Crawley-based comedian Patrick McPherson back at Edinburgh Fringe

He was there in 2018 and 2019, in 2019 doing his first one-man show; now he is back with his brand-new show Colossal running from August 4-28. He will be doing two shows a day, the other with his twin brother.

“It is good to have that already under my belt and to have that experience of having already been there so this year is a lot more exciting. But it is a bit of a shame not have been able to carry on. We had success with the show in 2019 and then a couple years off so in a way, really it feels like another debut year and also this is my first play. It just feels like a whole new thing. I wrote it and I'm in it. No one else turned up to audition!”

As a queer writer, Patrick looks to explore and champion LGBT voices and narratives through his writing.

He promises Colossal as an hour of dynamic theatre, comedy and music that embraces the spectrum of modern romance, from the first date to the last text, from falling head first to falling apart.

His one-man play dives into love stories, morality and the dance between the two, weaving sketch comedy, gig theatre and spoken word to tell the funny and candid story of a man called Dan, his affinity for owls and his messy recent past.

“Really it is about love stories and I wanted to write about those stories and how we tell them. It is one of the most talked about things that we have. You meet up with someone and you start talking about how things are going in your relationship or how things had just broken up and an hour will go by. But I don't think that we are that good at telling these stories. I think we're good at telling the good things but it is difficult to tell about a relationship that has gone downhill. If you spend years with someone, then how can you possibly just sum it all up over a coffee with someone in a few sentences.

“I wanted to do a show that was not autobiographical. I wanted a character that didn't come from me though there may be some bits that are from my past, but I wanted to create a new person. It follows this guy called Dan who is just about to go on a first date and he decides that before he's going to do that he's going to tell the story of his last relationship. I don't want to spoil it by saying whether it's good or bad but the important thing is that there's no big horrible drama. It's a comedy play!”

Oddly Patrick has yet to perform in his hometown: “I've lived in Crawley for six years. I didn't go to school here. And I have worked in the Cowdray Arms for two years and Crawley Decathlon for a year so I am now a Crawley boy through and through.

“As for comedy, I've never performed in West Sussex! All of my shows have been in London, mostly because I'm doing one-man theatre shows not stand-up so it's not as much of a regional touring thing. But, every New Year's we do Pub Crawley, a pun we're proud of!”