Navigating New Waters: Alice Fishbein Brings Titanic Parody to Edinburgh

Leo Still Dies in the End | Alice Fishbein | Gilded Balloon | Patter House | Edinburgh Fringe Festival | Learn More and Book Tickets

Bringing a new show to a city as vibrant and unpredictable as Edinburgh is an adventure marked by both soaring highs and humbling lows. For New York comedian Alice Fishbein, making her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with her one-woman show Leo Still Dies in the End has been a journey brimming with risk, reward, and the thrill of stepping into the unknown. Meet her around her halfway point of the festival run, fresh from a power nap, as she opens up in this unfiltered interview.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, I'm Ruth and I'm the Arts Business. A few days ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with Alice who wrote Leo Still Dies in the End, which is a brilliant homage to Titanic. She'll tell you all about it but something weird happened at the start of my recording, so what you've missed so far is me introducing the lovely Alice and asking her to tell us all about her show Leo Still Dies at the End, a reimagined Titanic told by her.

As an almost like an audience member, a viewer of the movie with some trivia, some facts and also just points of views about ageing 90s media. Awesome, yeah this is great because this is the first interview I've done that I've not done it after so I feel like I'm getting a little teaser. Yeah, I don't want to spoil anything but the boat sinks.

How's the response been to your show so far? It's been great, I mean it's an incredible place to be, there's so many shows but we've been really lucky that I do think our posters really accurately represent what the show will be and so I don't think we've had a lot, we've had some people obviously who are like, I don't know what's happening. It's a very chaotic show and that's just the energy that I bring, but I think most people understand very quickly in their show what's going on and have come in knowing it, which I do think with a show like this is kind of key. I'm not just doing stand-up, which is amazing, but where you're like, you don't know what you're going to get, which is really cool and exciting, but you could then come out and say that you maybe didn't like it or whatever people love to criticise, but the reception has been great, we've also been getting some rave reviews, which is really fun.

Yeah, I've never gotten real reviews like this and it's been really fun. Awesome, and what inspired you to write it, Big Titanic Phone? Oh yes, I mean you're getting a lot about the show, but yeah, basically I've been obsessed with the movie since I was four, but I wasn't allowed to see it until I was six and it's kind of been something that's kept with me forever and the show came about in 2019 when my sister and our friend were travelling and one night at dinner I was talking, they didn't want to talk anymore and my sister said, Alice, do Titanic and everyone knew I knew all the words because I know all three hours and 15 minutes, soundtrack included, of Titanic, so I started doing it and it kind of became a thing of like dinner theatre and then made it into a show. Awesome, where have you come from? New York.

Awesome, and you've done it in New York a few times? Yes, we did some previews there. And then what made you want to come to Edinburgh? There's nothing like French, I mean I think at least in the comedy, and I know in the theatre world as well, but since I'm coming from comedy, that's what I know, it's such a stamp, you want to do French, there's nothing, I haven't, I've never seen something like this, you know, so many artists doing the same thing, we all have, you know, a lot of, or at least a lot of us have day jobs, but this is what we want to be doing, we're getting to do it here and it's so cool. And it takes over the whole city, I've spoken to a lot of people who have come here for the first time and I've sort of said until you get here, you don't, you can't understand what it's like.

Yes. And what do you do for a living? You're an actor for a living? I wish, trying to be, I mean I'm trying to be a comedian, but, and a writer, but I work as a paralegal in criminal defence. Wow, I mean that's a proper real job though.

I love in New York City and I have to pay my rent. Yeah, well exactly. And that's a, that's a big, that's a big chunk.

We all have to have muggle jobs on the side. Exactly. How do you fund and budget your show? So, I probably should have done that better.

I will say, I know that they all pressed to like, please make a budget, but we kind of winged it. Yeah. Which, we got really lucky though, because we've done previews before, we had built up some funds.

We were starting at, we then did a fundraising show in New York. I know a lot of people do like GoFundMe or Indiegogo. We decided, we being me and my director, that we would have a fundraiser show, slightly bumped up the tickets, and when I say slightly, I mean like to 30 bucks American, not like anything in the chain.

Which is a steal in New York. Yes, and, and then we also were, we got funding from Keep It Fringe, which was great. And how much of that application process, did you apply or did they find you? No, we had to apply in, and I think, oh gosh, there were so many applications that I'm not sure which one was for Fringe and which one was for this.

But they wanted to tell us, to tell them about like, what the show is, why we wanted funding, what it would help us. And we were very honest, where we were like, in terms of the house, in terms of housing flights, we had, luckily we're in a place where we were able to pay for those, at like, this is all of my vacation time for the year. So I was like, I'll eat that in terms of vacation, but for the show, for marketing, for stuff like that, like, that was what we really needed the money for.

So we were really lucky, I mean. Do the people at work know what you do? Did they come and support the show in New York? Oh yes. Amazing.

Yeah, no, people from work came. I mean, a lot of my clients are in prison, so they couldn't come, but I'm sure they would have rather have come. So, but yeah, no, it was, it, it's, luckily, I think I very quickly come off as a comedian, so people, I know, know what I am, and want to come see the show, and it's exciting.

Can you give us a rough idea of budget, or the sort of split on what was the most expensive thing, what was sort of cheaper than you thought? The most expensive, cheaper was printing, which was interesting, because I think I used out of hand, and they have. So much more expensive to print in America. Yeah, yeah, so I think that was the other thing, is that there are things that might be expensive here, but in my head, I thought printing was going to be like thousands of dollars, and then it wasn't, and I was like, oh, that's amazing.

Housing was the most expensive, by a long shot. Are you staying in the city, or outside? Yes, yeah, yeah, we ended up. Well, you were in the centre of it all.

Yeah, and it, it just made sense, and that was kind of where we poured the money into, from our own funds. And it's bucket list, right? Right, and so we sort of balanced money versus experience, and what we could do. But again, I mean, not everyone can, and I totally understand that.

It's really expensive. What's been the hardest part in preparing? The marketing part. I mean, I'm a comedian, and a like writer.

I don't know how to market my, I mean, I know how to make like TikToks, and Instagram reels, and all of that kind of stuff, but I don't know how to get people, I'm not at the point where I'm great at getting people into the seats, if they don't know me already. Meaning like, in a New York City comedy scene, I have a following. Here, not so much.

So I think that's been really hard, is not the actual show stuff, but having to play producer, while also preparing to do the show 17 times in a row, and... You said there's yourself and the director, so have you both been sort of fitting equal amounts of work in, or did you do a lot of the promotion? No, it was a lot of me, which is super fair, because although my director did kind of end up becoming, in many ways, also producer, but it's me, like, my face is on the poster three times, it's my show. I don't think it would have been fair to, unless he like, had wanted to do that, to like, make him equal, like, do all the work. But he was way more helpful with things that I don't think most directors would.

And the fact that he's just taken your flyers and gone out. Right, I mean, like, exactly, you know, he is very invested in the show, and is absolutely doing more than his part, but at the... I was not going to put a lot of this on him. And what's your daily schedule look like during The Fringe? Obviously, you've got quite a late show, so is it a late morning? It didn't start that way, but now it is late mornings, where I do some of the admin stuff, meaning I'll do some social media stuff, and emails to industry, etc.

And then we head out to flyer, eat at some point, the like, one meal of the day, basically, that we get. If I'm really tired that day, I might go back and take a nap, but sometimes I just keep powering through, flyer more, say hi to my friends who are also flyering, and then do the show, and then go get some Guinness afterwards, literally. Are you able to go and see some shows and take some downtime? I've started treating seeing Friends shows as my break, which maybe is not good, but I wanted to see Friends shows, absolutely.

I'm guessing there are people from the New York comedy circuit here, then? There are some, but I've also just made friends with a lot of people here, and I mean, it's great to meet the New Yorkers as well, but I'll see them in New York. I wanted to make international friends who now I can stay with when I want to visit. Nice, and it is a great opportunity for networking, right? Yes, yeah.

All the artists from the world seem to be in the same place at the same time. It's wild. So you sort of said how you handle your marketing, flyering, social media, and PR, you've done all that yourself? No, I hired a publicist, and I really, yes, and I really think you have to.

I know people... What is their name? Because they are great. I got tickets for your show within a couple of hours. They are on it.

Natalie, yes. No, my publicist Natalie is incredible, and I know her from New York, so she also did Fringe a few years ago, and so has had a lot of supportive advice about Fringe, but then also really understands marketing. I know people who have been doing it alone.

I personally, I tried, I started by doing it alone, and then very quickly was like, I need help. And there's only you, right? And I assume it's quite isolating, or can be, as a comedian. It's all you doing all your own stuff.

It's been quite nice to bring people in. Exactly, and feel like you have a team around you. I mean, that's the whole thing.

I have a director. I now have a stage manager who's my teammate from an improv team as well in New York. I have my publicist, and then I have my friends and family who are in comedy, and then the ones who are not, and I think that's what you need.

You need the community behind you, whatever that community is for you. So, we're a week in. Have you got any tips on how to manage burnout or exhaustion? No, do you? Go and take naps, basically.

Just keep going. Yeah, iron brew. Iron brew.

I have no idea what's in it. There's an amazing smoothie market in the grass, smoothie place in the grass market. Their green smoothie.

That's really good. They do a ginger one, which is great for your voice. Oh, well, can you hear that? Day one, got here, landed, voice gone.

This has been my voice the whole time. No idea why. It's never happened before, unless I do karaoke, which I didn't.

But I don't know what's in iron brew. No idea. I drink way too many of them, and I think it might kill me, but that's okay.

Not in a sad way, just in like a, well, it's what keeps me going. Yeah, I mean, you're going to see the show, and you're going to be like, oh, she definitely had a bunch. I'm about to get one downstairs.

I started this interview with energy a little bit low because I just came off of a nap, and now it's coming up. What do you wish you'd known before you came? Oh, smaller venues. I have seen now big comedians in very small venues here.

I think people said this to me, go to Fringe before you do Fringe. It's not financially feasible from the States. I think that's just a fact.

However, I'm now looking at all the venues, and I realise how they look in person is very different from the pictures, and a lot of them are so much cooler than they look. I go to shows, and I just look around, and I'm like, oh, this would have worked, and I remember seeing these photos and being like, I can't do this show. You can do probably any show in any space at Fringe, and I think that's incredible.

It would have been good to know, but I needed a bigger... You had to learn, right? Yeah, I kind of went for a traditional stage-raised given because I lie down a lot because I'm the door spoiler alert and stuff like that, and I wanted to make sure that sight lines would work. I think that's so important, and actually, yeah, you can do any Fringe show in any venue, but you do need to think about what's best for your audience. If you lie down on stage, there are so many companies that do it, and you're like, that's great for the front row, but you should maybe walk into this venue and go, oh, we should maybe re-block that and think about that because only the first three people will see that.

Exactly, but something I realised was how to be more innovative about your show at Fringe, so something I could have done with this, which is why I'm like, oh, so many venues would have opened up if I thought about it for 20 seconds, was I could have done a camera on me and projected it, and then it wouldn't have mattered, and I was like, oh, for this show, that would have been really cool, so I think that basically what I've learned is that anything's the limit at Fringe because everything is so, it starts so base level that you can then do whatever you want to create it, which is incredible. And you were here for the whole month? Just through the 15th. I did 17, no, I did 17 because we had three previews, 17 shows in a row.

I think tonight's like number 11 or something like that. Wow, impressive though. Yes, I should have just done the whole month with a break, but you know, you live and you learn.

That's something I learned. And you're here from the start, so actually you get the benefit of the two-for-ones and the promo days at the start. Yes, exactly.

What advice would you give to first-timers from anywhere or from America specifically who would want to come over next year and give it a go? Do it. I mean, realise that it will be the hardest thing you've ever done, but there's a reason that it's considered a thing, a thing you've done. It's so hard, but there's nowhere else where if you're not super like well established already, you're kind of like in that medium area that you'll get to perform every day for a month and just focus on it.

I mean, some people are doing their day jobs as well here, I totally understand that, but like here, I'm a performer, I'm a comedian, I'm a writer of the play, like whatever it is that you're doing and you get to be that for a month and realise whether it's the thing you really want to be doing and then realise like how am I going to do that. Is it the thing you really want to be doing? Yes, yes. No, unfortunately it is.

There was part of me that's like maybe this will break me and I'll go to law school. No, no, I'm way too much of a performer. Oh no, what have I done? Sum up your Fringe experience for me in one sentence.

The most chaotic thing I've ever done in my life. And finally, where can everyone find you and your show? Me, you can find everywhere on the streets, wandering around screaming things about Titanic. That is how you found me.

I often will be screaming things at people, but it works really well. But you can find me at Gilded Balloon Powder House at 10pm every night until the 15th, well through the 15th. Amazing, and where can we find you on social media? At A Fish Called Alice on Instagram and AFishB on TikTok.

Brilliant, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.