Nathan Cassidy is a multi-award winning comedian and star of Amazon Prime Comedy Specials ‘Observational’. ‘Fifty’ and ‘Bumblebee’. Nathan was the only live performer at the Edinburgh Fringe 2020 after being nominated for Best Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival the same year, and his show Bumblebee was a total sell out at the Edinburgh Fringe 2021 and was nominated for 3 awards in 2021 including an Off West End Stage Award.
His new show is time-freezing standup show and hey took time out of preparations to tell us why it’s time to unfreeze the past
Q&A with Nathan Cassidy
What can you tell us about International Man of Mestory?
Well it’s not about the Austin Powers films, but it is about the past, unfreezing the past and freezing this moment in time together. How can we have fun in this chaotic world? The world is in a terrible place but I promise you that for this hour we are going to have as much fun as possible and I’m going to send people away inspired to face the future. The only thing that’s giving my daughter hope at the moment is Taylor Swift, that surely can’t be all we have to live for!
How does it feel to be bringing the show to A Pinch of VAULT?
It’s really great that VAULT festival is going ahead this year, I’ve loved it when I’ve done it before and it’s been a shame that a few years have been knocked out of the calendar due to Covid. One of the years I was due to perform on the first day of the Festival and the Evening Standard were going to turn up an do a feature on me, and then Covid hit again. If Vault is cancelled this year can you still run this feature please, it’s more about the feature than the show for me. One Edinburgh I’m going to do a show called ‘Nathan Cassidy phones it in’ – I’ll do all the press, pay for PR and then not turn up, will be the best Fringe ever.
How do you think audiences will react to the show?
I’ve done a few previews already so it’s in a fairly good place, last year I canned my whole show ‘Amnesia’ and re-wrote it in a completely new way, and it became one of the favourite and well received shows I’ve ever done, so I don’t think this one needs a complete re-write but let’s see how it goes at Vault! After so many shows I set the bar high for myself, and want them to be funny, inspiring and uplifting. If I can do that, then this job is a doddle. Anything less than brilliant, and the dream can become a nightmare! Also, there is a chance that audiences will turn up and expect Austin Powers references and there is none – my other show this year is called The Spine That Shagged Me. Also zero references. So, in short, I expect disappointment.
What can we expect from International Man of Mestory beyond the festival?
Well I’ll be doing it in Edinburgh for sure, so that’s what I’m saying about it being great, a month in Edinburgh is easy as long as the show is great. If it’s just good it can be very hard – there are hundreds of good shows but only a few great ones, you want the show to be in that bracket, if only for yourself, it becomes so much easier to do. Other Fringes I do regularly and will do this year are Buxton, Brighton and Shaftesbury to name a few, these are all lovely supportive places with great audiences. I’m sure I’ll do some stuff abroad again with them, but I must go on more holidays without doing gigs. If I went to the moon I’d be checking whether there was any gigs there.
You were the only live performer during Edinburgh Fringe 2020 – what was that experience like?
Surreal in many ways. I had the idea and Alex Petty at Free Festival was as he always is incredibly supportive and we got it in the diary. I was on holiday with my kids in the Lake District so I literally left them by the side of the lake and got the train across the country, did the show in a pub courtyard and went back to my kids the same day. I had loads of press in who were all very kind, and interestingly, quite a few people at the other end of the courtyard who weren’t there to watch the show and just ignored it. Guys! Guys! You haven’t had live entertainment for months! They didn’t care! This show as I say is about freezing a moment in time, and that’s certainly one of the days in my life that is frozen there forever.
Nathan Cassidy: International Man of Mestory is at Sino Thai on 9 March 2024
