the Fringe, what changes would you make?

Strictly limited number of A-level drama students with their faces painted white on the Mile at any one time. Rigidly enforced. And anyone even mentioning Alice in Wonderland to be immediately incarcerated.