Jake Mace
Dee Allum’s debut EdFringe stand-up hour sees her set out reconciling with the past, coming out as Transgender, and going through two puberties, which Dee says is “frankly, two too many.” We wanted to catch up with Dee ahead of her arrival at EdFringe for a pixelated pint to talk all about Deadname, which will debut at the end of this month.
Catch Dee Allum: Deadname from July 31st to August 25th (not the 13th) at Pleasance Courtyard – Below at 16:30. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Jake: Tell us about your show’s journey from creation to ending up at the EdFringe stage.
Dee: This show has been percolating away in my mind for about three years now. As a debut, I’ve done what I hope most other comedians do and come up with a structure that allows me to do all my greatest hits, so to speak. Over the last few years I’ve realised I was trans and come out, started hormones, and just generally upended my entire life really, so I think it would be strange for the show to be about anything other than that. It’s what I’ve been writing about, it’s what I’ve been thinking about, and thankfully the whole trans thing is very in right now, I’m told, which is terrible on a personal level but great on a professional level.
I considered debuting last year but in hindsight I definitely wasn’t ready. I’ve now left it long enough that it’s as ready as it’ll ever be I reckon. It’s got lots of jokes and a story and everything, what more could you want?
Jake: Tell us about the inspiration behind your show and why you think its themes are relevant to an audience in 2024.
Dee: As I say, the trans ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘debate’’’’’’’’’’ feels like a big deal right now, so to some extent it’s a political show just by existing. But that’s not something I’m really interested in right now. I don’t think many people would be very excited to come and see a comedy show that spent an hour rebutting arguments made my right-wing talking heads, so that’s not the show I’ve made. It’s a very personal show, as a lot of queer coming-out stories are, but I’ve tried to draw more distinct comparisons with everyone’s lives, and growing up in general, and hopefully that comes across.
So much of coming out, at least coming out as trans, is about ridding yourself of a whole past self that you no longer feel any affinity to, and to some extent I think we all do that at various points in our lives. If you don’t have a previous era of your own life that you look back on and shudder, then congratulations I suppose, but I think that’s pretty non-standard. So the question I try to answer in the show is how can anyone come to terms with having spent a lot of time being a person you didn’t like, and whether you can forgive them for being the way that they were. But also it’s got a lot of jokes in it, I promise.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience will walk away thinking/feeling, and how do you aim to achieve this on stage?
I mean the main aim is that they leave feeling like they have laughed a lot. I think there’s a branch of comedy nowadays that seems at least as concerned with some kind of message, or political impact, as it is with the laughs, and I think that’s not what comedy is really for. Having said that, I certainly want people to leave feeling like they understand trans people a little better, but that’s just for having spent time in my company rather than me having any particular set of views that I beat people over the head with.
Jake: Now that we’re gearing up for Fringe season, what are you most excited for?
Dee: The past eight months have mainly consisted of worrying about this show, so my hope is that I’ll get a couple of shows under my belt and feel confident in it, and have some sense that the effort I and many other people put in has been justified. Then I’ll be able to enjoy the whole Fringe, which is one of my favourite things on the planet. There is so much going on all the time, you are never bored unless you choose to be (which, after about a week, I find is exactly what I choose to be), and there are so many amazing people just milling about making brilliant art. What’s not to like?
Jake: Fitting with the themes of our magazine, if your show was an alcoholic beverage (think cocktails, shots, beers, be creative!) what would it be?
Dee: The other day my girlfriend made a batch of rum punch which was so delicious and yet so alcoholic that I think the recipe must be trademarked by someone somewhere. Hopefully that is the effect my show achieves: mainly delightful on the surface, but when you scratch below that surface, it is also delightful but in a different way. It was a great drink, honestly.
Phoebe Bakker
