Without saying too much, what can audiences expect from your show?
Goblin is a piece of dark comedy theatre that feels a little like character standup, a little like clowning, but has a story with a beginning, middle and end. It’s funny but also dark and sad, and
lives between genres.
It’s about a teenage boy named Eliot, an emo in 2007 who wants to be loved but worries that he, like the rest of his family, is cursed to be unloveable.
He has an imaginary goblin – played by the audience – who comforts and guides him. But when he meets a much older English reality
TV star who readily wields tremendous influence over Eliot, we watch as Eliot begins to transform into an unrecognisably grotesque and possibly evil grown-up version of himself.
Where did you get the idea to create this show and bring it to Edinburgh?
During the first COVID lockdown I briefly kind of lost my mind and started just running circles
around the city of Amsterdam while listening to Werk B**ch on repeat, and decided I should
make a show about an evil gay spin instructor.
I tried this and it wasn’t good or funny, so over
time the deeper story emerged, about who the evil gay spin instructor was before he became evil.
We did a somewhat thwarted run of the show at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer in 2024, but the yurt we were performing in collapsed after the first week and wewere forced to switch venues and it all became a little chaotic.
But in the time since we’ve continued to work on and develop the show and we’re excited to bring it back to Edinburgh in aform that’s better (and more structurally sound) than ever.
How did you get your start in comedy? Do you find Fringe festivals inspiring?
I started doing sketch comedy as a student in university, and also did my first Edinburgh Fringe
that way. Characters have always been my way into finding funny and over time I’ve applied this to other comedy forms like online videos and standup.
I think the Fringe is hugely inspiring for the range and quality of comedy on offer. You can see hugely experimental and good stuff up there for the whole month – the kind of stuff that it can be tricky to see programmed outside of the festival context.
It’s an honour to get to be a part of it!
What are you looking forward to the most at Edinburgh?
I’m looking forward to getting to do my show, to see tons of other shows, to spend time with friends I don’t get to see very much, to stay up late and get up late, to see new work that blows my mind, and to live in a house with some of my closest friends.
Where can we see your work after Fringe?
I tour all the time, so check out my social accounts @derekscottmitchell and @letsdoubledutch
for up to date tour dates!