Sooz Kempner on Queen: Comedy Spotlight

Despite growing up to the strains of triumphalist pomp-rockers Queen, Sooz Kempner's Fringe show investigates how she ended up 'one of life's losers'. We find out what makes Mercury and co. so elemental to her outlook

Feature by Polly Glynn | 26 Jul 2016

FLASH?

AAH-AAAAHHHHHH!

From the seminal video for I Want To Break Free, would you rather be sexy mum, sexy gran, sexy schoolgirl or sexy hooverer?

It’s going to be the hooverer option, because then I would get to be the most beautiful woman who has ever lived – i.e. Freddie Mercury in PVC mini, wig and moustache. Also, my floor would be clean, possibly for the first time!

Explain the comedic origins of Scaramouche.

Not only is Scaramouche the name of the charming lead in hit musical We Will Rock You, it's a stock character in Italian comedia dell’arte (I 100% had to look up how to spell that). Scaramouche was somewhere between a fool and a prat. And telling him to 'do the fandango' would be fun.

As a musical theatre expert what are your honest opinions on We Will Rock You?

That very much depends on who I am talking to. For example, my answer to friends would be very different to the answer I’d give to the casting directors of We Will Rock You. I think I’ll just leave things vague…

A night at the opera or a day at the races? Discuss.

If this was a choice between the Marx Brothers movies it would be A Night At The Opera, hands down, but with Queen albums? Trickier. Sure, Opera would be the more obvious choice with Bohemian Rhapsody on the track list, but Races has Millionaire’s Waltz and Somebody To Love... it’s so hard to choose!

If it was real life and I was offered a night out at the opera or a day hanging at the racecourse I would just say, 'no thanks' to both and sit on YouTube watching videos of Queen and chilling with my cats, Freddie Mercury and Brian May. I am fun!

Are you, or do you plan to be in the future, in love with some kind of mororised vehicle?

I don’t want to brag but, guys, I own a 2009 Hyundai that has got me to Edinburgh and back every year and we are VERY happy together. Got a feel for my automobile.

As someone who describes themselves as one of life’s losers, does We Are the Champions haunt your living nightmares?

At the risk of giving away too much about myself – YES! In an effort to become a champion, instead of champion of the losers, I’ve started piping the chorus of We Are the Champions through a speaker in my pillow so that I subliminally become a champ. I have been doing this every night since 1996. I can’t wait for it to start working!


More from the Fringe:

 Gemma Flynn answers hip-hop's greatest thinkers

 We quiz Yianni on his knowledge of The Simpsons


Sooz Kempner: Queen, Underbelly Med Quad (Clover), 3-29 Aug (not 16), 12.10pm, £6-9

http://www.edfringe.com