An interview with The Footlights

What advice would you give to your fresher self?

ADRIAN: Always be yourself. Apart from when it is necessary to modify your personality in order to fit in and/or meet the wants and expectations of your peers.

What’s the worst audition you’ve ever had?

ADRIAN: The second smoker I auditioned for (having not got into the first), no-one laughed for the entire audition. Then, weirdly, the sketch got in. Terrified of receiving the same reaction at the ADC as I’d received in the audition room, I re-wrote the entire sketch, but it bombed in the run-through an hour before the show. I went home and watched some footage of Freddie Mercury for a bit and tried to be sick. Then in the smoker it actually went really well. I still don’t really understand what happened.

How did you get involved with comedy in Cambridge?

ADRIAN: I started by auditioning for Footlights Smokers, which I think is a really good way to get going. I was also lucky to meet Zoe Tomalin at my college, who did lots of comedy, and she invited me to do a stand-up show with her in Easter Term of my first year.

ARCHIE: Smokers!

What can audiences expect from Love Handles?

ADRIAN: Let’s just say we’re eggs-tremely egg-cited about this egg-cellent show 😉

ARCHIE: A high energy extravaganza.

KEN: Lots of laughs. Maybe like fifty. And even in the moments you’re not laughing, you’re still watching or awake.

What’s been the best part about touring?

ARCHIE: Friendship.

ADRIAN: Probably re-defining sketch comedy for a generation.

ELEANOR: Archie’s sinister ‘friendship ring’.

KEN: Watching the team grow as a group. We were thrown together back in March and a lot of us didn’t really know each other, and we had to create a show together and live together for two months – I had no idea how things would turn out. So the most satisfying moments for me were just times when it really felt like “these people are so great together.” Also playing a lot of Lego Star Wars II.

What joke would you use to break the ice during freshers week?

KEN: Probably my ‘mussel memory’ joke. Hehe.

ADRIAN: “Hey, you seem really nice. Can I buy you a drink?” – That always seems to get a laugh.