One of the highlights of this year's Oxford Comedy Festival is Alex Burgar's Burgarmeister. Daily Info sat down with Alex to find out what audience's can expect from the comedian's debut hour.
Who is Alex Burgar?
Dripping with charm and peddling puns, Oxford’s own Alex Burgar began her comedy career during the first 2020 lockdown, performing her first online gig not long after. Since then, she has gone from strength to strength, being booked for exciting lineups around the country, and has performed in Germany and the US.
She made her festival fringe debut in 2022, at the Camden Fringe, as part of a split bill with fellow comedian Tasmin Sarkany, being described as 'charmingly hilarious' and 'delightfully funny'. Alex's debut hour, Burgarmeister, hits the Brighton, Camden, and Oxford Fringe Festivals in 2023. Burgarmeister was shortlisted for the 2023 Lamb Comedy Productions Queer Comedy Award at the Brighton Fringe.
Alex also hosts regular night Funny Peculiar at Oxford’s Jolly Farmers, is part of comedy collective Undercover Comedy, and works as a ceilidh dance caller with a number of folk bands. She is about to start a PhD on femininity as a nation-building tool at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Daily Info: What's Burgarmeister all about?
Alex Burgar: In 2021, a lot of change was happening in my life. As well as performing comedy live for the first time (having started online during the first lockdown), I was finalising my German citizenship, and having an identity crisis. Having had a very culturally German upbringing, I’d expected the transition from single to multiple citizenship to feel totally natural. Burgarmeister is about how I was wrong.
DI: What can audiences expect from the show?
AB: The show is very personal and a bit vulnerable, and includes probably the most puns you’ll get in an hour, and a few of them are in German. It’s introspective, loving, and will make you laugh when you least expect it. And it made this guy in Brighton cry. I don’t know what you’re into.
DI: Are you excited for your debut hour to hit the fringe circuit?
AB: I’m so excited! I performed Burgarmeister at the Brighton Fringe in May this year, where it was shortlisted for the Lamb Comedy Productions Queer Comedy Award, and it was so much fun! As well as the Oxford Comedy Festival, it will also be going to the Camden Fringe in August. The hope is to go to Edinburgh next summer.
DI: What tips do you have for people looking at getting into stand-up comedy?
AB: Just do it. I spent years telling myself I couldn’t — there’s a video of me calling a ceilidh in 2019 where I did a joke into the mic and said, ‘Oh dear, I should never do stand-up.’ It’s what I wanted all along, and if it’s what you want too, don’t put it off! And do your first open mic with Undercover Comedy, the comedy collective I’m part of. We run monthly open mics, called TBD, and they’re the most fun ever.
DI: Which comedians are you most looking forward to catching during the fringe season?
AB: Omg the Oxford Comedy Festival has the most exciting lineup! I’m really looking forward to seeing Caitriona Dowden’s show, Caitriona Dowden Is Holier Than Thou. Caitriona is seriously smart, hilarious, and her show is going to be incredible. I also can’t wait to see Jamie Mykaela’s show, I Just Need To Smile More. The show has been getting some amazing press globally and we’re very lucky to be getting it in Oxford.
DI: Can you sum the show up in three words?
AB: Germans are funny!
Alex Burgar's Burgarmeister is at the Oxford Comedy Festival on Friday 7th July.